the third (and final partner) one-shot to the chapter "cookies and a potential goddess"

It's going well. Really well, actually. In fact, Steve would go as far as to say that his relationship with Diana is going perfectly. They've been together almost all school year now and he's honestly never been happier. Etta and the boys tease him about it sometimes, but they seem to realise that it's not nearly as embarrassing as they think it might be. After all, Diana's pretty perfect so there's no reason for Steve to be embarrassed by his friends' teasing.

With only a week until the last day of classes, however, Steve's beginning to panic.

About two months ago, Diana asked if he would return to Greece with her for the summer. Her family was interested in meeting him (not excited, Steve noted, just interested) and Diana wanted to show him her home.

While the thought of going to Greece for the summer is exciting, the thought of meeting Diana's family is nerve-wracking. He has only ever "seen" them when they called Diana late at night. Considering that the conversation was only ever in Greek, he doubts it counts. Especially since he's never actually spoken to them except for a strangled "Hi" here and there.

Nevertheless, he had agreed and they had booked roundtrip tickets together.

They spend spring break with Steve's family and his mother falls in love with Diana almost as quickly as he did. She gushes over Diana's faint accent and asks her for some of the recipes Steve had mentioned over the phone. He blushes when his mother tells Diana that he praises her cooking every week, but Diana grins and promises to cook something that evening. After that, the rest of his family falls in love with her.

That was a month and a half ago, though, and now he's getting ready to leave for a summer in Greece. He's trying not to let Diana see how nervous he is, but she still seems to notice.

"It's only eight weeks," Diana says, biting back a laugh. "You don't need everything."

"Eight weeks is a very long time," Steve argues. He looks up at her from where he's kneeling beside his suitcase. "What if the weather changes?"

"The weather won't change. Themyscira is very mild-weathered."

Steve still hesitates and even though Diana laughs, she offers to help him pack and he hastily accepts.

His bag is fully packed four days before the last day of classes. To his complete surprise, Diana managed to fit everything he needed in a carry-on suitcase. Her suitcase is the same size and sitting beside his inside her apartment, but Steve is still worried he'll forget something important.

"I promise you," Diana says the day before classes end, "you have all that you need."

Etta takes them to the airport two days later. She pulls Diana into a hug, teases Steve about the way he watches Diana pull their suitcases from the trunk, then drives off.

Surprisingly, Steve is calm when they approach the check-in desk. As they get their tickets and make their way through security, Steve begins to think he can do this. How scary can Diana's family be?

When they arrive in Greece eleven hours later, Steve is too jet-lagged to worry. Diana navigates them through customs and before Steve can blink, she's taking his hand and steering him out of the airport.

Apparently, the island where she lives isn't reachable by plane. Instead, they'll have to take a ferry from Athens to the island.

Halfway through the ferry trip, Steve's anxiety comes back in full swing and he can't help but bounce his leg. Diana notices immediately.

"You can't turn back now," she teases.

He knows her comment is supposed to be playful, but it's not exactly reassuring. Fortunately, she seems to realise this pretty quickly.

"It will be okay," she murmurs, pulling his hand into her lap. "They will be kind."

Again, she doesn't say her family will like him or that they're looking forward to meeting him. All too suddenly, he's struck by a very terrifying realisation.

"You don't think they'll like me."

His leg stops bouncing and he turns to look at her with wide eyes.

"No," Diana protests, but it's weak. "They are just―different. They have never met an American and not many men live on the island."

"That is not encouraging," Steve tells her. He's back to bouncing his leg as he says, "God, Diana. You don't think they'll like me?"

"I think it will take time," she says. This time, she doesn't sound as wary. "They won't like you at first, but you'll win them over. I know you will."

That may have been enough to calm his anxiety if they hadn't arrived at the island that very moment.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out who Diana's family is. There are only a handful of women waiting on the shore and none of them are waving.

The women wait on the shore while Diana and Steve disembark from the ferry. Steve makes sure to take Diana's suitcase in an effort to win approval from her family, but the gesture seems to do little to impress them. His lack of Greek only serves to worsen his first impression.

"You really are American," one of the women says in English, eyeing him disdainfully.

"Menalippe," Diana sighs. "Please."

"Welcome home," the woman, Menalippe, says shortly. She smiles at Diana and turns away without so much as a blink in Steve's direction.

The next woman to step forward is just as intimidating. The other women around her seem to tense as she approaches them, but they don't jump on Steve which is a relief.

"Welcome home, daughter," the woman says, pulling Diana into another hug.

She eyes Steve out of the corner of her eye and when she pulls away, Steve is prepared to be sent away by the woman he now knows is Diana's mother.

"Steve." Diana takes his hand, but Steve almost wishes she hadn't because it draws the attention of her whole family. "This is my mother, Hippolyta."

"Nice to meet you, ma'am," Steve awkwardly bows his head at her because it feels like the only right thing to do.

At the word "ma'am", several of the other women grin and exchange a look. Steve doesn't think it's because he's charmed them. Quite the opposite, in fact.

"Mother," Diana says, "this is Steve."

"The American boy, yes," Hippolyta replies, still eyeing Steve warily. "You won't be pampered here."

It takes Steve a moment to realise she's talking to him and not Diana. As soon as he does, his face begins to burn.

"Of course not," Steve says.

Hippolyta hums then turns back to Diana and smiles.

"Come, daughter," she says, reaching for Diana's free hand. "We have much to catch up on."

* * * * *

Steve isn't shocked to discover that Diana's family tends to only speak in Greek unless they're addressing him, but the latter doesn't happen often. During their first week on the island, Steve really only speaks to one other person besides Diana.

Antiope is just as intimidating as the other women in Diana's family, but she at least talks with him. When Diana is with another aunt, Antiope can usually be found at his side a little while later. While Steve appreciates the effort she makes, he does not appreciate the way Menalippe―one of the only other women he can recognise―scowls at him.

"She does not trust men," Diana says when he brings it up later. "Before Antiope, she had a male lover and from what my mother says, it did not end well."

"Wait, Menalippe and Antiope―"

It's so surprising that he stutters over his words and Diana laughs at him, curled up beside him in his bed.

"But I thought they were all your aunts!"

"Not by blood!" Diana exclaims, laughing even harder.

After that, Steve starts to notice how some of the women are a bit more, well, friendly towards each other. He feels stupid it took him a week to figure it out, but at least know he knows.

* * * * *

By their third week on the island, Menalippe has stopped scowling at him whenever she sees him. She doesn't approach him or ever speak to him, but Steve considers it a step in the right direction.

Antiope has become a good friend by then and a few other women take it as a sign to speak with him occasionally. He still can't remember any names outside of Antiope, Menalippe, and Hippolyta, but the women don't seem to care enough about him to be offended (which is both good and bad).

If there's one silver living about no one speaking English, it's that he gets to greatly improve his Greek.

Diana had started teaching him shortly after spring break, but up until now, he's never heard anyone other than her speak it. He's also never really had a good time to practice, but living in Greece provides him with plenty of opportunities to practice and learn. It's during one such moment (and after a recent Duolingo lesson) that he realises Diana has been keeping something rather important from him.

Now, he could have misheard the woman speaking, but he's pretty sure he didn't. He'd just learned a new set of vocabulary during his Duolingo lesson so there are a few words he knows particularly well right now. "Princess" is one of them.

"Fucking―what?"

The reaction is less than acceptable given his current company (Diana's mother and the other woman), but he can't help it. With a little luck, the women don't know the word fuck.

"Mr Trevor." Hippolyta frowns deeply but Steve's eyes are locked on Diana's.

"Prinkípissa?" he repeats. "Princess?"

Hippolyta turns sharply to Diana and says something in rapid Greek, but the joke's on her because he understands about half of what she says anyway.

"You said―not know―Greek―"

He thanks Antiope in his head for helping him learn more words in her free time, but he doubts Hippolyta―the queen, apparently―would appreciate Antiope's help.

"―a little―"

Steve pretty much misses all of Diana's response because he was too busy congratulating himself on understanding Hippolyta. However, it's not hard to see that Diana looks both worried and guilty.

Hippolyta turns to him before she and Diana argue further. "Leave."

"Diana?"

She doesn't look at him.

"Get out," Hippolyta orders again.

Menalippe appears then and drags him out of the room. He's so confused as to where she came from that he doesn't realise he's being taken out of the room until the door slams in his face.

"Hey! Wait a minute!"

He tries to shove past Menalippe, but she's much stronger than he would have ever thought. She blocks him easily and when another woman comes to help her, Steve knows there's no way he'll get past them. He stops fighting them and takes a step back, hands raised in surrender.

"What's going on?" he asks. No response. "Is Diana in trouble? It's not her fault―"

"You should never have come," Menalippe interrupts sharply. It's the first time she's ever spoken to him and Steve blinks in surprise. "She cannot go back now."

"Go back?" Steve echoes. "What, to like the US? Why?"

Menalippe, unfortunately and unsurprisingly, does not give him an answer. Instead, he has to wait until Diana comes flying out of the room nearly an hour later.

She looks around frantically until her eyes land on Steve, waiting impatiently in the hall. The moment she spots him, her shoulders drop and she's at his side before he can blink.

"I thought they had made you leave," she murmurs, pulling him into a hug that's almost too tight. He relishes it.

"They could never," Steve responds. After seeing how strong Menalippe alone was, though, he's not too sure that's the truth. "I'd come back."

Diana pulls away from him and without a word, she leads him through the halls of what he now realises must be a palace. Before, he had simply thought that Diana was rich or that her mother had inherited the large home. While neither is necessarily untrue, it's strange to think that he's currently walking through the halls of a palace. All things considered, it's a small palace. That doesn't change the fact that royalty lives there, though.

Diana takes him to her room but doesn't speak to him the entire walk. By the time the door latches behind them, he's worried.

"Menalippe said you might not go back," Steve says as she turns to face him. "She didn't specify what she meant, but I can guess."

"I had a deal with my mother," Diana explains. "I could study abroad as long as no one knew."

"Why?"

"It's dangerous," Diana says simply. "Many people might be interested in the crown if they knew."

Another thought strikes Steve then. By now, the realisation that Diana is royalty is starting to sink in which means he has more questions coming to mind.

"Why do you live here?" Steve asks. Diana raises an eyebrow. "On the island, I mean. Shouldn't you be in Athens?"

"My mother didn't like the city," Diana tells him with a small smile. "She raised me here instead."

"And you don't have any, you know, royal duties in Athens?"

Diana laughs but shakes her head.

"I do not, no," she says. "My mother does, though. She returns when needed, but she does not run the country and can do most of her work from here."

It takes quite a bit more explaining and Steve has at least a dozen questions, but Diana does her best to explain things to him.

The island―Themyscira, she tells him―is private and only the royal family is permitted to visit. In Steve's jet-lagged state, he hadn't understood the conversation with the ferry boat captain or noticed that the ferry was empty aside from them. Personally, she never lived in the Athenian palace and had no intention of ever doing so. She did promise to take him one day, though.

After that's cleared up, Steve has a dozen more questions about what will happen now. Hippolyta doesn't strike him as a very lenient woman and he doubts she'll let Diana return to the United States if they had a deal. He still asks in hopes that Diana says otherwise.

"I will have to convince her it's still safe," she says carefully.

She wraps her arms around herself and it tells Steve all he needs to know: she doesn't think she'll be able to.

"Hey, it'll be okay," Steve murmurs, pulling her to his chest. "We'll figure it out, okay? If I need to, I'll smuggle you back."

Diana lets out a soft breath that Steve thinks is a laugh. He counts it as a slight win.

"We'll work together," Steve promises. "We'll convince her to let you return.

* * * * *

The fourth week passes like molasses. Diana is gone much more often now and the palace is much quieter. Now that he knows the truth, he notices how the women around the palace aren't just women: they're soldiers. They've been protecting the island since the moment he stepped foot on it and it took him half the summer to notice.

Evening is the only time Steve sees Diana during the fourth week. She always slips into his guest room after dark and he always makes sure to wait up for her. Unfortunately, she never seems hopeful.

"I broke the deal," Diana mutters on Sunday night. "I would expect her to hold up her end if she had been the one to break it."

"Why did you bring me then?" Steve asks, pulling her closer on the bed. "If you had a deal, why teach me Greek and bring me to your home?"

"Because I love you," she whispers, clinging to him.

Steve's breathing falters. It's the first time either one of them has said it, though he's suspected she's been saying it in Greek for at least the last two or three months. It's different when she says the words in a language he knows, though.

"Diana―"

"I love you," she repeats, more forcefully this time. Her grip on him tightens further as she tells him, "I love you and I wanted you to know. Even if I can never go back, I want you to know who I am."

"I know you," Steve whispers. He rolls them both so he can look at her as he says, "I know who you are, Diana. You don't need to prove anything to me."

"You did not know this," she reminds him.

Steve shakes his head. "It doesn't change anything. It won't change us."

"There may not be "us" if my mother does not―"

"I'd stay," he promises hastily. Diana looks at him sceptically. "If you can't go back, I'll stay here with you. This won't be the end of us, angel."

Even though he knows there are soldiers outside her door, he spends the rest of the night reassuring her that they aren't over and that he'll always stay with her.

* * * * *

By the end of the fifth week, Diana seems a little more optimistic. She doesn't talk about her mother and Steve doesn't ask, but she isn't gone nearly as often and Steve doesn't know if that's good or bad. Either way, he's glad to have her back to himself and they spend several days on the beach alone.

Steve continues to work on improving his Greek even though it's caused more harm than good recently. Diana helps. She speaks slower to him and uses more hand motions than necessary so he can understand her and it works. As the seventh week comes around, he feels like he can understand most of what she says even when she's speaking with the other women on the island.

Speaking is a whole different hurdle, though. The words are strange to him and he has difficulty with the pronunciation, but Diana is patient and repeats back the correct pronunciation for him every time. Antiope merely grins and carries on, but he knows she (probably) means well. Menalippe and Hippolyta won't even look at him.

The eighth week starts sooner than Steve expects. When he wakes up and Diana tells him they'll be returning to the mainland in two days, he's surprised. She doesn't say whether or not she'll be joining him on the flight back to the States in six days, but he tries not to think about it.

"You said eight weeks would be long enough," Steve grumbles as they pass Menalippe in the halls. "Half of the women here still don't like me."

"Things got complicated," Diana reminds him. She takes his hand and says, "If they hadn't, you would be adored by now."

It's not exactly what he wants to hear, but he knows she's only trying to comfort him. He lets her try.

The day before they leave for the mainland, Diana is called away early in the morning. She doesn't return by breakfast, so Steve resigns himself to spending the day alone.

To his surprise, Menalippe is waiting for him outside of his bedroom door. He greets her in Greek, hoping it'll help win her over, and he's rewarded with a very, very small smile.

"You―protect―"

He gives up hope of winning her over when he doesn't fully understand what she says in Greek. Predictably, she rolls her eyes when he asks her to repeat what she'd said.

"You cannot protect her if she returns," Menalippe repeats in English. "You can only protect her identity."

"She can come back?" Steve feels hope growing in his chest before he can quell it. "I didn't ruin everything?"

"She cannot and you did."

Steve deflates as quickly as he had lit up.

"What do you mean, then?" he asks, trying not to sound as defeated as he feels. He's pretty sure he fails, though.

"Antiope and I," Menalippe says hesitantly, "have agreed to help her go. Her mother, however, does not know."

Steve almost passes out right then.

As far as Steve is concerned, Menalippe just gave him her approval which is something he never expected to happen. He'd pretty much started assuming the world would end before she did such a thing.

"You―" He has to pause to collect himself. "You and Antiope," he repeats, "are going to help her go? Without your queen's permission?"

"Yes," Menalippe confirms. She doesn't look amused. "You make her happy. We will not let you ruin her."

"I―" Steve doesn't know what to say. After stuttering a bit, he stops to catch his breath. With a bow of his head, he settles on, "Thank you."

At his attempted Greek, Menalippe's lips twitch into what he considers a smile. She turns and leaves without saying a word in reply, though.

When Diana finds him later that afternoon, he pulls her away from the palace and eagerly asks how the conversation with her mother went.

Diana grimaces. "She will decide while we are in Athens."

"Have you spoken to Menalippe and Antiope?" he asks, almost before she's finished speaking.

"No," Diana says, giving him a curious look. "Why?"

He tells her what Menalippe told him but to his surprise, she frowns.

"I will talk to them," she mutters.

"Why do I feel like you're going to reject their offer?" Steve asks warily. Diana doesn't meet his eyes. "Diana, let them help."

"It will only cause trouble," she argues. "If I am to go against my mother's will, I will not drag them into it."

* * * * *

They leave on a ferry to Athens the next morning. Many of the women on the island come to wish Diana farewell and Antiope goes as far as to wish them both good luck. Menalippe watches them go blankly but nods at Steve when his eyes land on her.

Unsurprisingly, their time in Athens is a dream. Diana is careful to always wear sunglasses and a headscarf in public, but they still enjoy themselves.

Diana takes him to the royal palace and it's the only place outside of their hotel where she takes off her scarf and sunglasses. Despite her and her mother not living there, the palace is bustling with staff. All of them nod their heads at her as she passes and it never ceases to amaze Steve. Here, she's a princess. In America, she's just another student.

"You're staring," Diana says, drawing him out of his thoughts.

"You're amazing," he tells her in reply. He takes her hand and pulls her around a corner. "You just―Everything about you amazes me."

He kisses her just to prove it and when he pulls away, her cheeks are rosy and she's looking at him breathlessly.

"I love you," he whispers, pressing another short kiss to her lips.

It's the first time he's said it out loud and she smiles softly at him.

"I love you," she echoes back before drawing him back down to kiss her.

* * * * *

Hippolyta waits until the very last minute to make her decision. They get all the way to the airport before she appears to stop them and Steve is worried that Diana will be dragged back to the island without him.

With three soldiers at her side, Hippolyta's presence at the airport draws attention, though, and Steve knows she doesn't want it. It's the one thing working in their favour because she is quick to deliver her message.

In a surprising turn of events, she addresses Steve first.

"Diana is of age to make her own decisions," she says shortly. "She has chosen to return and while I do not agree, I will let her go on one condition."

Steve nods, ready to accept anything so long as it means Diana will stay with him. However, Hippolyta turns to speak with Diana instead of him.

"No one else can know," she tells Diana in Greek. "We cannot help you over there."

Steve grins as he realises he understands the words.

Hippolyta continues speaking, but Steve doesn't understand enough of what she says to figure it out. He does recognise the blessing she gives Diana before she leaves, though.

There's a long moment after Hippolyta leaves where neither Steve nor Diana says anything. There are a few whispers around them, but Steve doesn't think anyone else heard what Hippolyta said. Plus, Diana's headscarf and sunglasses do a pretty decent job at hiding her face.

Steve breaks the silence between them by pulling Diana into a celebratory hug and whispering "I love you" in her ear.

"Thank you," she whispers back before pulling away.

He's not sure why she's thanking him, but he's too happy that she's coming home to ask. He grins as they go through security and until they board the plane. Unlike the trip over, Steve understands how Diana had been able to book last minute, first-class tickets and still been able to afford it.

"Tell me," Steve says as they settle into their seats, "what are the conditions of your return?"

"I know you understood," Diana teases. "No one else can know."

"No, I know that," Steve tells her. "Are there any other conditions?"

"Not from my mother," Diana promises, but Steve frowns.

"Who else gave conditions?" he protests. He hadn't been aware anyone else on the island had the power to give Diana conditions to follow, but after spending eight weeks there, he knows there isn't really a set flow of power.

"Menalippe."

That wasn't surprising, actually. He had half expected Menalippe to present him with a list of conditions, but she hadn't.

"Alright." Steve swallows. "What do I have to do?"

"Nothing," Diana says, but it's not reassuring. "Surprisingly, they weren't for you. I think you earned her approval."

"Thank goodness," Steve mutters. He had thought as much, but hearing it from Diana made it real. "It only took eight weeks."

Diana laughs. "You should be proud. I didn't think it would work."

"What?" Steve stares at her and Diana's smile grows. "You said it would. You brought me here thinking they'd hate me the whole time?"

"Not all of them," Diana admits. Steve's eyes narrow. "Just Menalippe and my mother."

"Well." Steve sighs. "At least I earned the approval of one of them."

He doubts he'll ever earn her mother's approval. Not after saying fuck in front of her and accidentally discovering Diana was royalty. He considers it a miracle that Hippolyta let him stay on her island after any of that so maybe she approves of him a little. Maybe.

The flight attendants come by then and their conversation is interrupted. Since they couldn't very well hide Diana's name on her ticket, the flight attendants know who she is.

Steve doesn't complain as Diana is fawned over. They get extra (and better) food without having to ask and Steve gets to pretend he understands Greek. It's great and when they change planes in Paris, he's a little sad that they'll no longer receive special treatment. Outside of Greece, no one knows who Diana is.

"Are you sure you don't want the world to know who you are?" Steve asks on their next flight. "You could get special treatment everywhere."

Diana snorts. "I would have an entourage of guards around me too."

Steve hums. He hadn't thought about that part.

"I'm happy without the special treatment," Diana tells him with a grin. "Besides, I wouldn't have time for you if everyone in the world knew who I was. I'd be too busy."

"No one needs to know," Steve decides, pulling Diana across her seat until she's tucked against his side.

Laughing, Diana lets him hold her and ends up falling asleep before their first meal is served. Steve follows suit after he eats and at some point over the Atlantic, he decides that if he has to keep Diana's secret from everyone else in the world just to stay with her, he will. Without hesitation.

A/N: that's the last part I had planned. I hope you liked this one-shot book and the little mini-series at the end. This time, I'm pretty sure this is the end of the book, but we'll see if I write more. Thanks for reading!