❨ 𝑽𝑰𝑹𝑨𝑮𝑶                . . .                    𝑏𝘰𝘰𝑘 𝑖𝑖 ❩
﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌
━━━ 𝙱. 𝙱𝙰𝚁𝙽𝙴𝚂 / ❛ i will 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙛𝙖𝙡𝙡,
𝙨𝙝𝙚'𝙨 𝙞𝙣 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙧𝙤𝙡 of 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 ❜

━━━━━━━━━━━━ ∘༄⋅°
𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓,                                  𝒉𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚

𝙲𝙷𝙰𝙿𝚃𝙴𝚁 𝙴𝙸𝙶𝙷𝚃 !

BUCKY WOKE UP first, the events of last night replaying in his head. He glanced to his right and saw a sleeping Diana, facing him, the weight of her arm on his chest. He thought she looked angelic with a few tendrils of hair in her face, lips parted, and any sign of stress washed away from her features. He wrapped his arm around her and pressed a chaste kiss to her forehead. Diana's lips curled up in a smile, her eyes opening to look at the super-soldier. Her hand went to the stump that used to be his metal arm and caressed it with her thumb.

"Hey," he said, his breath fanning over Diana's nose.

She covered her lower face, "you need to brush your teeth." Bucky just laughed, rolling over to place his feet on the cold wood floor and walk to the bathroom. He was in the middle of brushing his teeth when Diana walked in. "You might wanna...put some clothes on, there," she said nonchalantly as she waved at his naked form. He didn't care, he shrugged and went back to brushing. Diana was wearing a pair of black short shorts and a Hogwarts t-shirt, over which she had put on a white lace and silk robe. She had a smile on her face, large enough that he could see her molars peeking through. He stared at her in amazement, that with all the men she could have, like Steve and Thor, she chose him. The broken, but strong. The lost but found. The guilty, but innocent. There were many emotions running through him, but one kept rooted in its spot: love.

He felt love whenever he was with her, and even though they did meet a couple of months ago, it felt as if they knew each other for a lifetime.

"The bridge in Washinton, D.C., about a year and a half ago," she blurts out.

"What?" Bucky was wondering what she was talking about; what about a bridge in the nation's capital? What did it have to do with what he was thinking about? "That's why it feels like you've known me for a long time," she explains, "on your dark days as the Winter Soldier, I fought against you on the bridge. I was there for the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D, there to stop HYDRA from killing millions of innocent people. I was there, Bucky."

As Diana said this he felt all the memories of his time in HYDRA rushing back, fighting her on the bridge, the way she was faster and stronger than him; how her punches hurt - he felt where he hit him; how she moved, she moved with the swiftness and grace of water, but, like water, it was as dangerous as to break rocks in half and cause massive buildings to topple down like they were just dominoes being pushed down with your finger.

"I remember now," he nods, pursing his lips.

He stared at the ground with a sorrowful expression, heart filled with guilt with the killings of innocent people by his own hand. "Oh, Bucky," Diana opens her arms to hug him, but then stops, rethinking her actions.

"You might wanna put some clothes on, you're not getting back on my bed naked," she pats his cheek twice.

Bucky chuckles and walks out the bathroom with Diana, walking to his still-packed suitcase, and choosing a pair of boxers and a white t-shirt to put on. Diana was on her bed, reading a book about a type of dog, by the looks of the photo cover, it was a Doberman. "Why the book about the dog?" He laid down next to her, her arms wrapping around his shoulders securitively, keeping him close to her.

"I've been thinking about getting a dog for the longest time but never got to getting one."

"Why the Doberman out of all the other dog breeds you could have?" He asked, cuddling deeper into her side. She was warm and soft to the touch, but the softness was most likely due to her robe. "One of oldest friends had one and he was so calm and full of love," her face held a happy expression as she stared into space, "but one time, when a burglar went to steal her things, Chewy --"

"Chewy?" Bucky questioned.

"The dog's name - had strong enough jaws to send the man to the hospital with his whole body covered in bites. Some were infected others were not, but he still died from his wounds. The dog was hailed as a hero when the town heard about it. Apparently, the guy robbed every person in town," she continues. "So I want one of my own, so when I'm not there, the dog could take care of my home."

"You don't have a home," Bucky replies, "I mean, at least not here. The HQ probably and wherever you were staying in Paris, but not other than that."

"True, but I'd like to own my own home someday," she shrugs, looking at Bucky over her shoulder. She folds down the ear of the book and places it on the nightstand, laying down facing Bucky with a smile. "So would you like to hear a story from where I come from?"

"Tell me one when you were little," he brushes a hair away from her face; he wanted to look at all her angelic features, to admire them as she talked about her childhood, to see how they changed with each scene. "Okay," she nods, sighing as she sifted through all her memories. She had a photographic memory, so she knew every detail even if it was a century ago. She could remember every sound, every taste, every colour and scene she's seen, everything.

"Oh gods," she sighs. "Well, growing up on the small island of Themyscira was always amazing from the clear blue sunny skies of the day to the clear navy starry skies of the night - we didn't have power, just candles and torches, so at night you could look up at the sky and see millions of stars floating across the sky, galaxies of every beautiful colour you could think of staring back at you.

"The beaches were beautiful, the white sand that never stuck to your feet to the bright sunny sky blue colour of the ocean transitioning to the navy blue of the night sky, the large cliffs where the archers jumped off of during training in case of an invasion, no palm trees were there, it was just..." she searched for the right word. "Amazing?" Bucky asks with a smile on his face.

"Yes," she chuckles, "amazing. There were towering statues and stone building overlooking the ocean, a sort of tribute to the sea god Poseidon, my mother, Hippolyta, always told me. When I was little I used to run away from lessons and go to the training fields to see every warrior fight against themselves to prepare for any incoming war. I used to pretend I was one of them, waving my arms wildly to pretend I was hitting imaginary opponents. "

Bucky smiled at how her face lit up with the telling of the story, it seemed as if she was reliving them. "Finally, Irri, my tutor found me, but I was quick to run off again. I ran through the streets of the marketplace. May Amazons bowed and waved in respect of title and also in love, I was beloved and protected for on the island because I was the only child. Some said hello to me and I would wave back. I ran up the steps between two buildings - I remember an armadillo scurrying from a building to the other on those steps that day - and when I saw it was a dead-end at the top, I did the next best thing: I ran to the nearest balcony there and I jumped from it.

"I meant to land safely on my two feet at the ground below me, but I overshot it and went over the next balcony. Luckily my mother was there to catch me by my wrist."

"Diana!" Bucky smacked Diana hard on her arm, giving her a chastising look.

"What?" She giggled. "You could've died, you were only a kid!" Diana loved how he got protective when she told him that little detail and was still giggling at his reaction. "Yes," she giggles, "I was just a kid, I had a very free spirit. And anyway, let me get back to my story." She gives Bucky a serious but playful look, furrowing her eyebrows to give off the disapproving effect but failing and going back to laughing.  "Tell the story!" Bucky yells, shaking a laughing Diana with his arm. "Okay, okay," she raised her hands in defeat. "Anyways, she told me as she put me on the horse that we should get me back to lessons before another tutor quits -"

"Another?" Bucky raises his eyebrows.

"Do you want me to finish the story or not?" She pulls a serious expression at him, quickly shutting him up. "As we rode through the bare street, I kept trying to convince her to let me train and become a warrior but she was too resentful. She kept riding on and we passed my aunt, Antiope, who began to ride alongside us. 'I could begin showing her some things,' she said to mom. 'She should at least be able to defend herself -"

"And here you are saving the world of bad guys," Bucky interrupts, a proud and amusing smile on his face.

"Yes, now I am," she nods, "'From whom?' Mother asked her. 'In the event of an invasion,' Antiope answered nonchalantly. 'Isn't that why I have the greatest warrior in our history leading an entire army?' My mother retorted. I sometimes used to hate her for not letting me fight and protect our island, because, in case she has forgotten, I'm an Amazonian, too, I should be out there fighting..." Diana plays with the ends of Bucky's hair absentmindedly, running her fingers through it as she stared off into space with a blank stare. "Antiope answered again with certainty, 'I pray there will never come a time where she has to fight, but you know, a scorpion must sting, a while must hunt.' My mother was still against it even though I saw a look on her face that told us she knew Antiope was right. She just replied that I was a child, the only child on the island, and she must let me be so.

"That night I tried to convince her," she continues, pressing a kiss to Bucky's forehead, "she still told me no. I tried to tell her that I can fight without a sword. She just told me that fighting does not make me a hero. 'Just a shield then,' I tried so hard to convince her, 'no sharp edges.' She just gave me a patronizing look and called out to me. She wasn't wearing her tiara and her hair was in its usual curls. She was wearing her long dress, standing with courage, grace and power at the edge of my bed. I wanted to be just like her. Brace and strong, kind to those around her. She tried to get me to sleep by telling me a story. 'Diana,' she started, 'you are the most precious thing to me. I wished for you so much I sculpted you from clay myself, and begged Zeus to give you life.' I was bored and told her, 'you've told me this story.'"

"You seemed like a very impatient and stubborn child," Bucky says. Diana laughs, a beautiful sound to his ears. "I was," she shoulders and chest rumble with each peal of laughter escaping her lips. "Mother grabbed this folder and opened it; inside it showed a picture of a small group of men and women on top of this mountain and another, wearing a heavy metal suit with two pairs of horns, was standing away from them. He had his hand outstretched to the men on the ground below.

"It seemed as if the men were tearing each other apart. A group of women - they were all naked -were climbing out of the water gracefully. 'Which is why tonight, I'll tell you a new one. The story of our people and my days of battle,' I was excited to hear about this because Mother always told me stories about how I was born and about Hercules and Perseus. I was jealous of them from the day I was born; they were allowed to become heroes and I couldn't. So, she had started: 'So you can understand why war is something you should never hope for. Long ago, when time was new, and all of history was still a dream, the gods ruled the earth - Zeus, king among them. Zeus created beings in which the gods would rule.'"

Bucky perked up at the story about the gods; he had been fascinated by them since he was a kid, and now he was in love with a woman that was raised on an island that believed in the gods and their history. "'Beings born in his image - fair and good, strong and passionate. He called this creation 'Man', and Mankind was good. But Zeus' son grew envious of Mankind and sought to corrupt his father's creation. This was Ares -"

"The God of War," Steve's voice interrupts Diana, scaring the two cuddling on the bed. He stood in her doorway with a smile and his arms crossed over his muscled chest, right leg crossing over the other. "You started without me." He crossed the room and sat on the edge of her bed, crossing his legs and leaning forward on his elbows. He looked like a kid waiting for storytime, as his grandfather promised him that he would tell him of his times at war.

Diana chuckles and sits up, a smile on her face at the sight of the two super soldiers. She rarely talked and she was happy that some people would finally listen to her story. "Yes, the God of War. Ares poisoned men's hearts with jealousy and suspicion. He turned them against one another and war ravaged the Earth -"

"Is it story time?" Natasha asks. Diana sighs and looks at the doorway to see her, Thor, Bruce, Tony, Sam, Wanda, Clint and Peter all crowded in her room. Luckily she had picked up her and Bucky's clothes off the floor. "So do you want to hear the story or not?" Bucky asks them as he raises an eyebrow, pulling himself into a sitting position with the help of Diana and Steve.

"Sure," Clint takes a seat on her bed, all of them soon following her.

"Oh Hera," Diana sighs, a blush creeping onto her cheeks, "Did you hear the first part of the story because I'm not restarting."

"Yes, FRIDAY linked us all to your room," Tony nods, "oh and Capsicle, I came here to say I'm sorry. We should have talked it out before we fought and I'm sorry, Bucky because I've realized you were under the control of HYDRA."

"Can I get on with the story?" Diana says, annoyed. "Yes," Peter nods. "Okay. So the Gods created the Amazons to influence men's hearts with love and restore peace to the world. And for a brief time, there was peace. But it did not last." All of the Avengers and Peter and Bucky hung onto every word - Diana had never told them a story of her childhood. "My mother, the Amazon Queen, led a revolt that freed them from enslavement. When Zeus led the Gods to our defence, Ares killed them one by one, until only Zeus himself remained. Zeus used the last of his power to stop Ares; striking such a blow, the God of War was forced to retreat.

"But Zeus knew that one day Ares might return to finish his mission. An endless war where Mankind would finally destroy themselves and us Amazons with them. So Zeus left us a weapon. One strong enough to kill a god. With his dying breath, Zeus created Themyscira to hide us from the outside world, someplace Ares could not find us.

"And all has been quiet ever since. We give thanks to the Gods for giving us that paradise. I used to call the sword that I wield GodKiller, the sword that is strong enough to kill a God, but my mother didn't want me to find out that it was the sword - it was me. I'm the GodKiller. The weapon Zeus left on Themyscira. Mother tried so hard to stop all dreams of my becoming a warrior so it wouldn't get to me. But it was too late. Late at night my aunt, the general of the Amazon Army, taught me to fight, late at night in a darkly lit cave."

"What's your aunt's and mother's names?" Peter asks Diana. Diana becomes flustered, remembering the heroic death of her aunt.

"My aunt's name is Antiope and my mother's name is Hippolyta," she answers. "I think that they have beautiful names unlike mine, a regular old name. But that's not really important. For years Antiope trained me away from the watchful eyes of Hippolyta, but as the years passed, we became more relaxed, not really caring about being caught. Until someone told Mother what we were doing. We were in a field, sword training - Antiope kept beating me - when we heard the thunderous foot falls of the horses. Hippolyta called out to me, asking me if I was hurt. 'No, Mother I'm fine, I was just-' 'Training. Seems like I'm not the revered queen I should be. Disobeyed, betrayed by my own sister,' she said as she stared down at Antiope. I didn't want Antiope to take all the blame so I tried to explain to Hippolyta that it was all me, I asked her to."

"-but she didn't want to hear it, right?" Tony crosses his arms over his chest.

"Right, she didn't want to believe it was my fault, that I was a perfect child. So she told one of the guards - her name was Liayae and she was incredibly nice - to take me to the palace.

"Antiope circled around Hippolyta, 'you left me no choice, Hippolyta. You neglect your duty if she cannot fight.' Hippolyta told her that she speaks of a time that may never come, he may never return, that he could have died from his wounds. Antiope just hissed at her, 'Ares is alive. You feel it as I do in your bones.' Liayae and I were hidden amongst the trees, eavesdropping on the conversation."

Diana shed a tear, quickly wiping it away. 'It's never the right time to cry.' Bucky and the others still saw it, they understood that death was coming up in the story. "'The stronger she gets, the sooner he'll find her,' she looked heartbroken, and I understood what she meant: I was going to get stronger over the years and as I do, Ares will create a war deadly enough to wipe half the planet. Antiope told her that my training and fighting, it was the only way to truly protect me; that I should be the one fighting for myself as the same as the others on the island.

" Hippolyta finally made the decision, she was going to let me train. 'You will train her harder than any Amazon before her. Five times harder. Ten times harder. Until she's better than even you. But she must never know about what she is, or how she came to be.' Antiope took this to heart, training me from dawn until way past dusk, every day, and every day I became sore and tired. I only got two hours of sleep each night and barely had time to recover from the past day's fight session."

The others were looking at Diana fascinated; she had endured so much but still wanted to protect the world. "Why do you want to save the world even though you have seen things we haven't seen, lost people you've loved and care about. Why?" Sam shakes his head.

"I used to want to save the world, this beautiful place. But I knew so little then. It is a land of beauty and wonder, worth cherishing in every way. But the closer you get, the more you see the great darkness simmering within. And mankind? Mankind is another story altogether," the Amazon princess answers. "What one does when faced with the truth is more difficult than you think -" Diana eyes Tony at this statement, giving him a reassuring smile. He is embarrassed, staring at his hands folded on his lap. "I learned this the hard way a long long time ago. And now, I'll never be the same."

Bucky was the first to speak up. "What happened a long time ago?"

The others nodded, wanting to hear the full story, some leaning in to hear and the others arching their eyebrows in impatience.

"I was finally 19, the year was 1918. It was the First World War, some called it the War to end all Wars and others called it the War with no End."

Diana shook her head at this. A disapproving sigh escaped her lips - she looked exhausted. "They were wrong, though. It wasn't the war to end all wars, it was never the war without end; it was not the even beginning of the end of wars. Here we are in 2016 and all of us are still fighting. I remember the days I left Themyscira clearly. I was training at the training grounds at the heart of the island.

"I was winning - or so I thought - when it was time to fight my aunt. She had more time to train so I knew she was going to beat me. Well, almost 2 millennia to be exact -"

"What's a millennium?" Thor interrupts the Amazon warrior.

Everybody sighs, Peter sucking his teeth to make a clicking sound. Bucky answers him. "A millennium is a period of a thousand years, so two millennia is two thousand years." Thor nods his long shaggy blonde head, finally understanding what she was talking about. "So the Amazons are two thousand years old?"

"Yes, like I said at the beginning of the story, the Amazons were created to influence men's hearts with love and restore peace to the world when time was new and history was still a dream," came the reply as the princess moved to grab a Hershey's bar from her nightstand - she kept a stash during the case of a period and cravings emergency - and offered any to the others. Thank you's were heard all across the room as each took a piece, devouring it in less than a second - they haven't had candy in a long time.

"That was the day I found my true power," she continues, "I was on the ground after she pushed me down and was starting to back up from her swinging a sword. I kept blocking them and she kept swinging. She also gave me good advice that day. She told me that I expect a battle to be fair, that a battle will never be fair.

"I interlocked my arms and there it went -- a blast that blew her almost ten feet away from me and it went all around the island. Some that were close to me were knocked down, others just stood as they were far away from me. She was bleeding and it was all my fault. I told her I was sorry but she just looked at me with a look of fear. Do you know how it feels like when your own family member looks at you like that? I was heartbroken. I just went and ran away from the field and into a clear patch overlooking the ocean. I was trying to calm myself down enough to go back, but that was broken by a terrible sound; it was a sound I never heard before that day and wish to never hear it again.

"I then saw it. It was a small fighter plane, crashing into the oceans of Themyscira. I also saw that there was an invisible force field ringing around the island, but that's not the point. It crashed and I didn't think about it, I just jumped. I swam towards the wreckage and saw the tail of the plane. It was broken from the rest. I went under and saw a man staring back at me before he passed out. He had the clearest blue eyes you could ever imagine..."

When Diana starts describing him, an expression only identifiable as love came over her face. She still loved him. This made Bucky's blood boil but he didn't show it. He just looked at the picture on Diana's nightstand and realized that the picture of her old love was watching him --Diana's new love -- and Diana make love. At this thought, Bucky smiled. "He had dirty blonde hair that was short on the sides and a little longer on top; the hair of a soldier back in the day. His name was Captain Steve Trevor, pilot, American Expeditionary Forces, serial number 8141921, assigned to British Intelligence."

When Diana saw how pissed off Bucky looked while she was stating all these things about her first love, she stopped herself. "Alright, that's enough for today. I can possibly write you a book about it." She cleared her parched throat and motioned them to go out of her room. They all gave her genuine smiles as they filed out, Diana giving them each a smile back. She was having conflicting emotions -- they could all see that -- but they didn't mention it. She was sad and nervous, with all these different emotions, they didn't want to pressure her more.

She turned to Bucky to comfort him when she saw it; all of his anger was washed upon his face and he was looking at her with a death glare. This was not going to end well.