TITLE: Training Day

AUTHOR: LOTSlove®

CHARACTERS: Batman / Wonder Woman

RATING: T

WARNINGS: Author Chooses Not to Use Warnings

DISCLAIMER: I love Justice League, but especially Batman and Wonder Woman. Unfortunately, I do not own the characters and if I did things would be much different for them.

SUMMARY: Prequel to my fic A Bat for Christmas, Bruce designs a new training program for him and Diana to try out, but things don't exactly go as planned.

Training Day

Diana made her way through the Watchtower corridor; a definite destination set in her mind and desperate determination in her every step. She had some major aggression to work out that had rapidly developed over a certain winged creature of the night. The lack of progress in their flirtatious little dance of tug-o-war was making her more tense with every passing day.

She needed to knock some heads together to rid herself of the powerful current of sexual tension that had taken over her body. Sitting next to him during their weekly meeting hadn't helped her any either. If she had to look at that chiseled profile, that defined jaw that she was aching to attack with her mouth one more time…Hera help her, she'd go absolutely crazy.

And don't even get her started on that voice that was rough like sandpaper and yet smooth as silk.

As soon as Clark had adjourned the meeting, she had quite literally leapt from her chair almost knocking it over, anxious to pour the energy teeming inside of her out on someone…something. And since she couldn't exactly pin Bruce to the floor and have her way with him, this was going to have to do for the time being.

How had she fallen in love with someone so irritatingly arrogant, so infuriatingly right all the time? Someone who fled emotional attachments of any kind as if falling in love was considered a fatal plague or something that required a detective kit, a pair of sterile gloves, and evidence bags?

Someone who turned her insides to warm jelly ever time he looked at her with those eyes? An incredibly handsome man who had a body that could no doubt make her scream like a…

"Princess!"

Diana drew a deep breath at the sound of his deep baritone voice, a tremble of want instantly racing up her spine. She paused, realizing that her hands were clenched so tight that her fingernails were digging into her palms. She relaxed her fierce grip before turning to face the source of her…frustration.

"Are you busy?" Batman asked as he approached, something clutched firmly in his hand.

"Well, I was just about to…" she began, placing her hands on her hips.

"Good," he quickly interrupted her, slipping his arm through hers and dragging her along with him. "We've gotten into a rut, a dull routine. It's time we spice things up a bit…take things up a notch or two."

Diana was completely speechless by his admission as she allowed the Dark Knight to half-drag her down the corridor and yet was overjoyed beyond words. She'd waited so agonizingly long for him to take the next step, to want something more with her and actually act on it.

She was just thankful the gods saw fit to make her immortal. She was beginning to think she would need at least that long to convince him to at least give them a try. At this rate, she'd be an old woman before he even asked her out on a date.

But now…finally…

"Hera, it's about time," she exclaimed in obvious exasperation, looking back over her shoulder and wondering why he wasn't heading towards the living quarters on the other side of the Watchtower. His quarters or hers, she no longer cared as long as she finally got to have what she'd been yearning for.

"Glad you agree," he brusquely replied, oblivious.

"I can think of a few things that would most definitely help," she smirked as she cast a glance at him out of the corner of her eye now that he was allowing her to walk beside him of her own accord.

"Way ahead of you, Princess," he smugly said. "Been working on a new plan for the last two weeks."

"You didn't need to put that much effort into it," Diana frowned, confused by his intense focus. "A phone call or a candlelit dinner, heck even flowers would've been…"

"Wait…what?" Batman suddenly came to an abrupt stop, turning to look at her as her words finally sunk in. "What are you talking about?"

"What are you talking about?" she asked, her brow furrowing as she folded her arms against her chest.

"Our training sessions," he clarified, holding up the USB drive in his gloved hand. "We've been in a rut so I designed a new program for us to try out, to keep us sharp."

"Oh…" she softly said, her face falling in disappointment.

Always business when it came to the Bat, but she swore to herself she was going to change that one way or another. There was always Christmas she guessed. The holidays were fast approaching and it would be a good chance to light a fire under a certain dark hero.

Batman stared at her for a long moment, were words finally clicking. She thought he had been talking about them…their "relationship". He felt a sudden flush of heated arousal wash through him with that thought, of actually being able to act on the things that drifted so tantalizingly through his mind every time he let it wonder, the things that had been filling his dreams for the last several months.

Things had been definitely growing more intense between them over the last few months, but he still needed to maintain a certain amount of distance and decorum when it came to the beautiful Amazon. He couldn't allow himself to get involved with her no matter how badly he wanted her or how many cold showers she'd been the reason behind.

Seeing how uncomfortable he was becoming, Diana decided to come to his rescue. "So what kind of training session did you create for us?" she finally asked, her voice revealing her disappointment as she tried to shove aside her frustration.

At least he'd been thinking of her in some fashion she guessed. It was better than not it all. It just wasn't in the way that she'd hoped.

"It's a Samurai skilled in the martial arts," he told her as they resumed walking again, thankful she hadn't pushed the issue of them.

She was almost always on his mind in some way, a constant presence in the recesses of his thoughts, a deep yearning for something more with her that lived deep in his core that refused to leave no matter how hard he tried to ignore it.

It was hard enough trying to deal with the powerful feelings she always evoked in him without knowing she was thinking of him in that way as well, wondering what it would be like to kiss her, touch her, to remove that sexy little uniform…

Had it suddenly gotten hotter in the Watchtower?

"Interesting concept," she murmured as she considered it. "Does he do anything else?"

"He has a sword…a very large one," he replied with obvious pride.

"Sounds like fun," she suddenly smiled. "Let's take it for a test drive."

Bruce smirked at her words despite himself, her enthusiasm exciting him. "I have to warn you, though," he told her. "I've raised the danger level on it. It's not going to be a picnic. It's do or die."

"Then I just hope you can keep up, Batman," Diana told him, giving him a sexy grin that did nothing to ease the sexual tension that was always simmering between them every time they were anywhere near one another.

Batman internally groaned. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all. "Oh, I can keep up, Princess," he smugly shot back, continuing the flirtatious game that they'd been playing for months. "The question is how will you do against a six foot seven Samurai? Do you have enough to take a man like that down?"

Reaching the training room, Diana paused at the door to type in the code to enter. Just as the doors slid open, she cast a glance back at him over her shoulder, a very seductive expression gracing her face, her beautiful blue eyes dancing.

"I have rope," she teased with a single arched eyebrow. "And just what did you bring to the party?"

Bruce forgot how to breathe for a long moment as he watched her saunter into the training room, the tempting sway of her hips causing his throat to go dry. He was a dead man.

Finally figuring out how to make his legs work; he followed her inside, making his way to the computer to download his USB. As he brought up the program, he quickly ran through some calming meditation exercises, hoping to keep his control firmly locked in place.

Unfortunately, the Princess was making it more than difficult for him to keep his desire in check today. "Come on, Bruce," he thought to himself. "She's just an ordinary…woman…a teammate. Nothing more."

He turned around at that precise moment to find her stretching, her arms raised over her head, her lean muscles flexing, her perfect body on display for him despite what her uniform tried to conceal. His mind immediately went numb as he gawked at her, the meditation exercises completely forgotten along with his own name.

It wasn't until Diana finally spoke did he realize he was openly staring at her. "Bruce, your mouth is open," she grinned knowingly.

Yes, definitely a dead man. Dead, dead, dead…

Drawing a ragged breath, he cleared his throat before finally speaking. "Get ready, Princess," he gruffly stated with a frown, his tone harsher than he had intended. "This isn't going to be a walk in the park."

"I'm more than ready, but I'm not so sure you are," she chuckled softly, knowing that he had been staring appreciatively at her.

She had purposefully stretched at that exact moment, wanting to see just what kind of a reaction she could invoke in him. He definitely hadn't disappointed her.

"Welcome to my web said the spider to the fly," she thought to herself.

Bruce ground his teeth against the self-satisfied grin that played on her lips, his heart already beginning to hammer and they hadn't even started yet. "Just worry about yourself, Princess," he roughly snapped, ignoring her amusement with him.

He was more than annoyed with himself for allowing her to effect him so intensely. He was always in control, always able to keep his emotions and reactions in check. But with her it was a completely different game, one where the rulebook had not only been rewritten but had been thrown right out the window altogether.

He was being forced to play by the Amazon's rules and it left him feeling more than a little flustered at times. He always felt he was caught off guard, constantly trying to rein in his heart…among other prominent body parts…that attempted to overrule his mind.

Diana bent over then to adjust her red dominatrix boots at that moment, allowing him a view of her perfectly formed backside. The woman had legs that went on for miles, an ass that...

"I am Batman…I am the Dark Knight…I am vengeance…I am…I am…I'm so screwed…" he thought to himself, momentarily squeezing his eyes closed and drawing a deep breath.

Just then a large Samurai appeared with an even larger sword clutched tightly in his meaty hand. The steel walls of the training room suddenly dissolved away, transforming into a Japanese garden filled with flowers and trees, a cement wall and a pond filled with fish.

"Nice touch," Diana told him in appreciation to the atmosphere he'd constructed.

"Thought you might like that," he replied with the slightest twitch of his lips.

Diana always appreciated the simplest things in life, never failing to notice the beauty and purity in even some of the most unforgiving moments. Maybe there was truly something worthwhile within him she had seen that had brought about this relentless desire for more than just friendship from him?

"So you were thinking of me when you created this?" she turned to smirk at him.

Bruce clenched his jaw in an effort to mask his embarrassment that now intermingled with the desire already humming through his veins. Before he could get a flirtatious retort out, the Samurai was already charging towards them, swinging for their heads with his sword, causing him to duck and Diana to take to the air.

The Samurai growled with discontent, obviously already outraged by his lack of success. Diana immediately flew around from behind, her arms wrapping around the enormous beast of a man's neck in an effort to contain him.

Unfortunately, he was adamantly against the idea of being stopped least of all by this Amazon as he reached behind him, grabbing hold of her and throwing her into a nearby tree with lightning speed that surprised her.

Batman internally cringed, his body tensing as he watched her smack hard into the trunk of the large tree before dropping like a rock to the ground with a thud. She groaned as she got to her feet, a little dazed as she rubbed the back of her head.

"Sorry," he told her, still crouching low to the ground debating his plan of attack. "I forgot to mention he also has Meta strength."

"Thanks for the warning," she scowled, anger now blazing in her blue eyes as she took to the air once more.

Shooting his grappling gun at a nearby stone wall, Batman swung through the air towards their raging attacker, releasing a series of batarangs. Using his large curving sword, the Samurai easily deflected them with impressive skill.

While distracted by the flying Bat, Diana came up behind him again, clasping her hands together and bringing them down on top of his head as if it was a mace. The violent blow had little effect as he suddenly turned, swatting her away as if she was a pesky fly and sending her soaring backwards to land directly in the fish pond.

Batman bit the inside of his cheek to keep the chortle from rising in his throat as he watched the now drenched Amazon stand to her feet in the pond, her wet black hair clinging to her creamy skin. While humorous to say the least, he hadn't anticipated how arousing it would be to see her dripping wet like that.

"Could have done without the pond thank you very much," she growled in annoyance as she pulled her wet hair out of her face.

"Noted," he evenly rasped, not allowing his amusement to surface as he forced his attention on the Samurai who was now barreling down on the Amazon Princess with deadly intent.

Batman swung into action again, his black cape billowing behind him as he planted both boots squarely into the Samurai's chest and knocking him backwards. It only served to infuriate the man even more as he bared his teeth at them, the steel of his sword gleaming in the sunlight Bruce had programmed into the training session.

Coming to stand next to the Dark Knight, Diana stared at the Samurai. "Got any ideas?" she asked, her mind racing for something they could do that would stop him.

"I'm thinking," he bit out as they watched the man bearing down on them again.

"You programmed him," she reminded him as she grabbed her lasso from her hip and flew into the air.

Swinging her rope over her head, Diana lassoed his arm holding the sword, taking him by surprise. He turned to see her floating in the air, his eyes flashing with rage. He rapidly whipped his arm around and around sending her flying through the air again causing her to land hard on the ground.

Diana groaned as she opened her eyes to find Batman standing over her, an arrogant grin on his face that she would love to erase one day. He was quite proud of the program he'd made, creating one that she couldn't best.

"I don't think aerial attack is the answer," he informed her.

"Thanks for the advice, Captain Obvious," she scowled, shoving his offered hand aside as she leapt to her feet. This training program was definitely going to leave bruises.

"We need to work as a team," he told her as he ducked and rolled out of the way of a slicing sword. "One needs to distract while the other takes him down."

"I've been…distracting him," she grunted as her fists flew into action, repeatedly connecting with the Samurai's jaw. "You just…haven't taken him…down yet."

The Samurai continued to stumble backwards with each of Diana's powerful blows, growing more irate by the moment. Batman shot out a thick cord that quickly wrapped around the man's legs causing him to crash to the ground.

"Now, that wasn't so hard, was it?" Diana breathed heavily as she stood by the fallen villain only to receive a sudden fist to the jaw that nearly knocked her out.

"What were you saying?" Batman asked as he helped her onto her feet. "You've been spending more time picking yourself up off the ground than you have fighting."

"Funny," she sneered as she gently moved her jaw back and forth. "If I break a tooth, I'm sending the dental bill to you."

Batman smirked as he turned to charge towards the Samurai that had already used his sword to cut through the thick cord that had bound his legs. He was beginning to feel guilty with the amount of abuse Diana was taking. She was definitely going to be sore and more than a little bruised by the time this was all over.

As he raced towards the Samurai with a new plan of attack in mind, he thought about how much he'd love to be the one to take care of her wounds and nurse her back to health. He silently berated himself for those erotic thoughts, reminding himself that Diana was a teammate, not a lover…although his body would definitely prefer the latter.

Grabbing a batbomb from his utility belt, Batman rolled it towards the Samurai, the explosion causing thick smoke to envelope the super villain as it detonated. Releasing an altered grappling gun, the cord wrapped around the Samurai's body, keeping his large muscular arms pressed to his sides.

Diana flew in with fists flying, planting one powerful blow after another. The Samurai screamed in rage, his body trembling as he suddenly broke the thick cables that had kept him bound as if it had been made of paper.

His fist connected with the Batman's chest, sending him sprawling to the ground. His sword suddenly flashed in the sunlight, slashing several times through Batman's Kevlar, leaving large tears in his uniform but luckily nothing more.

Enraged by the site, Diana flew straight at him, a growl on her lips and vengeance flashing in her blue eyes. Her fists connected with the Samurai's chest with such force it sent him stumbling backwards as she drove away from the Dark Knight into a stone wall that quickly crumbled down upon him.

Breathing hard, Diana turned to check on Bruce only to feel the sting of the sword's blade as it slashed through her thigh. She swiftly turned back to the Samurai who had somehow already managed to free himself from the rubble.

"Diana!" Batman yelled as he finally got to his feet, suddenly noticing blood running down the Amazon's leg.

This little training program had gone on long enough as the Samurai almost seemed to take on a life all its own, bypassing its original programming and becoming something else entirely. There must be a bug or a virus in it somewhere.

"Keep him busy!" Bruce yelled at her as he ran towards the computer to shut it down.

"No problem," Diana muttered under her breath, exhausted and sore.

Ignoring the pain in her thigh, she lifted a huge piece of stone and took to the air again, dropping it on top of the Samurai who only grew more enraged by the repeated attempts to stop him. Diana continued her assault, hurling one enormous piece of stone after another at him with little effect.

"A little help here, Batman!" Diana yelled as the Samurai suddenly doubled in size, his sword growing as well.

"The program won't shut off!" he growled as he typed furiously, attempting to tamp down on the panic that was beginning to rise. "It's like its compensating and adjusting to everything we do to try and stop it."

"Tell me…about it!" Diana bit out as worked to pull a tree out of the ground by its roots.

Turning, she used it like a battering ram, flying full force at him and hitting him in the chest. She cursed in Greek as the Samurai snatched it out of her hand and tossed it aside like a twig. He began grabbing at her, trying to catch her in his enormous hand, but she was too fast.

Unfortunately, she was also beginning to wear down. Her jaw throbbed mercilessly and blood continued to ooze from the deep gash in her thigh. If Bruce didn't find a way to stop it soon, they were going to have to call in reinforcements to help them.

"I think we're going to have to call Kal," she told him, dodging a sword swing that came dangerously close to removing her arm.

When she didn't receive a response, she looked over her shoulder to find him attaching a bat bomb to the small computer console in the corner of the training room. Turning, he shot his grapping gun, allowing it to carry him away just before the bomb exploded, destroying the computer system.

Diana watched as the Samurai disappeared just it was about to hack through Bruce, the beautiful Japanese landscape vanishing with it. She landed lightly on the floor beside him, bending over to place her hands on her knees in order to catch her breath.

Looking up, she noticed Bruce staring intently at her, his expression one of guilt and concern. "Diana…" he softly began.

"I'm alright," she breathlessly said.

"You're bleeding," he frowned as he tore off a piece of his cape and knelt before her.

Bruce ignored the feel of her thigh as he made a tourniquet out of a scrap of his cape. He tried to fight down the urge to kiss her leg, her soft skin so tantalizing. If she weren't injured, he probably would have, but he needed to get her to the med bay.

"It's not that bad," she shook her head as he finally stood to his feet. "It'll probably be gone in a couple of days anyway."

Bruce scowled as his mind raced with what could have gone wrong. "I'm so sorry, Diana. I never programmed it to be that real," he told her.

"I don't think it went half bad," she smiled brightly at him, his concern for her warming her clear to her toes. "Although your uniform might not agree."

Bruce looked down to see the top half of his uniform shredded, amazed that he hadn't received a single scratch, although he might have a broken sternum from where the Samurai's fist met his chest. He finally looked up at her, the sudden sound of her lilting laughter like the finest music to his ears.

He couldn't contain his own chuckle as he reached out to pull leaves from the Princess's hair. "I bet we look like quite a pair," he agreed.

"Like we've been to Tartarus and back," she laughed, reaching out to lightly run her fingers over his exposed chest.

Bruce fought back a low moan at the feel of her fingers against his skin, his body almost trembling in anticipation, silently pleading for more. He swallowed hard, fighting the urge to grab her and kiss her senseless.

He suddenly knew in that moment he was definitely fighting a losing battle when it came to her.

"Come, let me fix up your leg and I'll treat you to an iced mocha in the commissary," he told her, taking hold of her upper arm to help lead her out.

"Now that's an offer I can't refuse," she smiled, limping beside him.

XXX

Leading her to a bed in the empty med bay, Bruce immediately went to the cabinets to gather the necessary supplies. His mind was waging war against his heart in that moment, fierce desire battling logic. She was injured; he couldn't lose control now. She was in here because of him.

Diana sat on the edge of the bed, her legs dangling off the side. "You really don't need to do this," she tried again, but loving the attention he was giving her.

"I'm the reason you're hurt," he firmly stated as he removed his gauntlets before settling down on a rolling stool before her. "It's the least I can do."

"It's not your fault," she shook her head. "You couldn't have known the program would do that."

"I should've tried it out alone before forcing you in there to try it with me," he frowned as he began cleaning the blood off her leg, trying his best to ignore the fact that he was sitting right between her thighs.

Bruce's breath caught in his chest with her sudden close proximity. It was definitely much hotter in the Watchtower. He was going to have to check on the environmental controls later to make sure they were working efficiently.

"Yes, because you 'forced' me," she rolled her eyes. "Bruce, no one forces me to do anything I don't want to do."

Batman snorted in response. "That's true enough," he muttered, keeping his gaze focused on his work and not the beautiful face intently watching him. Mostly definitely a dead man he reminded himself.

"Are you calling me stubborn?" she chuckled softly.

"Stubborn…obstinate…mulish…determined…headstrong…irritating…annoying…pain in the ass…" he counted off. "You name it, Princess. You're it."

A smile tugged at her lips as she leaned down, her face suddenly close to his, intrigued by the intense reaction she seemed to evoke in him. "I'm interested to know," she murmured, her breath suddenly warm against his cowled face. "What else do you think of me, Batman?"

I think you're the sexiest, most beautiful woman I've ever laid eyes on… your scent drives me absolutely wild, your smile makes me forget my own name…your innocent charm melts my heart…I want to ravage you over and over again for the rest of my life, to hold you and never let you go…

"This is pretty bad, Diana," he quickly changed the subject as he inspected the deep gash in her perfect leg, the words he was dying to utter still left on his tongue.

"It doesn't hurt as much as my jaw does," she replied to her handsome fly as she began to tug on the web, knowing what his next move would be.

His head immediately snapped up to inspect her jaw, finding her face so very close to his. He stared at her for a long tense moment, the silence of the med bay nearly deafening, the sexual current storming around them almost suffocating.

There was an angry purple bruise forming on the side of her jaw, but it was her sweet lips that had captured his attention. Without even realizing what he was doing, his hand came to rest on her other thigh, softly caressing it as his lips inched closer to hers.

Diana's hand found his jaw, cupping it gently as their lips met, a surge of electricity shooting through them both in that moment. He kissed her softly, slowly, savoring the taste of her as his hand slowly stroked higher up her thigh.

Everything inside of him screamed to take her right here, to rip that uniform from her amazing body and show her what he dreamed about every night, the fierce hunger that lived in his soul for her. But love was not something that he should pursue and definitely not with her, not a teammate.

But he did love her, had for some time. It had just taken a while for him to accept that that's what was there in every single beat of his heart. It was for her.

He swallowed Diana's soft moan as he deepened the kiss, his tongue tangling with hers as it grew more heated. She slid a single finger up under his cowl to gently caress his cheekbone, the act so personal and sensual it was suddenly making his uniform tight and uncomfortable.

Bruce abruptly pulled back, his hand going for his cowl to rip it off so he could kiss her the way that he wanted to when the doors to the med bay suddenly swooshed open, startling them both. Diana watched with disappointment as Bruce's walls immediately went up, his face stern and focused once more.

Diana looked up to see Kal coming towards them, his brow furrowed with obvious concern. "Are you two alright?" he asked as he neared. "What happened in the training room?"

"Program malfunction," Batman curtly replied as he carefully wound the gauze around her thigh.

"Diana, are you alright?" Kal frowned, noticing the pile of bloody gauze on the bed.

"I'm fine," she smiled. "Just a little accident. Nothing that won't heal in a couple of days."

"Batman, are you…" Clark began.

"I'm fine," he brusquely interrupted as he finished bandaging Diana's leg. "It's getting late. I need to return to Gotham right away."

Diana's heart quickly sunk with his words. He was pulling away from her again, going to pretend like nothing had just happened between them, but she refused to allow him to do it this time. She watched as he began to clean up the mess they'd made, wishing Kal could've waited until later to check on them.

"I've got to run too," Clark announced before leaving. "I'll check on you later, Diana."

Diana watched as Bruce began to make his way to the door to follow Kal out, hoping for a quick exit. "You still owe me an iced mocha," she reminded him.

"Rain check, Princess," he bluntly said, avoiding making any eye contact with her, but he could still feel the heat of her gaze intently focused on him.

"When can we try the program again?" she asked as she slid off the bed and limped towards him. "I'm anxious to get some revenge on that Samurai."

"It's permanently shelved until further notice," he replied, his intense gaze falling to her bandaged leg. "Can't lose Wonder Woman in a foolish training exercise."

With that he swiftly escaped from the med bay before she could respond, before she could do anything at all. She drew a deep frustrated breath, a plan already beginning to take shape in her mind.

Christmas was only three weeks away. Maybe she could convince him to give them a chance. With a renewed sense of purpose, she left the med bay to head to the commissary and her iced mocha.

One way or another, she was going to have a Bat for Christmas.

THE END