The red fruit succumbed easily within Diana's grasp. Though it was subdued to a gelatinous state, Diana continued to squeeze the substance until red liquid gushed through the cracks of her closed fist with the consistency of water.
"You know, despite the name, they're not even really berries." Diana looked up at the voice. She hadn't been expecting company, nor had she wanted any. She would have said so, had the tiny blond woman given her the chance before sitting down at the table across from her. Considering that they were in the Watchtower’s public eating area, Diana stifled a protest as Black Canary continued to talk. "The reason why is complicated, but essentially, strawberries come from a flower that has many ovaries. True berries come from a single-ovary flower."
"They’re a deceiver fruit, then." They offered pleasure through a deceptive guise that made Diana consider them to be a very appropriate food of Man's World.
They were a perfect food for a world that would give rise to a man who would call himself their teammate, stand at their side in battle, and feign friendship, while simultaneously building files on his "friends'" weaknesses. His betrayal was as bad as Shayera's. And yet, he'd had the audacity to vote to kick her out of the League.
Dishonesty. Betrayal. Hypocrisy. Today, every bad word Diana's mother had ever uttered about Man's World seemed to bear fruit.
"Well, they aren’t the only ones . Neither raspberries nor blackberries qualify as true berries. On the other hand, grapes, tomatoes and bananas do qualify as berries." Dinah picked up an example of the latter from her own tray, and waved it in Diana’s general direction. "But considering both League rumors and the recent attack by one of Batman’s rogues on the League, deceiver fruit is a perfect food to serve at the Watchtower."
Diana tensed at the mention of the events and her lax grip on the strawberry tightened. "Black Canary, I can’t discuss-"
"Call me Dinah. And I know you can’t discuss Big Seven business. I don’t want you to. But if the rumors are false, then Ra’s recent attack is awfully convenient, don’t you think?" Dinah took another bite of her banana before taking advantage of Diana’s silence to continue. "And if the other rumors about Batman - the ones that involve you - are true, then I just wanted to let you know that you're hardly the only meta whose crush on the Big Bad Bat was cut short because of his inability to trust."
"You. . .and Batman?" Diana hadn't expected that, and despite her best efforts, the tiny bit of shared history did make her feel a stronger kinship with this particular sister. It also made her wonder if she was truly doing all she should to get to know the sisters of this world. As various arguments with Shayera flashed through her memory, Diana was unable to come to any conclusion other than "no."
"Add an 'almost' to that sentence, and the answer would be yes."
"He really doesn't trust anyone, does he?"
Black Canary shrugged. "I don’t know about that. . . there are maybe three people in Gotham that he does trust. I really hope he isn’t planning on sleeping with them, though."
The conversation should have been longer, but three things interrupted it. First, the dining hall really wasn’t the place for details. Secondly, Diana had monitor duty in ten minutes. Thirdly, the minute that Green Arrow walked through the dining hall’s doors, Black Canary stood up to signal that she was going to join him. "Despite the many signals to the contrary, not all men are ‘deceiver fruit,’ Wonder Woman. There are a few grapes, tomatoes and bananas in the bunch and even a rare cranberry or two."
"Cranberries are real berries, then, I take it?"
Dinah flashed her a smile and a toss of golden hair. "Yeah. Though, admittedly, they don’t taste as good with chocolate as the fruit on your plate does."
As Dinah turned and walked over to Green Arrow’s table, Diana opened her still clenched fist, and the flash of red pulp made her think of the cape of the man she associated with this fruit. . . and it made her remember why she had sought this particular food in the mood she was currently experiencing. She had come to associate strawberries. . . and reliable comfort. . . not with the man who had betrayed them all, but with a man Diana could never fully believe capable of betrayal.
Clark Kent. That name was a lie, too, in many ways, and it served as proof that the two men were not that different. That man had been as upset as she was at Bruce's betrayal, but he was now comfortably enjoying the presence of his work associate. Lois Lane was a woman who defined the adopted world he loved so much - a world Diana was sure she would neither understand nor fit in.
Diana fought off a particularly strong bout of homesickness. She wanted to return to Themyscira where truth had been valued in a way it didn't seem to be here. There weren't all the technicalities, boundaries, or distinctions between types of truth.
A berry was truly a berry on Paradise Island.
But Amazons didn't run away from their problems. Instead, Diana merely wiped her hand clean of the remaining strawberry, and departed for the monitor room.
