Chapter 9
Donna woke up to another splitting headache. The sun was shining through the window of her room, and it was blinding to her half-closed eyes. Groaning, she turned away from the window, and fumbled for her alarm clock.
Jesus, what time is it?
After a few failed attempts, she finally succeeded in grasping the small electronic box with her fingers, and pulled the screen closer to her to see.
10:26 am.
Fuck.
Dropping her alarm clock back on the table, she took a moment to rub her eyes, trying to clear her vision.
And then she realized she had a really bad taste in her mouth, nearly 100% bitterness.
I didn’t brush my teeth at all yesterday, did I?
Did I even shower yesterday?
Slapping a hand to her face in pure exasperation, Donna threw the covers off, and rolled off the bed, landing on the floor with a thud. Then, she pulled herself across the floor on her stomach, since she really couldn’t be bothered to pull herself to her feet and walk down the hall to the bathroom like a normal person.
All my Amazon training for me to reach THIS level of physical potential, she thought sarcastically.
She stopped in front of her dresser, and pulled herself up, rummaging through her neatly stacked piles of clothes for a fresh set to change into.
Her unusual lack of delicacy for someone who hadn’t been to the bathroom in nearly a full day was messing up the organisation of her clothes in the drawers, but her mind was still too hazy for her to care.
Taking her track pants, undergarments and the dark green t-shirt that was hanging over her chair for some reason -- hey, it smelled clean to her-- she slowly pushed her door open a creak, and took a quick glance up and down the hallway. No one there.
Slowly, she tiptoed to the bathroom, and the moment she reached it, she quickly darted in and shut the door behind her.
Dawn took the last of her clothes and put them into the drawer, closing it with a satisfying click. After her breakup with Hank the night before, it was pretty obvious that they weren’t going to be sharing a room anymore, so Hank had volunteered to find another room, but she told him to stay put-- she’d have her things moved to her new room within half an hour.
Once she had brought the last of her things to another room, however, she found herself processing everything at once-- the breakup, her newly discovered feelings and all the stress she had experienced when Donna overdosed, and it was overwhelming her with a lot of different emotions, some that she couldn’t even identify.
So she just crashed onto her bed and fell asleep, deciding to complete the moving process in the morning-- which she had just finished.
She pulled out her phone, and checked the time.
10:06 am.
Took me long enough.
Then, her eyes flicked to the doorway of her room, as she remembered the next thing on her list of priorities.
I wonder if she’s awake yet?
As she walked down the hallway, she could see that the door to Donna’s room was wide open. She quickly peeked her head in. “Donna?”
The room was empty.
Dawn sighed. Where could she be?
She was about to continue her search when it hit her-- she had never actually seen Donna’s room before.
Well, she technically had been in there before, but she hadn’t really paid attention to any details of the interior, since the only time she was in there before was when--
Fuck.
Fuck, it was all coming back to her now. How she had found Donna motionless on the bed, the pure horror that rushed through her body when she couldn’t wake her up. In that moment, it felt as though her world was about to implode, and that nothing would ever be okay again...
It took Dawn a few moments to realize how close she was to hyperventilating, as she put a hand on her chest, gasping for breath as she leaned against the doorway, trying to steady her breathing. She closed her eyes and counted to 10.
Thankfully, she felt herself calming down by 9.
Straightening back up, she quickly looked back out into the hallway, making sure no one was around, and then stepped in.
The abstract shelves that flanked the doorway were pretty much identical to the ones in the other bedrooms, but Dawn quickly spotted the small stacks of classic literature books, which she could identify with the author’s names on the sides -- George Orwell, Emily Brontë, Frida Kahlo among them.
These books sat on alternating layers with tall wax candles and some unusually shaped vases. On the wall opposite the bed, there was a large abstract painting on the wall, adding a splash of light blue, white and grey to the wooden and dark colors of the interior.
The second most beautiful thing Dawn’s ever seen in this room.
And there was that smell that filled the room, which Dawn took a moment to breathe in deeply, feeling a smile come over her face as she did so.
It was a mixture of scents-- pine trees, lemongrass and a hint of some kind of fruit-- the citrus kind, maybe? Perhaps the scents were remnants of all those years Donna spent on Themyscira?
Whatever it was, Dawn immediately recognized it as the tropical smell that emitted off her Amazon friend, the one she could detect whenever she hugged her, or just stood close enough.
The smell that she would breathe in 24/7 if she could.
Dawn walked out of the room, and looked around.
Where could she be?
Donna let out deep breaths of satisfaction as she let the cold water pour over her.
I’ll never take a cold shower for granted again.
The water felt like pure healing energy that enveloped every part of her body.
After her shower, she slowly pulled on her clothes-- starting with her underwear and sweatpants. She slowly shrugged on her bra and clipped it together behind her. Next was her shirt--
Wait.
Where was her shirt?
The counter next to the sink had no more clothes on it. She looked around the bathroom for anywhere it might have dropped. Under the sink, next to the shower stall…
And then it hit her. She let out an exasperated sigh.
I dropped it outside, didn’t I?
Donna felt her arms cross over her chest in uncertainty-- she wasn’t sure if she wanted to walk out of the bathroom without a shirt on to begin with.
But maybe if she was quick enough, no one would see her.
Dawn walked back out of the hallway and took a quick glance around the lounge. No one there.
Then, her eyes caught a piece of dark green clothing on the floor. Curious, she walked over to it and picked it up.
It was a t-shirt. But whose was it?
Wait. Is this--?
Dawn put her face to the shirt and inhaled its scent.
The familiar tropical smell that emitted from the shirt made her heartbeat quicken.
It’s Donna’s shirt.
She stared at the shirt for another moment, before breathing into the fabric again and letting the smell intoxicate her. Then, she hugged the shirt to her chest, clinging onto it as if it was the Holy Grail of clothes, or akin to how a desperate drowning sailor at sea would cling onto a flotation ring they stumbled onto.
This was like finding a lucky penny on the street, but infinitely better.
Still, Dawn couldn’t help but wonder what this shirt was doing out here, randomly lying on the floor.
Just then, her ears picked up the sound of flowing water, coming from the bathroom. She looked in the direction of the bathroom, and traced the path back to Donna’s bedroom with her eyes.
And then it hit her.
Donna had gone to shower, and this was the shirt she was gonna wear. But if it’s out here, then--
Without a second thought, Dawn quickly hurried to the bathroom, clutching Donna’s shirt in her hands.
She stopped in front of the door. The sound of rushing water was gone. Quickly, she raised a hand to knock on the door--
--only for it to swing wide open, revealing Donna standing there shirtless.
It took a moment for both of them to register who they were seeing.
Then both sets of eyes widened at the sight of each other.
Dawn’s mind was glitching and fizzing out on her. She stumbled backwards a bit, trying to keep herself from passing out on the spot.
There Donna was, standing in the doorway of the bathroom, about 4 inches away from her, an open-mouthed expression of shock on her face, a black bra covering her chest, but nothing else from the waist up.
It took Dawn about 10 seconds to realize she wasn’t keeping eye contact with Donna, since her gaze was fixated somewhere else.
Eyes up THERE, dammit...
She quickly looked back up into Donna’s eyes, giving her a nervous smile as she held out her shirt.
“Uhhh… I found this on the floor. Think it’s yours.”
Donna pursed her lips shut. Dawn saw the Amazon’s eyes dart to either side of her, and then back to her. Her mouth opened and closed, but no words came out until 3 seconds later.
“O-oh. Thanks, y-yeah...”
She slowly took the shirt from Dawn’s hand, and pressed it over her chest.
They continued to stare at each other.
A wave of guilt started to wash over Dawn, as she realized how exposed Donna must feel now-- holding her shirt over her chest, eyes shying away from her gaze, and here she was, doing nothing but staring at her.
She needed to end this interaction before it got more awkward.
Without another word, she reached past Donna into the bathroom, found the handle of the door, and started to slowly pull it back towards the doorway. Donna immediately recognised this as an indication to step back and avoid getting hit by the door, as Dawn hoped, but as the brunette inched backwards, the hand on the doorknob made brief contact with her bare shoulder, brushing across her smooth skin.
A squeal echoed into the hallway. Dawn didn’t know whether that was her, Donna, or both of them at once. She didn’t stay to find out.
The door closed with a slap, and she quickly hurried away.
Her heart racing, Donna slid down the door and collapsed to the floor of the bathroom.
Her mind couldn’t even comprehend what had happened.
Dawn just saw her shirtless.
Wow.
Why did her timing have to be that bad? Or… that good?
She reached a shaking hand up to where Dawn’s hand had touched her, right there on her bare shoulder.
The warmth hadn’t left that spot.
Did she actually squeal when Dawn touched her?
Fuck, did she hear it?
Donna had never felt so embarrassed and elated at the same time.
It was incredible, how Dawn’s gaze was always filled with so much gentleness and love that it made her melt inside, even in the nerve-wracking circumstances of her seeing Donna without a shirt on.
Standing back up, she looked at herself in the mirror and slowly put her shirt on. Then, she sighed with regret, thinking back to that moment one minute ago.
I should’ve taken something else off instead.