Chapter 48
Kara blinked, her mind still foggy from being woken up by the erratic heartbeat just outside of her door. Alex’s words barely registered in her mind, and she shuffled out of the way to let the older woman through the door. “S’okay Krypto,” Kara mumbled, reassuring the large dog as he growled at the agent. Krypto stared up at Kara for a moment, before giving Alex a suspicious look and returning to his house on the balcony, keeping a wary eye on the visitor.
“Your dog hates me,” Alex deadpanned as she followed Kara over to the kitchen island.
“Krypto doesn’t hate anyone,” Kara replied, pulling a carton of ice cream out of her freezer. “He does get slightly suspicious of people though, so try to be nice to him.” She held the carton out to the redhead, “Ice cream? It helps with conversations and I think you mentioned something about talking.”
Alex nodded and Kara handed her a spoon, both of them digging into the frozen concoction. “So what did you want to talk about?” Kara asked, her mind more alert with the sugar flooding through her system.
The agent poked at the ice cream for a moment before setting her spoon to the side. “I did and I meant it, we do need to talk,” she said slowly, folding her hands together.
“Okay, talk about what?”
“Us.”
Kara’s brow rose, “I didn’t know there was an us.”
“There isn’t, not really, but I was hoping that maybe… that maybe that could change…”
“You said-”
“I know what I said,” Alex interrupted. “Believe me, I know what I said, it echoes on repeat through my brain constantly, and there isn’t… I truly regret what I said, I didn’t mean them.”
“Sounded like you did at the time,” Kara replied lowly, not looking up from the carton of ice cream.
Because I thought I did,” Alex admitted. “At the time anyway. I was just angry and frustrated and… and I felt cheated.”
“Cheated?”
Alex shrugged, “We had just really started to getting to know each other when I found out that we were married. You’re supposed to find out more about a person, date, fall in love and then get married, or any case, that’s what I always believed would happen. Finding out that we married and… Well, basically married and had a one-night-stand in Vegas, it just feels like we got cheated somehow.”
Kara studied the other woman for a few moments before reaching out and grabbing her hand. “Alex,” she said, drawing her attention. “Just because we’re married doesn’t mean that we still can’t have all of those things you wanted, dating, getting to know each other.”
“It’s not the same,” Alex insisted. “Say we start dating, we fall in love and want more from each other, I won’t be able to ask you to marry me because we’ll already be married.”
“You already did ask me, years ago,” the blonde replied, squeezing her hand. “Part of asking someone to marry you is understanding that you could be rejected, but Alex, I would never reject you.” She took a deep breath as she thought about what she was going to say, “Alex, we’re married, and for Kryptonians, marriage is sacred, literally until death do us part, there’s no going back for me, but truthfully I don’t want to.” Kara reached up and brushed her fingers along Alex’s cheek, cupping her face softly, “We could have something beautiful, something great, we both just have to try.”
“I want to try,” Alex replied, leaning into the hand. “I really, really want to try, but I’m afraid. I’ve never felt this way about anyone before, never this strongly.”
“You think I have? You’ve met two of my exs already and I didn’t feel for them what I feel for you right now,” Kara told her. “You’re intelligent, funny, and so, so beautiful and sometimes when I saw you before, even when you were dating Maggie, I didn’t know what to do with myself.”
Alex mentally cursed her body for betraying her as she felt heat instantly flood her cheeks and Kara’s words. She cleared her throat and shifted away from the blonde, trying to regain her composure. “So what are we going to do?” The agent asked, not looking at Kara.
Kara hummed and bit down on her lip to keep herself from squealing at how cute the auburn haired woman was. “Well,” she drawled out, “We could probably start by going on a date.”
“A date,” Alex blinked. “A date, right, yes a date, um dinner, will you go to dinner with me tomorrow night?” She looked over at the clock, “Well, tonight actually?”
“I’d love to,” Kara said, a bright smile on her face. “What time?”
“I’ll pick you up at eight, dress um… casual? Casual, should we do casual or something fancy? Maybe something fancy, casual is too-” Before Alex could continue her nervous rambling, a soft pair of lips pressed against her own quickly silenced her, swallowing the rest of her words. Kara’s lips were soft, softer than she remembered when she spontaneously kissed the blonde after her near suicidal mission delivering Fort Rozz to space. That kiss was hard and full of passion and fear, but this one, this one was soft and chaste, filled with promises and a future. They broke apart a few seconds later and Alex exhaled deeply through her nose, her eyes glazed. “Wow,” she murmured after a few moments before snapping her eyes open. “I don’t usually kiss before the second date.”
Kara gave the older woman a wry smile, “So since you kissed me after I flew Fort Rozz into space, what would you consider our first two dates?”
“I think we can chalk that up to me being terrified that you were going to die and feeling relief that you were okay in the end.”
“I think that we both can agree that the situation we’re in is unique so any rules about kissing before a certain period can be ignored.”
The agent nodded thoughtfully, “What about, you know, anything else…”
Kara softly brushed her fingers against Alex’s cheeks as she cupped her face, “Anything else that might happen will happen when we’re both ready for it, and not before, that’s how things have always worked for us. It’s been a bit chaotic at times, we’ve hit some walls, but it got us to where we are now, and that’s a really good place.”
“I don’t want us to move backwards anymore or even continue treading water in place,” Alex said, placing her hands over Kara’s and gently slipping them from her face. She ran her fingers along Kara’s palm, briefly massaging her hand, tracing designs with her fingertips. “I want... I do want there to be an us. It’s taken me a while to admit it, but I do, I don’t want to end up where we were.”
“We both have to try.” Kara tangled her fingers with Alex’s and squeezed her hands, “And no more secrets, except the fun ones.” A thoughtful look crossed the blonde’s face and her eyes glanced out towards the balcony. “Though the first thing you’re going to have to do is make nice with my dog.”
Alex groaned and looked over at the animal out on the balcony and found the dog staring at her suspiciously, just a pair of glowing eyes peering at her in a mass of black fur. “He hates me,” she deadpanned, looking back at the dog.
“Krypto doesn’t hate anyone, he’s just protective,” Kara replied, smiling at her oldest friend. “So we’ll go on a date tomorrow and you’ll work on making nice with my dog.”
“Hmmm, can’t wait…”
“We have the isotope,” Henshaw growled as Lillian pulled out the device and examined it under the light. “What do we do with it now?”
“All in due time Cyborg Superman,” Lillian smiled, setting the isotope aside. “And I do believe that my daughter will be helping us with our endeavor.”
“What makes you think that she will help us? You know that she is friends with that… that creature, she actually helps it.”
“She may have been temporarily swayed by the Kryptonian’s desire to help people she doesn’t see the real evil, that the alien is luling us into a false sense of security before more of them descend from the heavens and take our world.” Lillian smirked as she glanced from Henshaw to the corner where Corbin was standing waiting for orders, “I believe it’s time to arrange a meeting with my daughter, I’m sure once we actually talk she will come around to our way of thinking.”
Metallo nodded at the implied order and left the room to track down other Cadmus agents and plan the… meeting with the youngest Luthor. “We’re going to have to test the product before we go ahead with our big plans,” Henshaw commented when Corbin left the room. “If it is what we think it is, we need to make sure.”
“My son would never make a mistake like that, his files say he has it so he does,” Lillian snapped, her eyes flashing. “My precious boy just didn’t realize what he had, too caught up in his feud with Superman to fully understand the potential of what he had access to, but we do. We just need my daughter’s help to access it and we can begin to cleanse the world from the alien stain.” She walked over to one of the computer consoles and pulled up an image of The Maid of Might, Supergirl herself. “People are deceived by the blonde hair and pretty smile, not realizing that she is an alien lording herself above us, demanding that we worship her as a god. They will see though, they will know that I do this for the good of Earth when I liberate the world from her reign.”
A low groan emerged from Kara’s throat as sun filtered in through the curtains, falling across her bed in strips. She reached her arms up and stretched until she felt her back pop, a harder action for a kryptonian than a human. Sinking back down into the mattress, Kara relaxed for a few more minutes before her eyes popped open again. Her date with Alex was that night, their first date. She felt excitement flooding her body at the thought of a date with the auburn haired woman, and a squeal left her mouth as she floated off the bed, twirling gleefully in the air.
“I need to go talk to my mom,” she muttered, zipping around her apartment to get dressed and grabbing her suit as an afterthought. “Make some rounds around the city today Krypto,” Kara said, pouring food into his dish. “Be good, make lots of friends, be safe.” Krypto nodded his large, furry head and Kara scratched him behind his ears. “And try to make nice with Alex and some point,” she whispered to him. “I know she upset you with the way she’s treated me, but she is very important to me, both of you are, so try please, for me?”
Krypto chuffed and snuffled Kara’s face for a moment before returning to his food. He would have to think some more about his mistress’s new “friend” after he finished his food, maybe do some rounds around the city and spy on her a bit.
Kara could tell that her dog was plotting as he scarfed down his food but she was too excited about her date that night to truly worry about what he was planning. She spun into her suit and rocketed out of the building, speeding passed anyone that might see her. Banking around the city, she landed on the balcony at her mother’s penthouse and walked through the door into the living room, changing back into her normal clothes as she went. “Mom?” Kara called out, walking through the apartment. It was Carter’s week as his dad’s and she had spent part of the last few days on the phone with him as he complained about his dad’s new girlfriend, someone who looked “barely out of high school” he claimed.
She heard a thump coming from her mother’s bedroom, followed by a low groan and her brow furrowed. “Mom?” Padding softly back towards the master bedroom, Kara pushed the door open and her eyes widened. “Sweet Rao,” she gasped. “Mom, Aunt Astra?!”
“Kara?” Cat groaned, her eyes heavy and her head pounding. “Not so loud darling, everything is yelling and hot.”
“You’re both too loud and it is far too hot in here,” a voice groaned out from right above her head, causing Cat’s eyes to snap open.
The older blonde pushed herself up on her elbows, blinking her eyes as her vision swam in an attempt to clear out the fishes. “Astra?” She mumbled out, barely making out the brown hair and silver streak with her blurry vision as her eyes attempted to focus. Her vision cleared and her eyes widened as she realized where her head was laying not a moment ago, pressed against Astra’s naked breast. “Shit,” she quickly glanced down at herself and found she was in a similar state of undress and her eyes turned to where Kara was standing in the doorway, her back facing them. Cat could barely make out her daughter’s face but judging by the state of her flaming red ears, the girl was probably putting tomatoes to shame. “Astra wake up,” Cat demanded as she pulled the sheet up and tucked it under her arms.
Astra groaned again and her eyes snuck open before the air tickling at her breast registered in her mind. A string of kryptonian curse words fell out of her mouth and she wrenched the blanket up over her chest while shooting the woman in bed with her a confused and shocked look. “Kara you can turn around, we’re decent,” Cat sighed out, exasperated, her mind still muddled from the hangover she was experiencing.
Kara slowly peeked behind her and was relieved when she found both of them covered, not completely covered but covered enough to have a conversation. “Do I want to know what happened last night?”
“Nothing happened last night,” Cat stated, grabbing her head as it immediately started to pound. She did a mental catalogue, reviewing the blurred memory from the night before and her current state of undress to make sure that nothing happened. “Nothing happened,” she said again, looking up at Kara and glancing over at Astra. “Nothing happened.” The former general just groaned and flopped back down on the pillow, flinging an arm over her face. Cat resisted the urge to roll her eyes, knowing it would just make her headache worse, and waved Kara out of the room. “Just wait out in the living room, I’ll be there in a minute after I put my robe on and swallow a bottle of Advil.”
“Right, I’m uh, I’m gonna be out there,” Kara stuttered before rushing out of the room.
“Try to get a hold of yourself Astra,” Cat muttered as she clambered out of the bed. Fortunately she still had her underwear on if nothing else, and she moved to the bathroom to retrieve her robe and wash her face. “Kara sweetie,” the older blonde said as she walked out into the living room and found her daughter sitting on the couch staring blankly out the window. “Nothing happened between your aunt and I.”
“So what were you both doing in bed naked?” Kara asked, her face reddening slightly.
“Nearly naked,” Cat corrected. “We were talking last night, you know what I’m like when Carter is at his father’s, and we were drinking, probably more than we should have. One thing led to another and we ended up in bed, drinking some more, and it was hot so we took off our clothes and that’s the last I remember.”
Kara nodded and looked at her mother curiously, “Did you want something to happen?”
“What do you mean?”
“You and Astra have been close for a while, longer than I knew, but it’s been years. You’ve grown closer over the last few weeks she’s been living here everyone who knows has commented on it and I haven’t said anything but after what I saw, are you sure there’s nothing going on?”
Cat studied Kara for a minute before turning her gaze out over the city, her mind processing the younger blonde’s words. Was something going on between them? No, could something happen between them? Yes, but did she want something to happen? That was the one thing she wasn’t sure about, Astra was a beautiful woman, and she would be lying if she said she hadn’t thought about something happening between them. There were more things to think about than just the two of them though. “Would that bother you?” Cat asked slowly, turning to face her daughter again. “If something happened between your aunt and I, would you mind?”
“Honestly,” Kara replied, “No, though if you asked me a while ago, I probably would’ve had a different answer. Aunt Astra’s changed though, being here with you, especially with Non dead, it’s been good for her. She always was like a second mother to me, truthfully she understood me better than my mother ever could, and you two together…” Her voice trailed off for a moment as she took her mother’s hands, “But I want what’s best for both of you, I don’t want to push you together because it’s what I want or what you think I’ll want.”
“When have I ever done anything that I didn’t want to do?”
“Whenever you have board meetings or need to conduct interviews on the ‘walking white male privilege.’”
Cat rolled her eyes, “You know what I mean. I don’t know if something will happen. Your aunt is a beautiful, interesting, intelligent woman and I am interested, but you know I don’t take these things lightly, especially if it’s people already close to you and Carter.”
“Didn’t you always tell us to take risks,” Kara replied. “To go after what we want, to dive for it?”
“I knew my words were going to come back at me one day,” the older woman sighed, squeezing Kara’s hands. “Enough about me though, why did you come over? I didn’t hear the elevator so obviously you flew here, which you reserve for emergencies only.”
Biting her lip, Kara nearly vibrated off the couch with excitement. “Alex and I are going on a date tonight,” she blurted out, unable to hold it in any longer. “She came over last night, well early this morning, and we talked, really talked, we’re going to try to give it a go, date for a bit, see if there really is something here.”
“Kara, that’s wonderful,” Cat gasped, hugging the girl. “I know that you’ve been conflicted about what to do, how to deal with your feelings for her and how she’s treated you.”
“We talked about all of that, and we’re moving beyond it, mistakes were made on both sides,” Kara answered with a sigh. “I’m just really tired of wasting time Mom, I spent years floating in space, and then once I landed, time flew by in the blink of an eye, I want to spend as much time as I can with the people I love.”
“That I can understand,” Cat murmured. Kara scooted closer to the woman and laid her head on her shoulder, tucking her body into her mother’s smaller frame. “Do you know where she’s taking you? What you’re going to wear?”
“She’s picking me up at eight and I’m supposed to dress casual and that’s all I know.” Blue eyes turned sad and pleading as she started to pout, “I was hoping that my boss would let me out of work on time tonight so that I could get home, eat first dinner, and get ready.”
“Mhm, so that’s how it is,” the woman sighed, giving Kara the side eye. “And put those things away, they don’t work on me and you know it.” That was a lie, a humongous lie, Kara’s pout always worked on Cat, but she tried not to actively show it or else she would be caving to large, teary blue eyes for the rest of her life. She didn’t know what she would do if Kara ever had children, but she knew it would be along the lines of buying out a toy store at the sound of a sniffle. “I can probably let you out on time,” Cat finally sighed out like it was a huge imposition. “Only if you call me later and let me know how the date went.”
“Deal, bye Mom, I’ll see you in a couple of hours at work, you want me to bring in your usual or do you want that green smoothie thing?”
“Very funny, latte, hotter than the sun please,” the woman retorted, waving her daughter out of her apartment. The blonde blurred around and disappeared out of the window in a flash of red and blue, a gust of wind blowing back in her wake. Cat let out a sigh and closed her eyes, meditating for a few moments until she felt someone sit down on the couch next to her. Hazel green eyes snapped open and darted to her side and she found her house guest staring at her curiously. “How much of that did you hear?” She croaked out, trying to sound aloof.
“Enough,” Astra replied. “I may have lost my ability to hear everything in the city, but I can still manage the next room.” She struggled with what to say next, not use to displaying weakness in any form. “I am…” she started, “Unsure of the traditional courting rituals for this world, my niece has grown up here and is more comfortable but I’ve stayed distant of humans except for when I was observing you. Based on what I do know though, I’ve surmised from your conversation with Kara that you desire to court me?”
“We typically call it dating now,” Cat correct, an amused smirk crossing her face. “And it would be dating each other rather than one person doing the courting.”
“Yes, but that did not truly answer my inquiry.”
Resisting the urge to shift uncomfortably, Cat sighed again and pulled her legs up on the couch with her. “I have come to realize that I have… feelings, for you,” she said finally. “Feelings that I originally thought were just lust, since you are a very, very beautiful woman, but I’ve had dalliances that were purely driven by lust and that’s definitely not what I’m feeling here. And those were meaningless encounters, you’re family, I don’t want this to just be about relieving tension or scratching an itch.”
“Relationships, love, they were different on Krypton,” Astra started slowly. “I had an arranged marriage with Non, and it was one of mutual respect rather than love. My husband is dead now, though I don’t think I ever saw him as such, but I don’t know how to be in a relationship like people on earth, like one that you want.”
“I’m not going to push you into this Astra or force you to do something that your not comfortable with,” Cat told her. “I just want to know if you’re feeling the same things I’m feeling, if you’re interested. If you’re not, we’ll never speak of this again and you can continue staying here like none of this happened.”
“You are a strong, remarkable woman Cat Grant,” Astra said. “I have little doubt that the matricomp would have paired us together had we both been on Krypton. That said, I know little about relationships on Earth, but I am not opposed to learning, if you were to help me.”
Cat flashed back to the fantasy dreamworld that Kara created under the influence of the Black Mercy, to what she and Astra shared in that version of Krypton. “In the version of Krypton that Kara created, her ideal world, we were together,” she admitted, causing Astra’s eyes to widen. “We can go slow, it’s been a while since I’ve been in a relationship and you just got out of a rather permanent one and had most of your life altered, slow is probably best for us.”
Astra nodded and squeezed Cat’s hand, “I can do slow.”
Working late tonight, call me when you get done with your date. The text from Lena flashed across the screen and Kara briefly glanced at her phone, grabbing it just as another one came through. Unless the date ends in a sleepover, in that case call me tomorrow.
Kara rolled her eyes and shot her best friend a message, Very funny, I’ll call you later.
If you must, but you need to get laid at some point girl. She chose not to even bother answering that text and tossed her phone to the side while she continued to get ready for her date. Alex had told her to dress casual but that didn’t mean that she had to look like what she usually did when hanging out at home on the couch or over at her easel. Plucking a long sleeve, knee length dress out of her closet, Kara quickly tugged it over her head and pulled out a pair of leggings to wear under it. She debated for a moment between leaving her hair down or pulling it up, but decided to pull it back into a loose fishtail braid.
She was just finishing when she heard a knock on the door. “Be nice,” she muttered to Krypto as she walked over to open the door. “Hey,” Kara greeted when she saw Alex standing nervously on the other side of the door, her hands behind her as she shifted on her feet.
“Hey, hi,” Alex corrected. “Um, these are for you,” she said, handing Kara a bouquet of flowers, mainly lilies.
“Thanks, lilies are my favorite,” Kara replied, softly taking them out of Alex’s hands and placing them in a small vase in the kitchen.
“I um, I remembered you had a tattoo on your… Anyway, I figured that they were important.”
Kara froze for a moment as she poured water into the vase before completing her action. “So you’re starting to remember things,” she said casually despite the shaking in her hands.
“Some parts, the important parts.” The look exchanged between the two women was significant and full of heat and fire, before Alex looked away and cleared her throat nervously. “Anyway,” she started. “I was thinking we could just get some dinner and talk, there’s this hole in the wall place across the city that has unlimited fries and is open all night.”
“I thought I’ve managed to find all of the places in the city with unlimited anything,” Kara mused as she grabbed her purse and followed Alex out the door.
“It’s not new, but they started doing the unlimited fries thing recently, and the burgers are excellent.”
“Well you definitely know the way to my heart,” Kara teased and Alex’s chest nearly puffed out in pride at her words as she led the blonde towards her car. Kara let out a whistle as the agent opened the passenger door for her, “Is this a brand new Dodge Charger?”
“Yeah, just got it. Figured I needed something else other than my motorcycle and just driving DEO vehicles.”
“Sports car and motorcycle,” Kara hummed. “Can you get any more attractive?”
“Just get in the car Danvers,” Alex growled.
“You should take your own advice Danvers.”
Alex shut Kara’s door and walked around to her own, and quickly started the car and peeled away from the curb. “So I’ve never figured out how you change in your suit so fast,” Alex started, darting her eyes to her passenger. “Do you just wear it under your clothes?”
“That’s something my cousin does,” Kara rolled her eyes. “Pretty easy for men, but most of the clothes I wear it would be fairly obvious that I was wearing something else. I have several different suits, one I keep at home with me, one stashed at CatCo, one at LCorp, and then I have different pieces of another placed all over the city in case I’m not in any of the other places, though I keep the mask with me at all times.”
“Why just the mask?”
“Lena specifically made it for me, to alter how I look as Supergirl, there’s only one. The fabric of my suit was easy to replicate but the mask was not.”
“God, the tech Luthor must work with all the time,” Alex whistled, “What I wouldn’t give to be able to have access to some of that stuff.”
“If you play nice with my best friend, maybe she’ll let you use her private lab,” Kara winked and Alex nearly had a heart attack as she pulled into a spot near their destination. The redhead quickly ushered the blonde out of the car and into the small diner, choosing a booth close to the front but away from the window.
“So how did you and Luthor meet?” Alex asked once they placed their order, her own modest one verses Kara’s request for two half-pound burgers and never ending fry basket. “I mean, you have to admit it is a little weird that you two are best friends considering…”
“Considering her family?” Kara finished. “I didn’t know who her family was when I first met her, we went to school together, and she went under a different name, though most everyone knew. Since I was new to Earth, I didn’t- stuff like that didn’t really matter. She told me eventually though but it didn’t matter to me, like when she found out that I was an alien, it didn’t matter to her, we were family at that point. She basically spent most of the holiday breaks other than summer with me, Cat and Carter. I was there for her when Lex had his meltdown in Metropolis, and when she inherited Luthor Corp despite still being in college.”
“And you’re the reason why she moved her company here?”
Kara shrugged, “I think she just wanted to be around people that loved her, considering some of the nasty comments I heard about her in Metropolis, I can’t really blame her.” She paused for a moment as she sipped at her water before motioning at Alex, “What about you, I know some stuff from when you were dating Maggie, but there must be more to Alexandra Danvers.”
The waiter returned and Alex popped a hot fry in her mouth, relishing the unusual mix of spices used to flavor the food. “What would you like to know?” She asked, biting into another fry.
“Anything you’re willing to tell me.”
The two talked, not the heavy conversations that had been plaguing them, but talked like two people wanting to know more about each other. They ignored the fact that they already knew the darkest things about each other and what was kept secret, and focused more on innocent stories from the past and their families. Without either of them noticing, an several hours had passed as they talked and demolished their food, Kara easily working her way through her third basket of fries. “Wait, so you ended up being thrust out of the closet when your mom found your fooling around on your bed with your best friend?” Kara gasped out, trying to hold in the laughter and tears flooding down her cheeks.
“It wasn’t funny,” Alex groaned. “I couldn’t look at my mother for two weeks. I thought she would be mad, but all she said was she was glad I figured things out and to keep the door opened when Vicky came to visit. I was mortified.”
Kara shook her head and wiped away her tears, “I never really thought about it. It wasn’t unheard of on Krypton, and you know Cat, she’s not one to be closed minded, except for about poor fashion choices and grammar rules.”
“I’m not going to lie, your mom terrifies me.”
“Might be a shorter list to talk about who isn’t afraid of her,” Kara chuckled. “Speaking of, I probably should get home, I do have work tomorrow.”
“Don’t worry about it, I’ve got to be up early and hit the gym, not all of us can be blessed with your metabolism,” Alex replied. She left money on the table and escorted Kara out to her car.
The blonde was about to say something else when something caught her attention, or more like the lack of something. “Wait,” Kara said, gripping Alex’s arm. “I don’t hear it.”
“Hear what?”
Dread filled Kara as she glanced at Alex, “Lena’s heartbeat.”