The Talk
Minute 7927
It takes 2 and a half days before Astra gets what she wants. His name, according to the badge on his shirt, is Agent Sterling. Ironic really, he certainly does not look like a sterling soldier. He looks frightened, it is so obvious. Poor unfortunate soul.
“Agent Sterling.” Her voice is smooth, like a lioness moving fluidly through the brush. He jumps slightly at her voice. The tray in his hands shakes.
“Do come closer.” He stumbles forward, like a newborn zebra colt on unsteady legs. She’s pulling him closer and closer. Her voice is mesmerizing. She lets just a fraction of her Kryptonian accent slip through. She has him right where she wants him.
“Get me niece for me, will you?” She moves forward with the speed just south of superhuman and slaps her hand against the glass wall. He whimpers and trips over his own feet in an attempt to escape her cell. He leaves her food forgotten across the floor. She laughs as he leaves. Seriously, that’s who they send to check on her?
Moments later Kara is standing in front of her with her arms crossed and a stern look on her face. She looks at the floor and sees the food strewn about.
“What did you do to Sterling?” Her tone is accusatory. Astra can tell that her niece does not fully trust her just yet. It hurts but she supposes that it is justified. A decade of being raised by humans can really put a wrinkle in the whole bonded by blood thing.
“I merely asked him to get you. I wanted to speak with you and it was the only way I figured you would come. I am also offended that he is the one your people send in to check on me. He hardly looks old enough to have felt the warmth of a woman. He is not ready to be put on a prisoner detail, even if it is just bringing me food. You may want to tell that director of yours to train his soldiers better.”
“This is what you wanted? To talk to me about training younger agents? I do have a life you know and it is rather busy, Aunt Astra.” Her niece huffs. She still has not managed to curb that habit.
“No. I wished to speak with you about Agent Danvers.”
“Me? What about me?” Both Kryptonians turn to look at Alex who is holstering her gun.
“What are you doing here, Alex?” Yes, Alex why are you here Astra wonders.
“Sterling near pissed his pants earlier. I wanted to make sure everything was cool here.” Kara accepts the answer. Astra, however, does not. She files away this lie and puts it with the one from a few nights ago. Interesting.
“So, Aunt Astra. What did you want to talk about?”
“I wanted to let you know that it’s okay. You and Agent Danvers. I’ve seen the looks, the touches. The smiles.”
“I-we—“ Alex told her not to divulge anything to Astra just yet.
“It is alright Little One. I suppose if your love has to be human, the Brave One is a good match for you. She certainly is better than the other humans I have interacted with. She is good for you.”
“What—me? And Alex? My love?” Kara moves her hands in front of her body as if she could pull the words she wants to say out of thin air. Alex is stunned quiet.
Astra turns her head to stare down Alex.
“Agent Danvers, if you so much as make My Little One cry, there is not enough Kryptonite on Earth that can stop me from bringing down my wrath upon your head.”
“Astra, we are not—” The General cuts her off with a wave of her hand. She is not currently interested in calming platitudes of “no I will never hurt her. I would die before—” seriously, humans are so tiring. She turns back to Kara.
“I notice that you two do not share the wedding bracelets of our people. You have not been wed yet. Have you started the rituals with her?”
“Rituals? What—Aunt Astra?” Kara looks helplessly toward Alex who is standing dumbfounded. She is not used to being interrupted.
“Kryptonians have many rituals when it comes to love. A carved love-spoon so that she may never know hunger. A pair of gloves, so that she may always feel warmth. A mark above her heart so that she may always know of your love and affection. Have you submitted her to the intellectual game of Shesur to see if she stands on par with you mentally? I am sure she would do well. And of course, Kara, there is the matter of the sex—“
Kara turns the color of her cape and her mouth opens and closes like a fish out of water.
Astra watches was brown eyes widen in horror.
“She’s MY BABY SISTER!”
The room falls quiet. The only sounds are the harsh breaths following Alex’s outburst. Kara looks at her sister with wide eyes. So much for not telling Astra.
“Sister? You do not have a sister, Kara. Alura never gave birth to another. This woman is of no relation to you.”
“Look, lady. You don’t get to decide—“
“Alex.” She shakes her head and then turns back to her aunt.
“She is my foster sister. Her family took me in when I landed here.”
“But the looks. The touches. That is not how sisters—that is not how Alura and I looked at each other.”
She is confused. Sisters do not act like that. They do not have secret looks and smiles. She and Alura certainly never did. They looked at each other only with respect, well, she typically looked at her sister with resentment. Astra was the outcast. The youngest twin, the one that was not supposed to have been born. She was the mistake, and her mother and father made sure she never forgot that. She has never looked at her sister with the amount of love and affection that Kara looks at Alex with.
“Aunt Astra.” Kara reaches out to touch the glass. She wants nothing more than to hug her Aunt. Mentions of Alura still haunt the both of them. Astra sees her every time she looks in the mirror, and Kara sees her every time she looks at her Aunt. Having an identical twin is a curse.
“So you and the Brave One—“
Alex is already shaking her head.
“Are just sisters. I do love her, just not in the way that you think. She protects me and I protect her. She would do anything to make me happy—even if that meant making hot chocolate for a prisoner.” Astra whips her eyes up to look into those of her niece.
“You know of our encounter?”
“How could I not? She came out of here with a crushed cup in her hand and her jaw set in such a way I thought for sure she would turn her molars to dust. I didn’t catch up with her until she was in the gym on the other side of the complex hitting the punching bag with such a force that it fell off of its hook. We talked after that.” Astra can see the worry in Kara’s eyes.
“I told you, General. Don’t speak of what you do not understand.” The smile in her voice is not lost on Astra.
“I was sure that you two were lovers. I was ready to give my blessing.”
“Yeah, complete with the threatening ‘you hurt her, I hurt you’ speech, and the sex talk to boot.” Kara snorts at Alex’s tone and playfully shoves her.
“Stop teasing, Alex. It’s an honest mistake. You remember when you guys first brought me in and Vasquez thought that we were dating because we hugged for a super long time and told us to get a room?”
“Yeah.” She sighs. “Such a funny night.”
Astra watches on in silence as the two sisters interact. She wonders if she and Alura could have ever had a relationship like that.
“Aunt Astra?” She looks over at her niece. She looks smaller now with her gaze fixed on the floor and her hands playing with her cape. She looks very much like the little girl on Krypton.
“Yes?”
“The, um. The courtship rituals. Do they work? I mean, did they work for you and Uncle Non?” Astra thanks Rao for being in Kara’s life for the first 13 years of it. It is the only reason she can understand the quiet mumbles.
“Yes, Kara, they did work. But you have to know that the man I married was not the same man that you fought against. I need you to know that.”
Kara nods. “I’m sorry. For Non, I mean.” Alex is squeezing Kara’s shoulder.
Astra shakes her head. “We will talk about that another time. I assume you are asking of our courtship rituals because there is a man in your life. Or perhaps a woman?” Alex is now watching her sister like a hawk. She hasn’t mention anything to her about dating anyone. Last she heard, James was still hurt over Lucy and really only saw Kara as a friend.
“Cat.” Astra barely catches the exhaled answer. What do felines have to do with this? She opens her mouth to ask but Kara continues to speak.
“Her name is Cat. Catherine, really, but everyone knows her by Cat.”
“CAT GRANT?!” Astra raises her brows at the sudden outburst. Surely this Cat person cannot be all that bad if her niece is smitten with her.
“Really Kara? She’s your boss. She’s the Queen of All Media. She’ll out you the second she knows that you’re Supergirl.”
Astra cuts in.
“I thought that your boss was the Martian that thinks he is fooling everyone with his grumpy human form. I am sure that he is not a woman.”
“Oh, Hank? Well he’s sort of my boss here at the DEO but that not who I mean. My human job. I’m Cat’s assistant.” She’s fiddling with her cape again.
“Love knows no bounds, Kara. Your cousin is a testament of that, he fell in love with a human did he not?”
She watches as Kara nods and bites her lip.
“Cat already knows. About me I mean.” Astra watches was the tendon in Alex’s neck flexes.
“You’re killing me, Kara.”
“Well she’s known for a while now and she hasn’t done anything. I just, Alex” she looks to her sister then to her aunt. “Aunt Astra, I think she might be you know…the one for me.” Her little girl looks so small.
“I believe the saying is you are teakettle over heels in love with her.” Alex can’t hold in her laughter. Astra thinks she could listen to it all day. Yet another thing she will never admit. Her niece is laughing as well. She’s at least succeeded in cheering up her Little One, even if it is at her own expense.
“I-it’s head over heels and ass over teakettle.” Alex is slightly out of breath from laughter. Her eyes are alight with amusement and her face slightly flushed. She is a completely different person than she was two night ago. She reminds herself that much like General Astra In-Ze and Aunt Astra are two different people; Agent Danvers and Alex are different as well. She turns back to her niece and tears her gaze away from Agent Danvers. Yes, Agent Danvers. Agent Danvers. Agent Danvers. She repeats it over and over. The woman is Agent Danvers, not Alex, never Alex. Not to her. Not yet.
No. Not at all.
She goes to war with her mind. Kara’s voice finally cuts through.
“I just don’t know what to do, you guys.” Astra feels a stab of jealousy as Kara leans into Alex’s arms. She has not felt this emotion since Alura was chosen over her to have a child.
“You really love her, don’t you, kiddo?” Ale—gent Danvers is full of surprises. She is soft with Kara, yet ruthless in battle. She is playful yet tactile. She is loving yet slow to trust others. She is a contradiction. They are much more alike than Astra wants to admit.
The moment is broken by the ringing of Kara’s phone. By the looks of the small smile she wears, Cat Grant is in need of her assistance. She leaves the two brunettes in the room.
“When I get out of here, Agent, I am going to have words with this Feline Queen.”
“Yeah, get in line, General. I have dibs.” Dibs? What are dibs?
“It that contagious?” She is treated to another round of laughter. Maybe spending time in this prison will not be so bad. At least the company is tolerable.