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quotidian-oblivion · 1 year

Note

Congratulations on your 100s! That is super awesome!

Since you asked for a prompt, I've got a fluffy and a whumpy idea, but ofc don't feel obligated to do either:

Whumpy: Someone Dangerous discovers that 9yo Timmy knows who Batman is...

Fluffy: Damian collecting a series of increasingly non-domesticated animals and naming them after his siblings. When asked, he gives an embarrassing reason (the turtle is called Drake bc he moves at the same speed Drake's neurons fire), but the internal monologue reveals something really sweet (turtles are slow and careful, reflecting Tim's strategic nature)

Congratulations again, and have fun writing whatever drabble you choose!

Me, munching on an easter bunny chocolate at 3:04 am in the morning and reading this: *whisper-squeals* Thank you *voice cracks*

This is honestly one of the best day (night) of my life??? Not only a 100 followers on Tumblr and Ao3, but an ask from sardonic-sprite? LORD have mercy on me because I'm about to melt.

I love the prompts so much!!! I think I might do both since it's just gonna be drabbles and I don't need to go too deep (bcuz honestly, I'm exhausted from the last ten nights of Ramadan where some Muslims stay up all night). So... Imma just post it here then post them both on ao3 when possible.

Thank you so mcuh sprite 🥲 I appreciate it.

WHUMPY:

Pluviophile

Tim hated the rain.

The wet clothes, the soggy socks, the squelch of the shoes, the water showering from the sky and barging into people’s lives; an uninvited guest. Not to mention the increased risk of pneumonia and hypothermia for someone who didn’t have an umbrella or a warm(er) jacket. He really should have been more prepared.

But his camera bag was torn from last night’s mishap with the drunk muggers and he really wanted to go out tonight because Nightwing was coming to Gotham after three months and he and Robin always got up to the best of shenanigans when together. He had nearly half a wall filled with printed pictures of their endless pranks, most of them on Batman himself.

Looking at the pictures, it wasn’t hard to imagine that Batman was secretly a softie. That Bruce Wayne was secretly a softie.

Tim sighed and tugged the not-thick-enough jacket closer around himself, leaning back on the fire escape rails and gathering the motivation to get up and leave the snug, rare dry spot under the roof to go catch his bus. It was time to call it a night, but Tim didn’t want to leave.

Rain loudly splattered onto every surface, sounding like a million bins dancing to a jig.

“Should you be out here?” a voice called from below.

Tim startled, but kept still. He had plenty of experience being silent and invisible. Maybe the man below was speaking to someone else?

“I am addressing you, child.”

Maybe there was another child?

“We’re the only two people here. Everyone else is fast asleep.”

Tim gulped and didn’t move, he squeezed his eyes shut.

“Very well.”

There was silence. It stretched out for several minutes, only the sound of thudding rain echoing in the alley. Tim stopped counting at 560. He finally released a long shaky breath and opened his eyes, only for thunder to boom and lightning to strike, showing a large man sitting right in front of him.

Tim gasped, but his breath got caught in his throat, so a squeak came out instead.

The man grinned, his bushy black beard parting way to a scary smile. Two scratch scars on his face scrunched up as his eyes crinkled in a smile. “Hello,” he said, clearly audible over the storm.

Tim gulped.

“I won’t hurt you if you take a moment to listen to me.”

Tim’s hands started shaking.

“I’ll take that as a yes then.” The man shifted, sitting in a criss-cross position on the fire escape and taking up most of the space, leaving only a few inches gap between the two of them. His dripping coat released water, spreading the puddle enough to touch Tim’s legs. Tim pushed himself further into the fire escape rails.

“My name is Vandal Savage,” began the man in a deep, calm voice. “And I have come to seek help from you.”

Me? Tim wanted to ask, but his throat was still clogged up.

“I came upon a source that said that you were a rare bright child. An interesting and possibly dangerous specimen.”

I’m not an animal for you to bid, Tim wanted to retort, but his voice failed him once again.

“I’m sure you’re busy, so I’ll keep this brief.” Vandal Savage leaned forward. “Is it true? That you know who the Batman is?”

An unexpected sound pulled itself up his throat, resembling something between a squeak and a growl. Tim winced.

Vandal Savage eyed his face, then his body, scrutinizing his body language. Tim shifted uncomfortably. “Come with me,” he then suddenly said.

Tim stilled once more. But this time, his throat finally started doing its job. Tim swallowed and hoarsely sounded out a very confused, “What?”

“Come with me,” Vandal Savage repeated.

His breathing was morphing into short bursts of undiluted panic. “Wh— Why— What if I say no?”

Vandal Savage tilted his head. Then he smiled.

Chills crawled up and down Tim’s spine and he knew that he was doomed.

Savage did not say anything else, he stood up and jumped down the fire escape, landing on the ground with a soft ‘squelch’. He took one last glance at Tim before walking away.

Tim sat unmoving for a few seconds, catching up on his breath.

He wasn’t going to follow him. No way. That was crazy. He was going to go home. Mhm, he was going to go home and huddle up in his cozy bed, plop some headphones on and blare music loud enough to keep the memory away. Savage didn’t say that he was going to hurt him if Tim refused, so it should be safe enough. He wasn’t going to follow Savage. He wasn’t.

Tim took a deep breath and picked up his camera, shoving it into his bag. Curse this whole night. Couldn’t he have waited until tomorrow to take some pictures? It wasn’t like Nightwing was going to leave after just a day. He wasn’t his parents.

He hoisted his bag on his shoulders and climbed down from the fire escape. He looked down at the ground, ignoring the rain and the chills still running down his spine, when he collided with a fully solid surface. He looked up to see Savage, smiling down at him. A Cheshire cat smile. Except without the teeth.

Savage did not grab his wrist to pull him towards where he wanted to go. He just turned and walked.

Tim was not following him. He was not.

His steps fell behind Savage, squelching through the gray, dirty Gotham rain.

Suddenly, a flash of red and yellow got caught in Tim’s peripheral vision. He stopped walking. So did Savage.

Robin and Nightwing were talking animatedly with each other on just the next roof. Batman was nowhere to be seen.

Tim stared at them, mentally urging them to turn around, look here, please! But they never did. He didn’t know if Savage would hurt him if he yelled or tried to get their attention. He could, however, kick the empty can in front of him.

Trying to be as casual as possible, he brought his foot slightly backwards and punted the Pepsi can, making it crash against the fire hydrant at the side.

Thunder just then decided to clap against the sky. Lightning followed suit and Robin and Nightwing disappeared. The can came to a stop.

“I love the rain,” Savage said, smiling at the sky. “I’m a pluviophile. It’s so peaceful, isn’t it?” He turned to Tim.

Tim felt his bones seize with dread and he looked down, resigned.

“Come,” Savage prompted, stalking forward, his feet barely making any noise.

Tim followed, his shoes filling up with water and soaking his socks. He didn’t know where he was being led, but at least he could enjoy his home city one last time.

FLUFFY:

Regarding The Workings Of A Zoo

“What. The fuck.”

“Tt. I knew I had accurately named my turtle.” Damian threw some more turtle feed into the pond. “Drake is a most excellent turtle. Much unlike his predecessor.”

Tim turned to Dick. “Are you seeing this?”

Dick rubbed the back of his neck. “Seeing what?”

“Damian replaced me with a turtle.”

“It’s not my fault that his movements fire faster than your neurons, Drake.”

Dick gave an insecure smile. Tim glared at him and folded his arms.

“What about the chicken?” Steph asked, popping another grape into her mouth from the large bowl she was holding.

“Her name is Todd.”

Dick’s snort quickly turned into a cough.

Jason looked up from the frog. “Excuse me?”

“You’re excused,” Damian simply said, patting Drake the turtle’s head as it neared him.

“What’s the frog then?” Jason frowned.

“Brown.”

Steph choked on a grape. Tim thumped her back. “Now that’s mean,” she said once she stopped coughing.

Damian shrugged.

“Who am I then?” Dick asked, sounding curious but hesitant at the same time.

Damian looked at him straight in the eye and declared, “Meerkat.”

The four of them bulged their eyes at him.

“And where is it?” Dick questioned.

“He’s on his way. I needed time to prepare a room for his mob.”

“What are we, a zoo?” Tim scrunched his nose.

“Tt.” Damian rolled his eyes, closing the turtle pellet jar. “I must take my leave now. I have school. Do not touch my pets while I am away.”

They watched as he walked away haughtily, nose stuck up in the air.

“Tell me why Bruce allowed him to have pets again?” Tim voiced out loud.

“He survived a League attack without killing anyone. It’s actually a pretty big achievement,” Dick replied.

Jason groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. “This family is fucked up in so many ways.”

Steph kicked him in the shin. “You’re one to talk.”

------------------------------------------

Dear Mother,

I am required to write this letter to you as part of my school assignment, but not post it. It should be handed back to my so-called “teacher” at the end. I did not originally have a topic, but after much deliberation with Father, I finally settled upon writing about my new pets.

This isn’t meant to be shown to anyone, so if someone reveals this information, they will be found by GCPD in a street corner as a cold corpse at precisely midnight there will be consequences.

Firstly, I have Drake the turtle. He is a very nice and gentle creature with eyes that constantly smile though they are dark. I’ve named him Drake because he is slow and careful, much like the real Drake’s strategic nature. Drake the turtle at first did not like me when I neared him at the beach. However, once I showed myself as a friend and proceeded to help him with the plastic bag around his shell, he did not like leaving my side.

Secondly, I have Todd the chicken. From the times I have seen him at the manor and the rare occasions I go to his safehouse when injured, I have observed him constantly worrying and fretting about the tiniest thing. He worries whether someone has eaten, or drunk water, or has a scratch, or even a paper cut. Grayson once described him as a “mother hen”. And Todd the chicken, when I saw her, she was fretting over her chick who was rejecting a worm. Immediately, I made the connection.

Then, there is Brown the frog. I told her that I named him Brown because he was as ugly as her, but that was not the truth. Once during our other school assignments, I discovered that frogs symbolize rebirth. Brown truly made up her own identity, by herself, might I add. I… I still struggle with my past, Mother. I am ashamed to admit but…

In any case, Brown has gotten over that obstacle. I wish she would teach me how. Brown the frog on the other hand, is extremely bubbly and never stays still. It was accurate of me to name him after Brown.

Finally, there is Grayson the meerkat. Grayson is confused, he does not know if it is an insult or a compliment. He does not know that meerkats have one in their mob look out for danger, constantly keeping the others safe. I’ve seen Grayson scan an environment like the arcade before letting me roam free. He is worried, and does not know how else to show. I am hoping he will learn to calm down once in a while. Like Grayson the meerkat who always joins in to play with his mob no matter what.

I know you are not very fond of pets, Mother. But I still think about Noora, the bird you once gifted me during my stay at Nanda Parbat as a child. I am thinking of getting another bird, but… I am not so sure. I feel worried that I might lose it if I get another bird. Much like how I lost Noora to Grandfather. I hope you are keeping her grave clean as I am not there to do so myself.

I appreciate everything you’ve done for me, Mother. Including bringing me to Father’s family. His whole family.

Kind Regards,

Damian

These were supposed to be drabbles. Not around a thousand words long! In any case, it's 6AM and my eyes are burning. I got a little too into things and, uh, yeah finished both of these in one sitting.

Thanks so much for the prompts again, Sprite! I loved them!

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saiilorstars · 8 months

Text

Ch.11: Bitter and Sweet

Story Masterlist ◦ Anais’ Masterlist ◦

Also on: Fanfic • Ao3

Pairing: Winn Schott x OFC

Taglist: @ocappreciationtag @arrthurpendragon @anotherunreadblog @maaaaarveeeeel @stareyedplanet @foxesandmagic @kmc1989

If you’d like to be a part of this OC’s work/edits, let me know!

James gave a light knock on Anais' office door and stepped inside, wearing a bigger smile than usual. Of course, ever since he put Snapper in his place - leaving both men to their respective job roles - who wouldn't be happy?

"What can I do for you Mr. Boss?" Anais pushed her chair closer to her desk, putting her hands on her desk.

"I just sent a reporter to the Children's Hospital new building to see what we can get for an article so I need the pictures to go along with it."

"Oh, great!" Anais winced when she heard her own words. "Not like that! I meant — I'm happy to take the assignment before I lose my mind!"

James chuckled. "I take it Winn is still fixing your suit, then?"

Anais glared at nothing in particular but it was a deep glare nonetheless. "Yup," she muttered and got up from her chair.

Winn had kept his word about not letting her go out in the field until she told the DEO — primarily J'onn, Kara and Alex — about Cadmus' threat. It drove Anais up the wall that she wasn't able to convince him otherwise and the use of the physical threats was no good either as she would have to explain to everyone else why she suddenly decided to kill their friend. So, until she decided to tell the truth, Winn was basically holding her suit hostage.

To everyone else, he was just mending her suit.

"And how's Mon-El doing?" James curiously asked since he hadn't stopped by the DEO in a while. He only knew what he was told.

"Kara and him are learning to get along-ish," Anais said, "And we're testing Mon-El's abilities too. See what he can and can't do. He's not leaving the DEO for a while, I'm assuming. Poor guy must be going crazy too."

J'onn had given the order to test Mon-El in every possible way to deduce the danger he could post if left unsupervised. Winn was put in charge of monitoring him and recording the results to later discuss together.

Anais could only imagine the frustration Mon-El would be feeling soon since he'd already been cooped up in the DEO for days now and training since then. Maybe she could help in some way, she thought before leaving the office.

~ 0 ~

Anais walked down the street before the hospital site, adjusting her clothes and hair since she'd basically sped there from CatCo. As she approached the site, she began to smell the after scent of burnt rubber and metal, along with the horrible sight of the crumbled hospital.

"Oh, what happened here?" She stopped in front of the yellow tape keeping civilians away.

"Aliens happened," a familiar voice answered. Anais whipped her head to the right and saw Lena Luthor approaching her.

"Miss Luthor," Anais smiled politely, "I didn't expect to see you here."

"Yeah," Lena nodded. "No one expects to see a Luthor at accident sites unless they caused it." There was a brief moment of silence before she added, "And just so we're clear, I didn't cause this."

"I didn't think you did," Anais clarified for the woman's sake. "So what is Miss Luthor doing here, though?"

"Please, it's just Lena, I told you," the black-haired woman sighed. "And I was one of the investors of this building. It was brand new when it was destroyed."

"Millions of dollars lost, I assume," Anais gazed at the crumbled building. She could still see some leftover melted medical equipment peeking from under the walls.

"Oh please, it's not about the money," Lena set her hands on her hips. "This building was built because the first hospital was getting overcrowded. Now the children that did survive this, had to return to the first hospital."

Anais pulled her camera in front of her eyes and snapped a picture. "What happened to the building?"

"Your reporter hasn't come to you yet?" Lena nodded to the young CatCo. Reporter talking to a cop at the moment.

"Nope, I just got here, remember?"

"Well, we don't know much but we assume it was aliens judging by the mass strength of whatever hit the walls. Plus, some of the records from the kids say they saw hooded people."

"Ah," Anais started walking a bit to get better angles of the building. "Which could mean it was a regular human crime scene."

"But they didn't steal anything," Lena countered. "They just came in to destroy."

"Well, sometimes people don't need reasons to do something," Anais lowered her camera to see Lena giving her a look. "What?"

"I'm assuming you're like Kara in that you both share pro-alien opinions," Lena crossed her arms.

Anais gave a shrug of her shoulders. "Well, what's wrong with that?"

"Nothing. Everyone's entitled to their opinions and thoughts," Lena looked ahead at the building again.

"It's so refreshing meeting someone like you," Anais chuckled. She felt her phone buzzing and picked it out from her pocket. "Oh, gotta go. It was nice seeing you, though. Wouldn't mind doing this again."

Surprise etched across Lena's face, making her dark eyebrows simultaneously raise. "Really?"

Anaís paused after taking another picture to see Lena's expression. "What?"

Lena smiled warmly. "Not a lot of people would say that. In fact, I don't think I've ever heard that."

"You're nice and you're badass, so...yeah, I'd like to see you around," Anaís chuckled. "You're doing what I'm doing and, as I've said, I admire that."

Lena's smile widened, clearly beaming at the chance of a second friend. She hadn't admitted it but she liked to believe she was friends with Kara Danvers too. "Okay then, you're welcome at L-Corp anytime."

"Cool," Anaís beamed then. "Now I gotta run for real. See you around." She hurried past Lena to get going because if she wasn't at the DEO in the next five minutes, she was sure Arun would come for her himself.

~0~

"Again!" Arun shouted the order without hesitance.

A blonde speedster whipped past him in circles, repeatedly, until she would come to a stop and attempt to throw a lightning bolt she was meant to create during her run. Just as Anaís was about to throw her bolt, it shattered in her palms..

"Dammit!" she growled and glanced back at Arun who stood at the end of the room with his hands behind his back and no emotion on his face.

"Again!" he simply commanded once more.

She sucked in a breath and took off again. She'd been doing this for more than an hour now with no such luck. Arun silently watched as she sped in circles - a long circle too - to see exactly where she was going wrong. He never felt the visitors coming into the room, much less Anaís.

"Woah, that is awe and some!" Mon-El's cheer startled Anaís and caused the speedster to trip over her own feet. She came hurtling into a wall, face first. She groaned and turned on her back to glare at Mon-El then Arun and Winn for not warning her.

"Two things," Winn made a motion for Mon-El to listen, the latter even nodding his head to show him that he was indeed listening. "One: never sneak up on a speedster, especially when she's throwing lightning. And two: it's just 'awesome'. You got to put those two words together and you'll be golden."

"Awesome," Mon-El tested the word out and felt like it did sound better put together. He then looked over to Anaís who was getting back on her feet. "And sorry. Just thought that whole…" His fingers wiggled in the air as he attempted to mimic what she'd been doing, "...the whole lightning thing was cool…"

"You taught him the word 'cool' already?" Anaís dusted her legs off. Winn grinned. "Of course you did."

"If you three are finished talking, Anaís has a lot more practice to do," Arun spoke up with an air of annoyance. He knew well that they had a new alien amongst the DEO but he hadn't actually talked to Mon-El.

"Are you the other Solista?" Mon-El asked, though he was sure of the answer by the looks of his beam. "You got the whole lightning thing down, I assume?"

"Since I was a teenager. Child's play, really," Arun said plainly, shooting Anaís a look that meant to point out she was extremely behind. For that, Anaís looked down.

"W-well, I mean, it is lightning we're talking about," Winn purposely glanced at Anaís in hopes of lifting her spirits. "It takes a while to practice when it's the first try. I-I'm assuming."

Anaís smiled softly at him. She appreciated his attempt to help her out…until she remembered what he was doing with her suit.

"Yes, when we're teenagers," Arun brokered the silence without realizing it. "But Anaís is twenty three now."

"Okay, can we just call it a day with the training?" Anaís decided it was for the better lest Arun wanted a lightning bolt thrown at him instead of the practice dummy. "I'll continue tomorrow."

"Your call," Arun shrugged. "You wanna go get lunch?"

"No, I can't. Supergirl's waiting for me. We have a lead on that dead alien we found in the back of a car."

"Alright then, until tomorrow," Arun said and started heading out. He suddenly stopped though by the doorway and glanced back. "Oh, and Winn, the suit seems to be working fine right now." He made a gesture at Anaís' regular DEO suit she was wearing. "Have you finished mending it?"

"Nope," Winn replied without a second thought, even wearing that big smile Anaís was beginning to hate. "Still got kinks to figure out."

Arun nodded and walked out of the room.

"It doesn't have any kinks!" Anaís shouted after he was fully gone. "You're just purposely keeping it away from me!"

"Me? What?" His pretense sarcasm only made her even more mad. "Never."

"I'll kill you," Anaís warned but all Winn did was ask Mon-El if he wanted to continue practicing. With a shake of her head, she left the room and went to find Alex and Supergirl in the control room. "Anything on our alien perp?" Anaís stopped by them.

"Yes, actually," Kara motioned to Alex, "Alex was just telling me what the lab found."

"The thorn found in the dead body is from a Brevakk. Some sort of biological defense mechanism," Alex explained. "So, yeah, that's new and terrifying."

"Don't suppose there's any ideas where we can find him?" Anaís tried her luck.

"Turns out there's exactly one Brevakk registered in National City for the President's Alien Amnesty Act," Alex moved on over to an empty computer. She pulled up the profile of said alien. "And we got the address ready to go."

"Alright, so what's our first step?" Anaís looked between the more experienced women.

"It's just a check out, so...I think we're good," Alex's words surprised both aliens. "I got someone in mind I'll take."

"Are you sure?" Kara raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, yeah, don't worry," Alex waved her off, really smiling like she meant it. "She's good, trust me." And with that cryptic description, she left.

"You want to train, then?" Kara asked Anaís once they were on their own. Anaís groaned and covered her face. "What?" Kara looked around in case anyone knew what she said wrong.

"I just finished a round with Arun and I didn't get it right."

"You mean the lightning bolt thing?"

"Yes!"

"When we agreed that he would train me, I didn't know Arun would be one of those uptight 24/7 trainers!"

Kara chuckled.

"And he won't get off my back for my pathetic attempts to create and throw a lightning bolt!"

"Don't get so worked up about it, remember how long Barry said it took him?"

"Yeah, but... he's a metahuman and I'm an alien. It's in my biology to get it!" Anaís exclaimed particularly loud enough to draw some attention.

Kara, in particular, was giving her a look. "Some funny words you used there." Anaís dropped her hands to her sides and looked back. "Sounds like something Arun would say." She'd come to learn that Arun's 'words of encouragement' were not so light. They seemed like backhanded insults instead.

"Well, he kind of did, and he's right. It's in my biology to get it and I'm taking longer than a kid would!"

"Okay, maybe you need to reel it back a little," Kara brought Anaís to the side so they could speak better. "You may be a speedster with incredible strength but you still need practice and you know that. I know you know that."

"Yeah, I know…" Anaís sighed.

"Then why don't you let Arun know that? He's the one that needs to reel it back a lot more." Kara suspected Arun was the one putting more pressure on things than Anaís really thought. "He's a hard coach, and maybe a good one, but a hard one nonetheless. He wants you to do exactly what he did and that's not gonna happen."

"Because I'm only half a Solista?"

"No, because you're you and you're different. Everyone is. So c'mon, let's go train nice and easy."

Anaís finally agreed and followed Kara to their training room meant just for them. They trained for about an hour before J'onn called them back to the control room. Alex had returned but not with good news. Their lead on the dead alien had been whisked away by a group of men in a suspicious can.

"Do we know who the men in the van were?" J'onn asked Alex, and the woman shook her head.

"No. But these weren't low-rent thugs. They were definitely combat-trained. They mean business."

"So do we. Or have you forgotten about that?" J'onn's snark startled all three women.

"Hey, what's with the grumpy?" Alex finally noted. "Today and yesterday. Is everything all right, J'onn?"

"I appreciate the concern, but I assure you, I'm fine."

"Don't make us pout," Alex nodded to Kara beside her.

"They're surprisingly good at it," Anaís admitted being victim to it a couple of times.

J'onn knew they would never let it be so it was better to get it out in the open. "I am not the last Green Martian. There is another. Her name is M'gann. Megan."

"It's a miracle, J'onn," Kara's eyes widened.

"I met her at that alien bar Alex spoke of. We talked, but... I think I made a mistake."

"Why do you say that?" Anaís asked. "What happened?"

"I offered to merge with her in the Martian way."

"But you guys just met…" Kara trailed off, thinking of something else.

"Psychically, Kara. The bond is the traditional Martian way of communicating. We...we link minds, share dreams, emotions, memories. We kept no secrets from one another. Imagine a world without ego, selfishness. Without... lies."

"That sounds beautiful."

"She didn't seem to think so. The moment I talked about it, she left. I am grateful to have you all in my life. I truly am. But with Martians, it's... It's different. It's deeper. Deeper than talking. Fuller. With her, there's a chance for me to live how I was meant to live."

Of course everyone there understood.

"Just tell her that," Alex encouraged him to go for a second attempt. "Why don't you try apologizing?"

J'onn seemed to be encouraged enough.

~0~

The night brought Alex and detective Sawyer to an illegal fight club that ended up in catastrophe. Supergirl nearly had her head torn off by a large alien creature, and neither her nor the detectives had luck in capturing the ringleader of the fight club. It did, however, leave them with a new clue that could lead the DEO to capturing the culprits.

It also led to a new wave of anger inside a certain Solista.

Mon-El had just failed to conjure up heat vision on a piece of cement when Anais came storming in.

"No heat vision, no x-ray vision…" Winn was recording the results on his tablet for later study so he was startled when Anais used her own heat vision to destroy the piece of cement. "Hey!" Winn made a gesture but Anais looked far too upset to care.

"Kara nearly got hurt in an underground alien fight club and I couldn't do anything about it and do you know why!?" She came storming up to him, making him backtrack several steps. "Because I didn't have my suit so they didn't call me in for backup!"

"Is she okay, though?" Mon-El thought to ask if only to pull some of that attention off Winn for safety reasons.

"Yes, but she could've gotten hurt," Anais deeply sighed then set her glare back on Winn. "C'mon, Winn, enough is enough. Give me my suit back"

Winn was first and foremost relieved to see that anger fading because it decreased the chances of being heat visioned. "I'll do it as soon as you come clean to Kara and the others."

Anais' hands twitched in the air as she air-strangled him. "I'm gonna—" She started for him again.

Winn jumped back, throwing his hands in front of him. "If you kill me now, you'll never get your suit!"

Anais stopped in her tracks and dropped her hands. "I really hate you right now."

"Yeah, got that," Winn swallowed hard and moved away to put down his tablet. "But you also know why I'm doing this."

Mon-El cleared his throat to remind the two of his presence. "Can I offer my help to Kara as an alternative?"

Anais briefly smiled at him. "Thanks, Mon-El, but I don't think the DEO wants to let you go out until you've finished your examinations."

"Well, I think we have," Mon-El gestured to Winn. "Right?"

"Sort of," Winn shrugged and turned to the two. He brought his fingers up to list what they knew so far of Mon-El's abilities. "No heat vision, no X-ray vision, but you're strong."

"As strong as Kara?" Mon-El curiously asked but Winn scoffed with a great big 'Ha!'

"No, not even close. No freeze breath, which is kind of a bummer, right?" Winn glanced at Anais but she was still kind of glaring at him. "Right. No flight either, but his leaping is fantastic. I'm... I'm talking about like "tall buildings in a single bound" kinda stuff. Yeah, we...we definitely have the makings of a superhero here."

"Superhero?" Mon-El repeated. "Is that what Kara's called?"

"Yeah. You know, you...you go out there, you fight crime, save people, wear a costume…"

"Yup," Anais crossed her hands. "I'm almost there…"

"Speaking of going out there, I'm, uh... I'm going kind of crazy in here," Mon-El admitted. "I could really use some fresh air."

"Yeah, you heard Hank. I mean, you got to stay here at the DEO."

"You know, I'll bet if I were outside, I could fly like Kara and you, Anais," Mon-El put on his best smile for the blonde.

But before Anais could say anything, Winn cut in. "Nice try, buddy. No, we got to stay here. Them's the rules. I mean, I'm new here. I'm trying to make a good impression."

"Failed!" Anais dramatically exclaimed, much to his annoyance. And because she saw his annoyance, she decided to go on ahead and make it worse. Screw being an adult, she shamelessly thought. "And you know what, Mon-El? I'll take you out."

Mon-El looked deeply surprised at the easy give in. "You will?"

Even Winn had the same reaction. "You will?"

"Yup!" Anais grinned from side to side. "I don't think it'll do any harm. But you gotta listen to me, alright?"

Mon-El was now almost grinning like Anais was. "Of course!"

"Anais y-y-you can't do that," Winn started wagging his finger, but by that point it was too late. "You're gonna get in trouble!"

"Feel free to join us, if you're so worried," Anais patted his arm.

"But I - but we can't!" Winn practically shouted in the room while Anais and Mon-El started leaving. He tried to stay put and just let the two aliens figure it out on their own how big of a mistake this would be, but…

He scrunched his face. "Damn you, Anais Allen-Mjorkland. I'm so weak." And he took off to catch up with them.

~ 0 ~

Mon-El didn't know anything about Earth but that didn't stop him from learning in one night. Especially when Anais introduced him to the cellphone.

"I gotta get me one of these!" Mon-El laughed after Anais showed him the search engine for bars.

"I'm sure we can arrange that," Anais tucked her phone into her back pocket and led the way to the bar across the street. "Maybe a small computer for the time being. Or a tablet!"

"You can't make promises like that," Winn trailed behind her, still unable to believe she was pulling this off.

"It's a computer with restricted WiFi," she reminded him that it wasn't a big deal. "Now let loose and have some fun, if you're capable of that anyways."

Winn stopped just by the doorway with a look of offence. "Excuse me?"

Anais smirked with Mon-El. They both knew they'd gotten him now.

"You heard me," Anais crossed her arms and watched as Mon-El went to open the doors for them. "Can you have some fun, Winn Schott?"

"And I continue to be weak," Winn scrunched his face in defeat while Anais yanked him inside the bar.

"Did I ever mention you're my absolute favorite alien in the whole DEO?" Mon-El said to Anais, making the woman laugh. "You are! Totally are!"

Winn did not agree with the sentiment and he definitely did not agree when they somehow found their way to the bar counter. Mon-El was introduced to human alcohol very quickly and he learned that it tasted really good. Anais monitored how much he drank but did let him experiment how much he could tolerate. She figured if anything went wrong she could speed him out of there in less than a second. But so far, he just seemed intent on mingling with the other humans and discovering what human men do for fun.

"Why do you guys like to arm wrestle so much?" Anais wondered out loud and reached for her own drink on the counter. Mon-El had just defeated his third opponent.

"He's cheating," Winn's flat tone made Anais laugh.

"Then go stop him or...have a drink and join him," Anais slid his untouched drink to him. "You can watch him while you're closer."

Winn knew his options were very limited here, and so with a small glare he picked his drink up and got up from his stool. He could hear Anais's second round of laughter while he walked away. She would not win forever, he thought.

Anais took refuge at the bar counter with the only other female in that place. As the hours ticked by, all the other customers started getting more and more annoying, in Anais' perspective. Mon-El had gone past arm wrestling and moved on to good old fashioned drinking challenges, most notably beer pong. But, to his credit, he had somehow gotten Winn to join in.

"Amazing," she huffed while she went for another drink. The two men ended up becoming more buddies than they had been earlier. Now she had become the third wheel. "Men are idiots."

"Tell me about it," the bartender mused when she walked by Anais.

Anais soon learned that, just like herself and Kara, Mon-El could actually not get drunk. However, Winn most definitely could. While they entered a series of drinking games, somehow Winn ended up winning most of them.

"Oh my God, he's a drinker," Anais said with a laugh as she and Mon-El watched Winn go at it against another fellow bar customer. They had a line of shots they needed to get through.

"So, you don't get drunk here?" Mon-El was curious as he gazed at his newly filled cup of beer.

"The earth stuff isn't strong enough for you guys," Anais shrugged, crossing her arms.

Mon-El picked up on her word choice and glanced at her. "How about you?"

"I'm half human, Mon-El. I don't get granted all the perks of a Solista. Don't get me wrong, it takes me way longer to get drunk than an average human but in the end, I can still get drunk."

"Have you ever tested the theory out of how many glasses it takes?" Mon-El offered her his glass of beer, making her laugh.

"My parents would kill me," she said, pushing his glass back to him. "They're humans and they don't really care how alien I am. I cannot drink when I'm supposed to be on business matters."

"I know I'm not from here but is this business?" Mon-El gestured towards the scene. Winn had just won another round of shots.

A smirk crossed Anais' face. "My business, anyways." It was Mon-El's turn to laugh.

A short time later, Mon-El had entered another wrestling match. He'd won every single one but the last man he went up again ended up with a broken elbow.

The man, angry, tried punching Mon-El but then broke his hand as well. His buddy went to fight Mon-El for support yet the Daxamite easily won as well with a simple 'push'. The human man crashed into a table behind them.

Mon-El was overly surprised with his strength but the other men had grown furious.

"Time to go!" Anais hopped off her stool after the strangers had met face to face with a glass table — another accident on Mon-El's part. She scurried through the group - possibly using her alien strength to push some of the men away - and got her two idiots out of there.

~0~

By the Anais returned home, she expected to find a dark apartment most certainly not Kara wide awake in the living room.

"Where were you?" Kara noticed Anais' disheveled appearance.

"One could say babysitting...or one could say proving a point," Anais fixed herself and released a deep breath. "Beginning to think my plan backfired and it was more of the first then the latter."

Kara couldn't and honestly didn't want to try and understand what all that meant. There were more pressing matters to deal with anyways.

"What are you doing up so late anyways?" Anais pulled her jacket off and headed for the couch chair. "I thought Kara Danvers always has a timely bedtime set up." Kara playfully rolled her eyes but even the playfulness faded very quickly. Anais noticed it and knew that the Kryptonian was worried and/or upset. "Kara, what is it?"

Kara hesitated to speak but after a moment of thinking, she figured it was better Anais knew now in case something happened later.

~ 0 ~

Veronica Sinclair - aka Roulette - was a formidable human enemy to the DEO. She proved herself last night when Supergirl made a visit to her and Sinclair only retaliated with confident words knowing she would not be defeated that night.

Kara now relayed her visit to J'onn, Alex and Anais (again). "I should've heat vision'd that stupid champagne glass out of her hand," Kara balled her fists on her sides.

"That's what she wanted," Anais offered a different perspective on the matter. She'd gotten over her anger last night when Kara had told her. "Supergirl heat visions local human and the media has a field day with that."

Kara gave her points on that, but it didn't stop her from wishing she could've used her heat vision. "I mean, do you think Sinclair is right about this? That she's the only one who can offer something to aliens?"

"Not a chance," Alex answered instantly.

"But then how do you stop them from letting themselves be used and exploited?"

"By offering something more powerful than fear," J'onn settled things and glanced at Winn at his desk. "Winn?"

"Nothing!" The man in question startled awake — his hand holding an ice bag on the side of his slipped and he nearly hit his head on the desk. "I'm not hungover! You're the one being defensive!"

Anais barely hid her smile from the others while J'onn approached a hungover Winn.

"Agent Schott—"

"S-sir, yes, s-sir!" Winn dangled a hand at the front of his forehead. "Er, Mon-El is doing great, by the way. He's here in the DEO. He's here. Did you know his heart is on the other side?"

J'onn gave a nod of his head. "That's absolutely fascinating. You know, the DEO received reports this morning of a six-foot alien attacking two men in a bar last night."

Anais' own smile faded upon learning that.

"The news is so very violent these days…" Winn briefly said as he slowly turned his chair back to his desk.

"Apparently this alien had a 5'2" sidekick—"

Winn jumped out of his chair, leaving it to spin from the force just to shout, "I am 5'9!"

"No, wait," Anais slid in between the two men with her hands raised in front of her, "This one's on me. I'm the one who took Mon-El out. Winn actually tried stopping me several times."

"Anais, why'd you do that?" Alex moved forwards with the same questionable face as J'onn.

"Because sometimes I'm an idiot," Anais answered with the simplest of shrugs. "But this was totally on me."

"You know better," J'onn snapped unexpectedly. "Everything we do is under a microscope. We work so hard to make humans trust us. All it takes is for one alien to ruin it for all of us."

Anais' eyes had slowly widened while J'onn scolded her. "I-I didn't mean to do that…"

"You should've thought about it!"

Alex exchanged looks with Kara, both agreeing J'onn was projecting his fight with M'gann on Anais. "J'onn, why don't we go talk somewhere else," Alex held onto his arm and persuaded him to walk with her.

"I'm really sorry," Anais said to Kara and Winn afterwards. "I wasn't meaning to do that. I was just...I was mad at you," she made a languid gesture at Winn, which didn't surprise him. "And I have to apologize to Mon-El too."

As she left, Kara briefly stopped by Winn to ask, "What's she mad at you for?"

"It's...it's just better if I hold off on that," Winn made the call thinking Anais would want to explain it herself once she got the courage to actually accept that CADMUS was looking into her.

~ 0 ~

Kara caught up with Anais in the hallway, and while Anais didn't exactly say why she was mad with Winn, Kara got the jist that it'd been a long argument now.

Anais led the way into Mon-El's training room where the man was currently doing his training. When he saw Kara, he assumed he was in trouble for the previous night.

"I'm sorry," he immediately said but Anais raised a hand to stop him.

"You're good, I'm the one who screwed up."

Mon-El blinked. "You were?"

"Yes," Anais sighed. "I was basically trying to stick it to Winn and I ended up using you. It was very wrong of me."

"Well…" Mon-El bobbed his head, "I've done worse, believe me. But this has helped me realize something neither of you told me about." Anais exchanged a glance with Kara, both confused of what he meant. "Hank told me I needed to stay here because it wasn't safe. But he didn't mean for me. He meant it wasn't safe for humans. From me."

"Listen, we've all been through that," Anais spoke up first and received an agreeing 'mhm' from Kara beside her. "I was taken in by human parents when I was a kid and just got my freedom a couple months ago. The government didn't want to let me out because they were afraid I'd hurt someone."

"After I first got to Earth, I went to my junior prom and Scott Klein asked me to dance. I stepped on his foot and I broke three of his toes," Kara shared her embarrassing yet meaningful story. "It's just gonna take some time to get used to having these abilities and...and living in this world."

Mon-El appreciated both women trying to make him feel better and even showing sympathy for him, but he was especially thankful towards Kara considering their respective backgrounds. "I know it's not easy for you to be nice to me, Kara. Where I'm from and all."

"That's not why I've been standoffish. And don't say I haven't been," Kara sighed and dug her hands into her back pockets. "My parents gave me so much. And I was so loved. My dad was a scientist and my mom fought for justice. They were proud, strong people. Good Kryptonians and even better parents. And that's the way I want to remember them."

"And why shouldn't you?"

"Because...they weren't perfect. And no matter how smart they were, or how hard they tried, they couldn't save us."

"Yeah, you never met my parents. They weren't exactly role models," Mon-El shook his head.

"But mine saw the end of the world coming, and didn't do anything about it!"

"Hey, it's not...it's not your parents' fault. It's not even Krypton's fault. Okay, we shared a star, that's all. I promise that I will do as I'm told from now on."

"And I promise not to be a manipulative bitch," Anais raised her hand but then pointed a warning finger at Mon-El. "Don't repeat that."

"Repeat what?" Mon-El blinked with genuine oblivion. He wasn't up to speed with curse words yet. "Anyways, I heard you survived Draaga." Kara nodded. "I once saw him fight on Warworld when I was, uh, guarding the royal family. Draaga took a blade to the right leg. It hit a nerve cluster. He's favored his left ever since."

The new piece of information was enlightening for Kara. "Thank you."

~ 0 ~

A couple hours later, the group got word that J'onn was missing. The only known person who'd seen him was M'gann and since she hadn't shown up for her shift it led Alex to conclude J'onn was taken by M'gann's boss: Sinclair.

"The fightclub was cleared out," Supergirl returned to the DEO very put out from her failed trip. "It's like it was never there."

"And there's no sign of where they went?" Anais curiously asked since she'd once again been planted at a chair instead of the field.

"No," Supergirl crossed her arms and thought about it for a minute.

"Okay, so where are we going to find them now?" Alex leaned against a table, trying not to look so frustrated even if she was.

"I bet that fight club has a list of recurring invitees and I think we may know one invitee in particular," Supergirl's suggestion made Anais jump from her chair.

"I'm coming! It involves no actual fighting therefore no need for super suit!"

She practically led the way to Lena's office. Kara understood her since Anais hadn't come out to the field in weeks now. She'd feel antsy too if she was cooped up (which then led Kara to feel even more sympathy for Mon-El).

"Excuse me, you can't go in there!" Lena's assistant failed to stop Anais and Kara from barging into Lena's office. "I swear I just blinked and they got right past me!" the poor woman did her best to explain to Lena before she was fired.

Lena, for her matter, was quite surprised at the sight.

"Lena, I'm sorry," Kara apologized first and foremost. "We just need to talk to you."

"Not her fault," Anais jerked a thumb at the secretary.

Lena's calm smile was a sight of relief for the two aliens. "Jess, will you make a note downstairs that Kara Danvers and Anais Allen are to be shown in right away whenever possible?"

Jess was surprised but since it meant she wasn't going to be fired she dutifully noted it and hurried out of the office.

"Woah, thanks," Anais beamed.

"So, how can I help?" Lena gestured for them to come sit down.

"We think a friend of mine has gotten involved in something shady," Kara's excuse was met with a light scoff from Lena. "It's an actual friend, we swear. And he's missing."

Lena got serious fast and nodded for her to continue.

"Do you know of a woman named Veronica Sinclair? She caters to people in your, um, your circles. Tight dresses, tattoos like Lisbeth Salander?"

Lena pursed her lips and played with a pen on her desk. "Yeah, I know Roulette. We went to boarding school together. I never liked her."

"We share the sentiment," Anais nodded. "We need to find her. And since her little fight clubs are mobile, we need to know where she's holding the next fight."

Lena seemed at a cross of amusement and impression. "And you assume I'm on the invite list?"

"Your last name is pretty famous," Anais shrugged.

"We wouldn't ask if we had any other option," Kara promised Lena as a last means to get her to talk.

Luckily for them, Lena was a smart, kind woman. "I'm a Luthor, of course I'm invited to her little pop-up. Not that I'm interested in her type of entertainment." She wrote down the location of the next fight club and handed it to Kara.

"Thank you. We owe you, big time," Kara tucked the paper into her purse and stood up with Anais.

"Not at all. I know you'll be there for me when the time comes," Lena offered them a genuine, friendly smile.

~ 0 ~

Together with the DEO, J'onn and even M'gann, Supergirl managed to put an end to the fight club with minimal injuries. Mon-El's tip about the Draaga came in handy to put the creature down for a bit. She was even more relieved to see J'onn patch things up with M'gann because it meant J'onn would finally have some peace.

This time Kara was the one to get home to find Anais still awake. Of course Kara wasn't surprised since Anais wanted to know the outcomes of the fight club.

"I would've stayed at the DEO but figured there was no use for me anyways," Anais shrugged at the counter where she was having a drink. "Update: I still can't do the stupid lightning bolt trick. I'm considering opening a stupid breach to find my young adoptive Dad for another training session because it is not going well."

"Arun's still too hard?" Kara assumed since Anais hadn't talked about him in a while.

"He expects too much from me," Anais sighed. "But what happened with Sinclair? Is she done for good now?"

"No," Kara ruefully answered. "Alex says Maggie got the orders to let Sinclair go and there's nothing we can do about it, not even the DEO."

"We'll get her one day," Anais assured. "So how come you're coming back late, then?"

"I…" Kara removed her glasses and set them on the counter, "...stopped by Mon-El's room to talk to him."

"What about?" Anais got up from the stool and went into the cupboards for some more wine.

"I offered to take him under my wing, basically, and show him around the city for real now."

"Yeah, because I totally screwed that up," Anais cringed at the reminder and pulled two glasses from the counter. "And the DEO is going to let you do that?"

"Yup, it's sort of what I did with you in the beginning, remember?"

"How could I forget!"

Kara smiled. "I think it'll do him some good. Plus, I can get him a job at CatCo. Maybe not as a reporter but somewhere there should be good."

"Speaking of," Anais returned to the counter with two glasses of red wine, "Your editor called about that new article you sent in. Apparently he expects your rewrite tomorrow morning."

"Mm," Kara sipped some of her wine. "May have sent him a new one earlier at his e-mail which I got off from James."

"Taking initiative," Anais pointed. "Very good. Look at you, Kara Danvers, having all your crap together. I'm jealous."

Kara chuckled and lowered her glass to the counter. "Well, maybe you can unburden yourself a little bit by telling me what you and Winn are arguing about."

"Ooh, smooth," Anais commended Kara for her easy transition but was still reluctant to go into detail about her disagreement. "But it's nothing, and you shouldn't worry about it."

"I worry when my friends aren't okay. Right now, it looks like you're not okay, so...tell me. Please?"

Anais released a small sigh. "I mean, I just don't want it to be made into a bigger deal than it is...just like Winn made it."

"Well, what is it?"

Anais put her wine glass down and prepared to spill the truth. Who knows, maybe it would be better for her. "CADMUS sent a message for me at the DEO." Kara's confused expression implied she hadn't heard that from anyone at the DEO. "Yeah, Winn caught it and showed it to me instead. Apparently, they want to use me as a fuel for their growing army. Whether or not I want to join them is not really up for debate in their perspective. They made it very clear that they were not above taking me dead."

"Oh my god," Kara said, horrified. "So how does this go to you getting mad at Winn?"

"Because he told me to tell you guys and I said no so instead of nagging me to tell you the truth, he is keeping my suit hostage until I decide to tell you the truth."

"Why wouldn't you want to tell us anything?"

"Because you guys would overreacting and keep me on lock-down like Mon-El!"

"If it was to keep you safe then why wouldn't you?"

"Because I just got my freedom, Kara. I don't want to lose it again." Anais picked up her glass but at first glance she could tell Kara was putting more thought into the situation.

"Maybe Winn's making the right call in keeping you out of the field. The less you're out there, the less chances CADMUS will find you or hurt you."

"No ma'am, not you too," Anais shook her head. "I've spent the better part of my life in seclusion. I'm not doing it again."

Kara was not aiming to argue like Anais and Winn. She would rather find an alternative that would benefit both sides. Making peace was her job, after all.

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