#supercat:fanfic

[ofendlesswonder]

It wasn’t difficult to track Cat down.

She might’ve sold her previous apartment soon after fleeing National five years ago—a sure sign to Kara she had little intention of ever returning—but there weren’t many recent listings that would be suitable for Cat Grant’s ridiculously high standards.

Fortunately, as her former assistant, Kara was well-versed in Cat’s taste in real estate. She stood on the sidewalk and glanced up at the high-rise apartment complex, gaze focused on the penthouse that had been sold three days ago.

She’d debated flying up to the balcony for old time’s sake, remembering fondly many of her and Cat’s conversations on the CatCo balcony, but she was trying something new—trying to fit the two parts of her, kept separate for so long, together—and for a fresh start, using the front door felt more fitting.

Sneaking past the security guard and up thirty flights of stairs required a simple burst of super speed, and she was lifting her hand to knock on the penthouse door mere moments later.

Kara paused before she let her knuckles connect with the smooth wood, trying to mentally prepare herself for the sight of the woman she hadn’t seen for five years. She could hear movement inside, so someone was clearly home, and her heart beat faster with anticipation.

[p-lutonium]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Supergirl (TV 2015) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Kara Danvers/Cat Grant Characters: Kara Danvers, Cat Grant, Alex Danvers (mentioned) Additional Tags: Tumblr: supercatweek, Supercat Week, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence Series: Part 1 of SuperCat Summer 2016 Summary:

There were four police cars chasing them, blues and twos going. Traffic was skittering away, which also happened to clear the way for them as well. "A new record," Kara added. "Maybe we should go for five."

[ofendlesswonder]

ah so exciting! would love number 25

25. “I need a place to stay.”

A shadow falls over Kara’s desk, and she pauses her proofread of her latest article to glance up at the person hovering by her shoulder, jaw dropping open when she gets a glimpse of messy blond curls.

“Carter?” It’s been months since she’d thought of him, longer still since she’d seen him, but the face is unmistakable, his bottom lip caught between his teeth. “What are you doing here? Is your Mom here?”

She hasn’t seen Cat in months, either, not since she left to ‘dive’ into pastures new. No one has seen her recently, in fact—she’s effectively disappeared off the face of the earth, is only mentioned in gossip columns when they’re speculating her whereabouts.

Not that Kara has a Google alert set up for her name, or anything.

“No, she’s in Washington.”

“D.C.?” What on earth is she doing there? And what on earth is Carter doing here, backpack slung over his shoulder, eyes red-rimmed and cheeks blotchy like he’d been crying.

“Yeah. She took a new job there.”

Kara feels like he’s reading from a script she isn’t privy too, has no idea how any of this has led him to be here, standing by her new desk and scuffing his converse along the floor. “Okay…”

“But I don’t want to live there. I didn’t want to leave here, but she said it would be temporary. That we’d come back. Only now she wants to work in the stupid White House and she’s looking at apartments and a new school and I—I don’t want it. We had a fight.” He sniffs, rubs the back of his sleeve across his cheek like he’s scrubbing away the remnant of his tears. “And I said I wanted to come back. Live with Dad, if that’s what it took.”

Kara can only imagine how Cat would have taken that.

Not well, by any means.

“She sent me back, only I don’t want to live with my Dad, I want to live with her, but here in our old apartment. He wouldn’t even meet me at the airport. He said I was old enough to get a cab.”

Kara’s jaw tightens—she knows Chris is an asshole, but this seems like a new low, even for him.

“So, I got a cab, but not to him.”

“You came here, instead.” Here, to some semblance of stability, of familiarity. The apartment is gone—Kara had helped Cat list it for sale, and it had been snapped up in no time, and she wonders if Cat had ever really considered a move back to National City. The apartment is gone, but CatCo. is not, and Kara remembers countless afternoons where Carter had come by after school, curling up in Cat’s office with his homework. Sometimes, Kara had helped him with a particularly stubborn math problem, or talked to him about his favorite anime, keeping him entertained until his mother was off the clock.

“I need a place to stay,” he says, voice small, eyes glued to his shoes. “Can I come home with you?”

Yes, she wants to say, without hesitation, recognizing the small, scared child he so desperately tried to hide, the one who felt like he had nowhere else to go. Yes, of course you can—but it’s never that simple, is it?

She has a secret identity to protect, and he’s supposed to be with his father, and Cat might kill her, and—

Wait.

Does Cat know where he is?

“No,” he says, when she asks. “I didn’t tell her. And I turned off my phone, so she wouldn’t track me.”

“Carter.” She can’t help the admonishment, because she knows how much Cat cares about him—she’d do anything for him, and she imagines her pacing up and down a hotel room in the capital, already on the phone to the police. “You should call her.”

He makes a noise of discontent.

“At least let her know you’re safe. She’ll be worrying.”

“Can you call her?”

“I…I don’t know about that. I think it would be better coming from you.”

“Please?” He peers down at her with eyes so like his mother’s that Kara aches.

“All right,” she sighs, and makes the mistake of glancing across the bullpen. Snapper is glaring at her, his face red. Great. Someone else who wants to kill me. Could this day get any better?

“Kara?” Cat answers the phone sounding harried, and Kara recognizes the faint note of panic in her voice. She lets herself bask in the familiarity of it for one long moment—months, since she’d heard Cat’s voice, months, since she’d last felt the comfort of it. Months of missing her, in a way she knows she isn’t allowed to. “This isn’t a great time.”

“Uh, I know.” She looks at Carter, who avoids her gaze. “Something about a missing fourteen year old?”

“How…how do you know that?”

“Because he’s standing right in front of me.”

“Carter’s with you?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“Why?”

“Good question. Should I let him explain it for himself?”

Carter shoots her a sharp look, but Kara forces the phone into his hand anyway, pointedly turning away like she’s not listening as he lifts it to his ear. She stares at the blinking cursor on her computer screen as he talks, trying to summon the will to finish her work.

No such luck.

“Could you…could you keep an eye on him for me?” Cat asks, when Carter gives her back her phone. “I’m going to fly out as soon as I can, but it’ll be a few hours before I can get there. I know it’s an imposition, and he’s supposed to be with Chris, but he said he’d be more comfortable with you.”

Her gaze flickers to Carter, to the hopeful expression on his face, to the pleading note in Cat’s voice, thinks of the opportunity to see her again, even if for just one more day.

“Okay,” she says, and knows it’s the right decision when Carter lurches forward to wrap his arms around her neck. “I’ll watch him.”

“No runaway trains this time,” Cat says into her ear, and Kara laughs, remembering her last ill-fated babysitting attempt, a lifetime ago.

“I’ll try my best.”

 ***

The knock on her door comes at nine thirty, not quite loud enough to wake the sleeping teenager stretched out on her couch.

She pulls open the door, comes face-to-face with the woman she’s been trying so hard not to think about for the past few months, and Kara thinks, as their eyes meet, her heart thudding painfully in her chest, that she’s been fooling herself, because it all comes rushing back the second their eyes meet.

There was only ever one reason why things would have never worked with James, one reason why Kara hasn’t been able to so much as think about dating since they’d ended things, one reason why her life has felt so empty these past few months.

Only one person who could make her heart pound, set butterflies free in her stomach, make her palms—physically impossible though it may be—feel damp.

And that person is the woman standing in front of her now, her eyes as wild as her hair, mussed from the wind, a faint flush on her cheeks and Kara wonders if she’d raced up the stairs in those three inch heels, desperate to set eyes on her beloved son, to see for herself he was safe and well.

“Come on in,” Kara says, standing aside to let her past. It’s the first time Cat has been inside her home, and the gravity of the moment isn’t lost on her.

She’s glad she had the foresight to tidy up a little, while Carter had been in the shower.

If he’d noticed that the amount of cleaning she’d done shouldn’t have been possibly in such a sort frame of time by human hands, he’d had the grace not to mention it.

“I, uh, didn’t want to wake him up,” Kara says, pitching her voice low, when Cat gravitates toward the couch, gazing down at Carter with such open affection she feels like she has to look away. “Seeing as he’s had a hard day.”

She’d tried to distract him as much as possible, enlisting his help with the fun of filing while she’d been at work, and then with food and games once she’d taken him home. He looked like he’d needed it, lost in his head, spiralling over the choices that had been made for him, bits and pieces of his life over the last few months spilling out over the course of the afternoon.

“Thank you for looking after him.”

Kara shrugs. “It wasn’t any trouble.”

“Still. You don’t owe me anything. Not anymore.”

“On the contrary, Ms. Grant. I owe you a lot.” She’d forgotten how hard it was to think, with Cat’s eyes weighing heavy on her face. “My job, for example. I wouldn’t be a junior reporter without you.”

“Nonsense. You got that job on your own merit. Otherwise you wouldn’t be doing so well.”

“You read my articles?”

“Of course.” Cat looks offended she thought otherwise. “Is Snapper still giving you hell?”

“I think he likes to torture me.” Her nose wrinkles, and Cat laughs, some of her worry ebbing away now Carter is within her sights.

He’s still sound asleep, and Cat doesn’t look like she wants to wake him. Bathed in the glow of the lamp on Kara’s coffee table, she’s breath-taking, and Kara looks away before she’s caught staring.

“Do you, um, want a drink or anything?”

“I wouldn’t want to impose any more than we already have.”

Panic seizes her heart at the thought of Cat leaving so soon, because when would she see her again? Would she leave right away, ushering Carter back to the CatCo. jet and across the country before night truly fell? Or would she linger, perhaps let herself remember all the things she loved about this place?

Not that that would include you, you idiot.

“Please,” she says, trying not to listen to the voice in her head. “I…It would be nice to hear what you’ve been up to these last few months.”

For a moment, she doesn’t think it’s enough. Thinks Cat is going to leave anyway, slip away even though Kara only just got her back.

But then she blinks, and her lips curve into the smallest of smiles, and she says: “Very well. What have you got?”

Good question, Kara thinks, because probably not a lot. Whatever Alex and Maggie had left over last game’s night, which turns out to be a bottle of cheap whiskey Cat turns her nose up at. Kara doesn’t blame her—apparently it left a killer hangover.

“I’m trying to cut down on drinking,” Cat says, and her gaze flickers over to the back of the couch. “I’ve been told it’s not very healthy. Apparently it’s bad for my liver.”

A sentiment she’d never once shared before, but Kara bites her tongue. It’s none of her business, the ways in which Cat has changed. None of her business, to wonder if Cat’s been throwing down scotches to try and chase away the memories of the city she’d left behind.

“How about a tea?” Cat suggests, and Kara blinks at her.

There’s a request she’s never made before.

“Regular, peppermint or camomile?”

“Regular is fine.” Kara brews a pot, wonders why she feels so jittery, but she knows the answer. It’s because Cat is here, in her space, after so many months away. Here, in a place thus far untouched by her, and Kara knows when she’s gone she’ll feel the imprint of her, remember the way she’d stood, leaning against her kitchen counter, looking out of place and like she was exactly where she belonged at the same time.

“So,” she says, once she’s handed Cat a steaming mug. “Washington, huh?”

“Carter told you.”

“Only a little. He didn’t say what you were there for.”

“I was offered a job. White House Press Secretary.”

Kara nearly chokes on a sip of her own tea in shock. But then, she thinks, it makes sense. She could see it—Cat, at the front of a room full of reporters, tearing them apart if they dared ask her the wrong thing. She could certainly think of no better person to have fighting your corner than Cat Grant.

“Is that what you want to do? Get into politics?”

“It’s something I’ve considered.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

“My, my,” Cat says, clutching her mug between long fingers and throwing Kara a lazy smile. “Look at you. Am I being interviewed, Ms. Danvers?”

Kara ducks her head, feeling her cheeks warm. “Sorry. Force of habit.”

“It’s all right.” Cat’s voice is gentle, her eyes unguarded when Kara dares to look her way. “To be honest, I don’t know what I want. I thought getting away from here would bring me clarity, inspiration for my next big thing, but…instead I found myself wandering without purpose. Less a shark stuck in a tank and more a tiny goldfish, lost at sea.”

“Then why not come back? It...it’s not the same without you.” Too much, probably. Too close to spilling the truth, maybe, but it’s too late to take the words back now.

“Because my reasons for leaving haven’t changed.”

What reasons, Kara wants to ask, because the ones she’d been given had never made any sense. Cat handing over the reins to her beloved company just didn’t seem like something she’d do, especially without so much as a glance back. What reasons, Kara wants to know, but the line they tread is so thin—she thinks of Cat’s razor-sharp voice saying strictly professional and never wants to feel an ache like that again.

“And what about Carter?”

Cat glances toward the couch again and sighs. “I hadn’t realised he was so reticent until today. I know he struggles with change, but…I thought this would be a good one. He could go to a better school, have more opportunities. I didn’t know he was so attached to this place.”

“Of course he’s attached. It’s his home. It’s all he’s ever known, and you—no offence—are yanking it away from him.”

“I suppose you have a point.” Cat’s lips purse. “When did you get so wise?”

“Learned it from the best,” she says, and Cat’s smile is tight. “Are you…are you going back there tonight?”

“No, I don’t think so. I think Carter and I need to have a discussion, first. One where I listen to him instead of making the decision for him. I just…I thought I was doing the best thing for him. For both of us.”

“So you might stay?” She can’t quash the hopeful note in her voice, watches a shadow pass across Cat’s face and wonders what it means.

“I don’t know. I don’t know if I can.” Her fingers tremble, the tiniest amount, as she sets down her empty mug, runs them through her hair.

“Why?” Just do it, she thinks, because when she wakes up tomorrow, Cat might be gone, and there are too many unanswered questions for her to be left with. “What’s so bad about being here? What are you so desperate to get away from?”

“Oh, Kara.” Cat’s eyes close, a sigh rattling through her chest. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“Then help me to.” She knows she’s being obstinate. That there’s a reason Cat doesn’t want to tell her, that she has no right to know.

But she remembers Cat saying goodbye, Cat’s arms wrapped around her, heart beating so loud it was impossible for Kara not to notice, the shimmer of tears in her eyes before she’d blinked them away. Remembers the countless times Kara had reached out, over the past few months, only to be ignored, like she meant nothing when she knew she’d meant at least something.

“Please, Cat. I just want—”

She’s cut off when Cat surges forward, settling one hand on the counter beside Kara’s hip and wrapping the other around the back of Kara’s neck, drawing her down into a kiss. Kara freezes, brain short-circuiting as Cat’s lip brush against her own, soft and warm, but when she feels Cat begin to pull away, her bravado failing, she snaps into action, discarding her mug on the counter and splaying a hand at the small of Cat’s back to keep her close.

It’s been building for years, she thinks, as Cat parts her lips for Kara’s searching tongue, nails digging into the base of her skull. Years of working closely together, a spark igniting but neither of them willing to give it space to grow, too terrified of what might happen, if it grew into a fire they could no longer control.

“That’s why,” Cat breathes, when she pulls away, heart hammering almost as fast as Kara’s.

“Seems like a pretty good reason to stay to me,” Kara says, leaning in to kiss her again, but Cat stops her with a shake of her head.

“It’s not. Kara, you shouldn’t want this. Shouldn’t want me.”

“I know,” she says, and when Cat flinches, she doesn’t let her pull away. “I know there are a dozen reasons why I shouldn’t, why we shouldn’t be together, but I also…don’t really care. I’ve spent the past few months missing you like crazy, and it hasn’t diminished the way I feel about you. Doesn’t that mean something? Doesn’t that mean it’s worth trying?”

“I…” Cat trails off, meets her gaze and traces the pads of her fingers across Kara’s cheek, looks at her like she barely believes she’s real. “I don’t know. I don’t know how to.”

“You start by letting me in. By not running away when—” She hears movement on the couch, hopes to Rao Carter hasn’t heard any of their hushed conversation. “Carter’s waking up.”

Cat is quick to slip from her arms, and Kara feels the loss of her like a physical ache, chilled to the bone in the places she’d just been burning with warmth. “I don’t want this to be the end of it,” she says, knowing Carter’s not yet fully conscious, knowing they have a few more stolen moments. “I don’t want you to go to your hotel room and talk yourself out of it.”

“Kara Danvers, are you asking me to spend the night?”

“No, because I know you’d turn me down.” She can sense it, in the nervous energy radiating from her. Cat isn’t a person who lays her heart on the line, is someone guarded and careful, isn’t reckless the way she had been tonight. She needed time to process, time to think it through, and Kara would give her that—as long as she wasn’t going to slip away without saying goodbye. “But we should talk. Tomorrow.”

“Before five.”

Kara frowns. “Why five?”

“Because that’s how long the Press Secretary job is on the table for.”

“You haven’t accepted it?”

“Not yet,” she says, and Kara feels hope bloom in her chest. “I told them I had some things I need to consider first.”

“And now?”

“Now I have even more things to think about.” She reaches out, catches Kara’s fingers with her own and squeezes, and Kara’s heart thuds in her chest. She wants to lean down, wants to kiss her again, already misses the heat of her mouth, but a head pops over the back of the couch, Carter rubbing at his eyes.

“Hi, Mom.”

“Don’t you ‘Hi Mom’ me,” Cat says, eyes narrowing until Carter gulps. “Do you have any idea how worried I was, young man?"

“I’m sorry,” he says, his head hanging. “But I wanted to stop you doing something stupid, and this was the only way I know how.”

And thank Rao he had. Her day would have shaken out very differently had Carter not arrived in the bullpen, she knows. She’d have finished her article and gone to hang out with Alex and Maggie, probably, tried to ignore the ache seeing the two of them so happy seems to incite, lately, craving something similar for herself.

“Hm. Well, we’ll talk about it later. For now, I think we’ve taken up enough of Kara’s time, don’t you?”

Not enough of it, Kara thinks, but she bites her tongue. Space. Time to process. Not snuggling up together on the couch with a movie.

“Thanks for today, Kara.” Carter looks only a little sheepish as he gathers his things, slinging his backpack over his shoulder.

“Any time, buddy,” she says, meaning it more than he’ll probably ever know. The urge to kiss Cat goodbye is so strong she can barely stand it, and she balls her hands into fists at her sides so she doesn’t reach for her. “I’ll, uh, see you tomorrow?” She asks, before Cat slips through the door, dizzy with the feeling of being on the cusp of something she’s wanted for so long.

“Tomorrow,” Cat agrees, looking like it pains her to say it, looking like she doesn’t know how she’s possibly going to muster the will to leave, green eyes so heavy on Kara’s face it feels like a caress, feels like the ghost of her kiss, makes her feel like she’s burning from the inside out. “Goodnight, Kara.”

Goodnight, and not goodbye, and Kara hovers in the doorway, watches them go down the hall.

“You are in big trouble,” she hears Cat say as they turn the corner, slipping out of sight. “What were you thinking?”

And she shouldn’t listen, she knows, but she catches her name, as they start down the stairs, and can’t help but tune in to a snippet of conversation.

“I was thinking I missed home, and that I was sick of you moping after Kara for the past eight months, and it was time someone did something about it,” Carter says, then: “Ow!” as Cat must smack him over the head.

“Don’t ever pull a stunt like that again.”

“But did it work?”

“None of your business.”

“It totally worked.”

Kara shakes her head, unable to bite back a smile as she steps back inside and lets the door shut behind her.  

[ofendlesswonder]

Congratulations on the impending release! That's so exciting. Also so excited to see you're taking prompts - 27, if you're so inspired!

27. “I don’t want to feel this way anymore.”

Cat thinks she’s dreaming, when she sees a cape flutter outside her balcony. 

It certainly wouldn’t be the first time she’d dreamt of red and blue and a sunny smile. Probably wouldn’t even be the hundredth, if she counts her daydreams, the one allowance she’d made, for when the itch under her skin, the desire to reach out and touch had almost become too much to bear. 

Had become too much to bear, in the end. Had sent her fleeing across the country to another coast entirely, separating herself from any temptations, from blue, blue eyes and the traitorous voice in the back of her head wondering would it really be so bad, if you told her? 

Yes, she’d always answered. Yes, because I can’t ruin her, too. 

Not like she had every other relationship she’s ever had. Couldn’t bear to see the light in her eyes dim, for her to become bitter and jaded, and look at Cat like she despised her. 

That’s something she knew she’d never be able to handle, no matter how many times Kara had pressed close beside her on the couch, staying long after her work hours had ended. No matter how often she’d looked at Cat like she held the world in her hands, her gaze had lingering when Cat had dared to undo an extra button, knowing she was playing a dangerous game. 

The cape flutters again, propelling Cat out of bed, feet sinking into the plush carpet of her bedroom. Her new home isn’t quite as nice as the penthouse she’d left behind in National City, but it’s a decent replacement, she thinks. Carter had taken some convincing, but she knows D.C. has grown on him. 

“Aren’t you a little far from home?” She asks the superhero slouched over her balcony railing, pushing open the doors with the palm of her hand. 

Kara doesn’t move, and Cat thinks something must be deeply wrong. Why else would she be here, after so long? Why else, after years of silence stretched thin, would she have come to her? 

“What’s wrong?” She asks, a silence of a different kind pressing into her ears. This high, the city traffic is quiet, the low hum of the people milling on the sidewalks below snatched away by the wind. 

Cat grabs her robe off the back of the chair by the door, steps into stupidly fuzzy slippers Carter had bought her last Christmas. The ones she will never, ever publicly admit to owning, but that she adores slipping on at the end of a long day, and joins Kara on the balcony. 

She doesn’t move, remains still and silent, and Cat wonders if she’s finally gone mad. If something in her has cracked, and she’s conjured an image of Kara, a ghostly mirage that will disappear as soon as she’s within arms’ reach. 

“Nothing’s wrong,” she says, when Cat steps close, in a voice suggesting the opposite is true. “Not really.”

“And yet here you are, on my balcony in the middle of the night, for...what? An interview? A catch up? How long has it been, Kara? Four years?”

She doesn’t react to her name, and Cat thinks that might be the most worrying thing of all. A secret she’d guarded so closely, so fiercely, terrified of Cat finding out the truth, and now she doesn’t care? Doesn’t acknowledge it, even? 

No, this isn’t the Kara she knows. 

But then, it’s been years since Cat last touched her life. 

Years, for her to grow and change. 

Years, where Cat didn’t know her at all, aside from brief glimpses of news footage, from the articles she’d read, written by Kara’s hand. 

The woman standing before her may as well be a stranger. 

One she has no idea how to help. 

“You were always...like a port in a storm. A safe space to land, a voice of reason when I needed it. You were never afraid of telling me the truth, even if it was painful to hear, and you always knew exactly the right thing to say. And I think I need that, now, because I...I don’t want to feel this way anymore.” 

She doesn’t look at Cat when she talks, her jaw clenched tight, her fingers wrapped around the bar of Cat’s balcony railing, leaving indents in the metal. 

It’s then Cat notices the blood. It’s caked under her nails, smeared across her knuckles, and Cat’s gaze darts over her body, searching for other signs of damage. 

Maybe it’s not hers. 

Maybe that’s why, when she turns to face Cat, her eyes are dark and haunted, so lost within herself Cat struggles to find a trace of the woman she once knew so well staring back at her. 

“Feel what way?” Cat asks, and her voice is hoarse, because, different though she may be, it’s still Kara looking at her for the first time in years, and Cat had known it was naive, moving away to run from her ever-growing feelings, known it was unlikely to work, but it’s only now, four years down the line and feeling like not a single day has passed, that she realises just how naive. 

Can Kara hear the uptick in her heartbeat, as their eyes meet? Has she heard it before? Does she have any idea, how a single glance from her can knock Cat breathless? 

“Like the weight of the world is on my shoulders.” Her eyes close, and Cat lets her gaze settle on her face, how though she is physically unchanged—something about those Kryptonian genes, she suspects—she looks so much older. 

Weary. 

Defeated. 

“I can’t...I can’t do it anymore. I don’t want to. The world needs a hero, but that isn’t me.” She shakes her head so violently she lurches to the side, and Cat steadies her—futile though the gesture may be—with a hand on her elbow, her suit rough beneath her fingertips. “I’m not a leader. I’m not...I’m not cut out for this.” 

Cat casts her mind back, tries to remember any mention of Supergirl in the news, recently, that might make her feel this way. Smear campaigns against superheroes are nothing new—Cat could almost understand it, because who was going to stop them if they decided this whole being good thing just wasn’t for them?

But not Kara. Never Kara—red Kryptonite aside. 

“They deserve better than me.” She sags when she says it, falling into Cat so suddenly she barely manages to catch her, face pressed into the side of Cat’s neck, and her tears hot on her skin. 

“You are the strongest person I know,” Cat says, cheek pressing against Kara’s head, a hand settling at the small of her back, nothing but certainty in her voice, in her gentle grip. “The strongest person I’ve ever met, in fact—and let me tell you, Kara, I have met a lot of people. None of them could hold a candle to you.” 

She sobs harder, and Cat breaks, because what is it that’s brought this beautiful, selfless woman to her knees? 

“There is no one better than you,” she continues, because she thinks these are words Kara desperately needs to hear. “But you’re right about one thing—they don’t deserve you. And no one is entitled to you. What you do, Kara, putting yourself on the line, day after day, forfeiting your rights to a normal life, risking losing it all every time you charge into battle—that’s incredible. But it’s not sustainable. You keep doing it, and sooner or later, something’s going to break.”

If she’s being honest with herself, Cat is surprised it hadn’t happened sooner. Just goes to show, then, how strong she really is. 

“You’ve endured so much. So much pain, so much loss.” The likes of which Cat can’t possibly comprehend, the likes of which she will never even fully know. “It’s okay to have days where you can barely even drag yourself out of the bed in the morning. Hell, I feel like that at least once a month, and I don’t have to cope with anything like you do.” Cat doesn’t know what she’d do, if their situations were reversed. Doesn’t know if she’d be able to cope. “Kara, what...what happened?”

Something triggered this. Something to send Kara flying a thousand miles across the country, to seek out the embrace of a woman she hasn’t spoken to in years. The why, Cat thinks she understands, now. Certainly, there have been a dozen other conversations on a balcony just like this one, though the view had been a little different. And Kara had been different, too, buoyed with the feeling of something new and exciting, invincibility in its most naive form, drawing strength from Cat’s imparted wisdom, which she’d never been truly qualified to give. 

She definitely doesn’t feel qualified to deal with this, with Kara breaking in her arms. Doesn’t know what to say to make her feel better, not without all of the pieces of the story. 

“There was a fight,” she says, and she doesn’t lift her head, the words muffled against the silk of Cat’s robe. “Nothing special. No really. But he...he was strong, and he tossed a car at me, and I...I pushed it off. Didn’t look where, until...until I heard a scream.” 

Kara shifts, leans away, like she thinks Cat is about to be repulsed by her, swipes at damp cheeks with a bloodied sleeve. 

“I didn’t notice her.” Kara’s bottom lip wobbles, and Cat has never seen someone look so broken. “I didn’t know she was there, but she...it crushed her.” She clenches her jaw, clenches her fists, like she can change the story by sheer force of will alone. “She’s six years old, and she’ll never walk away.”

“Kara…”

“Don’t,” she says, so viciously Cat flinches. “If you’re about to tell me it’s not my fault, don’t. Because it is. I did that to her, not him.”

“You can’t save them all.”

“She wasn’t even in any danger though, was she?” Kara’s laugh is bitter, and not one Cat has ever heard come from her lips before. “That’s the irony of it. If I’d never been there, she’d have been fine.”

“But someone else might not have been.” 

Kara scoffs, takes a step back, and for one horrifying moment, Cat thinks she’s going to launch over the balcony and flee, leave her standing out here with an ache in her heart. 

“No one ever talks about the collateral damage,” she says, eyes focused on the horizon. “How many people’s lives have been ruined, because of me? How many buildings destroyed, how many people in hospital?”

“And how many people would be dead, if you’d never started using your powers, hm?” Cat has her counterattack ready, can’t let Kara keep going down this rabbit hole. “Thousands, I’d wager. Or the whole world, perhaps. You stopped Myriad, you stopped an alien invasion. And they’re just the ones I know about.” She steps closer, wraps her fingers around Kara’s wrist, squeezes hard so she feels it. “You will carry this in your heart for a long time, Kara, there’s no way around that. It will hurt, and it will ache, and it will make you not want to carry on, but it doesn’t erase all of the good you’ve done. All the lives you’ve touched, the people you’ve saved.”

“How can you look at me like that, knowing I’m a monster?”

“You are so many things, Kara, but monster isn’t one of them. You’ve made a mistake—a grave one—but it was an accident, and you give up because of it. What you do, is you put on the suit, and you grit your teeth, and you vow to do better next time. You carry on. You persevere.” 

“How?” She asks, and her voice breaks over the word, over the plea, and Cat clenches her jaw so she doesn’t cry, because she knows that is the opposite of what Kara needs right now. 

She came here because she needs someone to be strong for her, because she needs someone to tell her it’s going to be okay—and mean it. 

“Only you can come up with the answer to that,” Cat says, and she wraps her fingers a little tighter around Kara’s wrist. “But I think a good start is, perhaps, a shower. Wash away the bad.” Wash away the blood, staining Kara’s skin. “Come inside.”

Kara digs in her heels. “I-I don’t...you don’t have to do that. I should go.”

“I don’t want you going anywhere like this.” Not on her own, not where there’s no one to keep an eye on her. “Please, Kara. Let me help you. That’s what you wanted, isn’t it? Why you came here?”

She nods, jerky and quick, and lets Cat pull her into her bedroom, all the fight seeping out of her. 

“Wait here.” She leaves her hovering by the end of Cat’s bed, arms wrapped around her torso, and steps into her en-suite. 

She turns on the shower, sets it to scalding, and waits until the room is full of steam, until the ends of her hair begins to curl. 

When she returns to her bedroom and finds Kara stripped from her suit, she nearly has a heart attack. 

“I didn’t want to wear it anymore,” she says, and she’s shivering but Cat doesn’t think it’s from the cold. 

“I’ll find you something clean to wear.” Something not stained with dirt and regret. She digs out an old, worn Harvard T-shirt and some shorts, passes them over to Kara and politely averts her gaze as she does so before prodding her toward the bathroom. “Take as much time as you need.”

She folds the suit while she waits, puts it carefully on the chair by the balcony door along with her boots. When it starts buzzing, she jumps, worried she’s inadvertently pressed a button she shouldn’t have. Has she activated a GPS tracker? Self-destruct? Were a team of shady government agents on their way to her apartment to cart her off to a black site? 

Thank God Carter is spending the night at his friends house. She has no idea how she’d explain any of this to him. 

The buzzing doesn’t stop, so she ventures closer, finds a pocket and a phone with nearly thirty missed calls, and a dozen more texts. 

Alex is a name she recognises, but Nia and Brainy are not. Another reminder things have changed, she thinks, setting the phone down on her vanity for when Kara re-emerges. Clearly, she hasn’t told anyone where she is. 

“Thank you,” Kara says, when she opens the bathroom door, a cloud of steam enveloping her. On Cat, the shirt is baggy, but it clings to Kara, highlighting the muscle and strength hidden beneath her lithe frame, and Cat chastises herself for staring. 

Not what she needs right now. 

If Cat had ever had her doubts about Supergirl’s identity, if Kara had tried to argue when Cat had named her earlier, it would have soon come crashing down. Because now, standing in borrowed clothes, damp hair curling around her shoulders, hunched in on herself, the woman staring back at her was entirely Kara Danvers. 

Cat can’t believe she’d ever doubted it. 

“Kara, does anyone know you’re here?” She asks, makes sure her voice is gentle, and not condescending. The last thing she needs is her feeling attacked. 

“Like they’d understand,” she says, voice soft, and that’s true, Cat thinks, because she finds it hard to understand herself. “I don’t want them to.”

“At least let someone know you’re safe? Your sister, perhaps? It’s either that, or toss your phone out of the window.” As if on cue, it begins to vibrate again. “She’s calling for the hundredth time.”

Kara sighs, but takes the call, resignation on her face as she lifts it to her ear. “Alex. I’m fine.” 

A lie, Cat knows from one look at her face. She wonders if her sister can tell, too. 

“I just needed some space,” Kara says then, and Cat wonders where her sister might think she is. “I’m somewhere safe.” She casts a glance toward Cat, whose heart thuds at the thought that Kara thinks of her as a safe space. Somewhere to land, when she feels like her whole world is falling apart. 

Cat wonders when she’d earned the honor. 

“I don’t know. Tomorrow, probably. I don’t want to fucking debrief, Alex.” It explodes out of her, so sudden it takes Cat by surprise, her back ramrod straight and her fingers holding the phone so tight it’s a wonder the plastic doesn’t crack. “You saw what happened. Don’t make me relive it.” 

Cat crosses the room without thinking, pressing a hand to the small of Kara’s back. The effect is instantaneous, body relaxing beneath Cat’s fingertips, tension leaching out of her with every breath. 

This close, Cat can hear Alex’s voice on the other end of the line, tight with worry. “Come home, Kara.”

“Not yet,” she says, her voice shaky. “I...I can’t yet.” She hangs up before Alex can argue, and Cat pretends not to notice her turn the phone off before tossing it onto the chair with her suit. She’d done what Cat asked—and she doesn’t think she wants the sister knowing her apartment is the place Kara chose to land. 

Somehow, she doesn’t think that’ll go over well. 

“You can stay here tonight, if you want.” Even if she felt about Kara the way she was supposed to—appropriately, for a woman double her age, and a former boss to boot—she wouldn’t have been able to turf her out when she looks so dejected. “You can stay as long as you want, even. If you want a place to hide away from the rest of the world, consider this your sanctuary.” 

“Beside the Queen of all Media.”

“There’s a moniker I haven’t heard in a long time.” 

“Do you have a new one? Or is it just Press Secretary, now?” 

“Doesn’t have quite the same ring to it, does it?” If this is what Kara needs, idle small talk in the middle of Cat’s bedroom at a stupid hour in the morning, well. 

Cat has never been able to deny her. 

“It suits you, though.”

“And reporter suits you, Pulitzer Prize winner.” The flush that stains Kara’s cheeks is expected, but it makes Cat chuckle all the same. “You’ve been doing good work. I knew you had it in you.” 

“You always saw the best in me.”

“You say that like it’s difficult to.” Seeing the best in Kara is one of the easiest things Cat has ever done. She’d seen something special in her that first fateful meeting—she’d just no idea how special. How this meek, bespectacled woman with the hideous fashion sense would tip her life on its head. “You should get some rest,” she says, when Kara yawns. “You’ve had a...difficult day.” Something of an understatement. “You can stay in here.” 

Kara shakes her head. “I’m not kicking you out of bed, Cat.”

“You’re not—I’m offering it to you.”

“I can take the guest room.”

“There is no guest room.” Cat’s smile is wry when Kara frowns. “Not like I get a lot of visitors. It was three bedrooms, but I turned the third into an office.” 

“The couch, then.”

Cat stops her with a hand on her arm when she makes for the door. “Stay here, Kara. It’s fine.” 

“Will you...will you stay with me, then?” She asks, in a voice so small Cat feels like her heart is being squeezed in a vice. 

“I…” Is there a polite way to say no? To say I can’t think of a more terrible, masochistic idea than that without breaking the poor girl’s spirit? 

“Please? I...I don’t want to be alone.” It’s the sheen of tears in her eyes that does it, the wobble of her lip, the desperation in her voice, and Cat tells herself that it’s not specifically her that Kara wants. It’s the comfort, it’s the presence of another warm body, to ward off the chill of loneliness. 

And yet, it was her that Kara had sought out. 

And that has to mean something, even if it’s not what she so desperately wants to be. 

“Okay, I’ll stay,” she says, knowing the memory of Kara wrapped up in her sheets will linger long after they’ve been washed, but knowing, also, that it’s worth it, for the way her face lights up when Cat pulls back the covers and climbs inside. 

She has to be up in four hours, she thinks, wincing when she glances at the clock. 

Worth it, she thinks, as Kara slips in beside her. Worth it, when she turns to Cat in the dark, and presses into her side, face in the crook of her neck, and tears once again damp on her skin. 

Cat holds her, and she doesn’t sleep a wink, even when Kara’s breathing deepens, hot against her skin, fingers twitching where they’re gripping at Cat’s robe, still wrapped around her shoulders. 

Cat holds her, and thinks they might not talk about it tomorrow—Kara might, perhaps, wake up mortified in her former boss’ bed, the light of morning bringing with it a sense of clarity that maybe the decision to come here was wrong. Kara might, perhaps, flee without saying goodbye, and Cat may never see her again.

And Cat would accept that decision without question, because for her, this is enough.Stitching the broken parts of Kara back together, being here for her, offering her the comfort she so desperately needed, means more to her than anything else ever could.

[ofendlesswonder]

2+16 if you would. For Supercat :) thanks

2. Oh my god you’re in love with her.

16.You came back.

“So, Kara,” Lucy asks one night when she, Kara,Alex and Maggie are crammed into a booth at Noonan’s for one of their girl’snights – relocated there from the alien bar after Kara had had to finish worklate – a wicked glint in her eye. “When are you finally gonna tell us who yourmystery woman is?”

Kara rolls her eyes, because gets asked thisquestion from one of the three at least oncea day – it drives them mad to know that she’s seeing someone, but won’t tellthem who it is.

And she has her reasons for that. Mainly becauseshe’s enjoying having her girlfriend all to herself, but partly because she’s alittle wary of their reactions when she tells them she’s dating her former boss– Alex, especially, considering how much she knows of her and Cat’s history.

“I don’t know, Luce,” Kara answers, resting herchin in the palm of her hand and meeting her friend’s gaze. “Maybe when youstop asking me about it? So probably never.”

“Oh, come on, Kara,” Lucy pouts. “I’m not seeinganyone, I’m living vicariously through you.”

“You can live vicariously through these two,”Kara indicates Alex and Maggie with a wave of her hand. “You don’t need me.”

“Yes I do. These two have been together too long– they’re all domestic and boring now.”

“Hey!” Alex exclaims, looking offended. “We arenot boring.”

“You kind of are,” Lucy tells her, giving Alex asympathetic pat on the back. “And that’s okay, I’m happy for you guys. But,”Lucy turns her gaze back towards Kara. “I wanna hear about your sister’s newthing. What’s she like? Is she good in bed?”

Kara chokes on her drink, having just taken asip, and Alex makes a face and shoves at Lucy’s shoulder.

“Gross, Luce, I don’t wanna know about mysister’s sex life.”

“Bet she doesn’t wanna know about yours, either,”Lucy shoots back, “but we all knowwhat’s going on whenever you and Maggie disappear ‘to the bathroom’ wheneverwe’re all out together, don’t we?” Alex blushes and Maggie smirks, and Karashakes her head at all three of them. “But seriously, Kara, spill. Give me something. It doesn’t even have to beher name. Is she hot?”

“She’s… very hot,” Kara concedes, and it’s onlythen that she glances up and sees none other than Cat herself sitting at thebar just a few feet away, a martini in one hand and her phone in the other, andKara has no idea how long she’s been sat there but judging from the smirk onher lips, Cat is listening to every word she says.

She gets a text not a moment later, tries to bediscrete as she reads the message on her screen.

Please, continue to talk about how hot I am.

Don’t you know it’s rude to eavesdrop? Kara fires back, eyes flickering to Cat to watch her reaction as shereads the reply. Her superhearing picks up Cat’s quiet chuckle, one of herfavourite sounds.

Don’t you know it’s rude to talk about people when they’re not present? Is the next message Kara receives.

It’s not my fault they won’t stop asking about you!!!

Lucy clears her throat, and Kara glances up fromher phone to find three pairs of eyes staring at her.

“What?”

“Is that her?” Kara nearly has a heart attack,before she realises that Lucy is looking towards Kara’s phone, and not the bar.“Because you have literal hearteyes right now.”

“I do not.” She probably does, and her cheekstinge pink at Lucy’s teasing.

“It totally is.” Lucy looks at Kara’s phonethoughtfully, and she’s quick to tuck it back into her pocket in-case herfriend decides to dive across the table to try and read Kara’s messages. “Come on, Kara, give me details. I’m dyingover here.”

“I can give you some details,” Alex says whenKara doesn’t answer, and Kara eyes her sister warily. “Kara’s spent every nightat her place this week.”

“You have?” Lucy looks interested. “That seems…soon.”

“It’s been two months,” Kara defends. “And I havenot.”

“Oh yeah?” Alex quirks an eyebrow towards her.“Then how come whenever I come over to your place you’re never around?”

“Because I’ve been busy.”

“Yeah, screwing your girl,” Lucy says with agrin. Kara makes a face, and Lucy sticks her tongue out at her.

“No,”Kara insists. “With… other stuff. You know, of the super kind.”

“You do knowwho we work for, right?” Alex asks, pointing between herself and Lucy. “We knowthat it’s been a quiet week on the alien front.”

“I do other things! Fires, muggings, robberies.”

“Maggie?” Alex turns towards her girlfriend. “Youheard about any crime sprees this week?”

“Nope.” Maggie takes a sip of her drink, and grinsat Kara’s pout. “It’s been quiet on the NCPD front, too.”

“You all suck,” Kara grumbles. “So I spent mostnights this week at her place. That doesn’t mean anything.”

“It means you’re whipped,” Lucy says, and Kararolls her eyes but can’t disagree – she’s falling for Cat, hard and fast. “Whenare you moving in? Do we need to hire you a U-Haul?” Kara chooses to ignoreher. “I have a question. What if something super had come up this week? Do you have excuses ready for why yourandomly need to disappear for a few hours? Cause I know you’re a terribleliar, and we should probably work on that.”

“Um.” Kara shifts her weight nervously,steadfastly avoids making eye contact with her sister. “So, about that…”

“Oh my god.” Alex snaps to attention, and whenshe shoots a glance at her sister she sees Alex looking at her with angerglinting in her eyes. “You told her?!Kara!”

“It’s not a big deal!” Kara insists, but Alex’soutrage doesn’t fade.

“You can’t just go around spilling something likethat! You’ve been together two months, how do you know she’s trustworthy? Thatif you break up you’re not going to end up on the front page of the Tribune?Cat Grant would kill for that story.”Kara winces, and out of the corner of her eye she sees Cat bristle at the bar.

“That’s not going to happen, so calm down.”

“How could you possibly know that?”

“Because it won’t.”Alex just shakes her head, and Kara heaves out a sigh. “Look, she wouldn’t dothat to me, okay? She’d never hurt me like that, or put me and anyone who I careabout in danger, even if things ended terribly between us – which I really hopethey don’t, by the way. I want this to work, and that means being honest. Abouteverything.”

Alex looks surprised by the outburst, but doesn’tseem convinced.

“Look, even if you think that’s true, it’s stilla risk. I want you to bring her down to the DEO tomorrow. Have her sign therelevant paperwork.”

“No,” Kara grinds out between her teeth. “Myrelationship is not some kind of… transaction that requires a form to be filledout.”

“Actually - ”

“I don’t want to hear it.” Kara’s voice is sharp,cutting off her sister with a rarely-used glare. “She knows my secret, she’snot going to spill it, and I am not bringingher into the DEO for an interrogation courtesy of my overprotective sister.”

Alex looks furious, opens her mouth but Maggiesettles a hand on her girlfriend’s arm. “Maybe we should leave this discussionfor another time?” Alex gives a reluctant nod, but Kara suspects there will betension between the two of them for a while yet.

“So,” Lucy starts, voice chipper, “tell us alittle bit more about her – maybe it’ll help your sister warm up to her.”

“Fine,” Kara sighs. “We met at work,” she doesn’twant to lie, but she also doesn’t want to give them too many details, doesn’twant them working out Cat’s identity before Kara has the chance to tell them.“She’s incredibly smart, and beautiful, and she makes me happier than I everremember being, and - ”

“Oh my god, you’re in love with her!”

“What?” Kara squeaks in response to Lucy’sstatement, horrified that Cat might have overheard – and sure enough, when sheglances towards the bar, she sees that Cat’s back has stiffened, and Karaswears that she’s barely breathing. “I,” she manages a laugh that comes out asmore of a wheeze. “I am not.”

“You are,”Lucy insists, look of glee on her face. “Let’s recap, shall we? You’ve spentevery night this week with her, even though you’ve only been dating for twomonths.” Lucy starts to tick off each of her points on her fingers. “When shemessages you, you get hearteyes but that is nothingcompared to the look on your face when you talk about her. You’ve told her yoursecret, and seem totally convinced that she’s going to keep it. And you’re the colour of a tomato rightnow, because you’re super embarrassed that I’ve called you out on yourfeelings.”

“That’s not – I’m not – you’re so - ”

“And now you’ve been reduced to a stuttering messbecause you know I’m right.” Lucy looks far too smug, and Kara is mortified,watches as Cat stands from where she was sat, smooths out her skirt anddisappears from view.

Kara’s throat feels tight, and watching Cat walkaway is like a knife to the heart. It’s like she’s ruined things, somethingbeautiful and wonderful, and it’s not even her fault and Rao, she doesn’t know how she’s going to fix this.

“Kara?” Lucy calls her name, looks at her withconcern. “Are you alright?” Kara doesn’t know if she can speak around the lumpin her throat. “Did I push things too far?”

“N-no, Luce.” Her voice is shaky, and she forcesa smile that she knows doesn’t reach her eyes. “It’s fine.” Lucy looks like shewants to push the issue, and Kara climbs to her feet. “Anyone need anotherdrink? Next round is on me.”

She’s sent to the bar with their orders, leansagainst it and drums her fingers on the countertop, so lost in her own thoughtsthat she startles when she feels a warm arm press against her own and catchesthe scent of a familiar perfume.

“You came back,” she breathes, turning to findCat beside her. Cat’s lips are curved into a smile, her eyes bright, and Karafeels something like relief settle in her chest, because Cat is still here.

“People usually do, when they use the bathroom.”Amusement dances in Cat’s eyes.

“That’s… oh. I thought…”

“That I’d run away?” Cat guesses, and Kara hasthe grace to look sheepish. “You can’t get rid of me that easily, Kara. Ithought you knew that.”

“I do, I just… panicked, I guess. So youoverheard?”

“Even if I weren’t already listening in to seewhat you really think of me, little Lane’s shriek was decidedly hard toignore.” Kara winces. “So.” Cat looks uncharacteristically nervous, fiddleswith the chain of her necklace. “Is it true?”

“I…” Kara trails off, looks into Cat’s eyes andfeels herself drown. ”It’s not exactly how I planned on telling you.” She looksaway, down at her hands. “But yeah.” Her eyes flicker back to Cat’s face. “Ilove you. I know it’s early and if you think it’s too soon that’s okay, youdon’t have to say it ba - ”

“I love you, too.” It’s quiet, and Kara blinks,wonders if she’s misheard the other woman. “I have for a long time, I think. Ilove you enough to sit through your sister’s interrogation and sign on thedotted line wherever she wishes, if it’ll make her more amenable to ourrelationship. I know one of the reasons you’ve wanted to keep things between usquiet is because you’re worried what she’ll think.”

“More of how she’ll react,” Kara admits. “But…maybe Lucy can be a good buffer.” Kara looks thoughtfully to where her friendssit – they’re all looking her way, curiosity on their faces. “Maybe you want tomeet them?”

“I… now?” Cat looks at her, uncertain, and Karanods, because she thinks it might be time, and Cat loves her (Cat loves her, and that’s something thatKara’s going to repeat to herself over and over again, is surprised that she’snot floating several inches off the floor with glee).

“Yeah, come on.” Kara gathers up their drinks andheads towards her table before she can change her mind, glancing over hershoulder to check that Cat is following in her wake. She sets the drinks downon the table before turning back towards Cat, taking her hand and tugging herthe final few steps forward. “You guys remember Cat, right?” She directs thatmore towards Alex and Lucy. “Well, she’s who I’m dating. She’s my girlfriend.”

There’s a stunned silence, and Cat’s gripping herhand so hard that Kara would be worried for the safety of her fingers if shewere human. Kara gives her a reassuring squeeze.

Lucy is the first one to react, pumping one fistinto the air, a grin breaking across her face. “Danvers, you owe me a hundredbucks.” Alex scowls, and Kara frowns.

“Um, excuse me? She owes you what?”

“When we found out you were dating someone,” Lucyexplains, “I said ‘I bet it’s Cat Grant’. Your sister was convinced that itwasn’t, so she took me up on that bet. So hand it over, Danvers.” Lucy lookspositively gleeful, but Kara is stunned.

“But… how did you…”

“Oh, please.” Lucy waves a hand. “I worked atCatCo for a while, remember? The sexual tension between the two of you waspalpable. It was only a matter of time before one of you came to your sensesand asked the other out. Just out of curiosity, and totally not because there’salso a betting pool in the CatCo bullpen,” Kara’s mouth fell open, “who madethe first move?”

“Kara did,” Cat answers because Kara cannot, andshe nudges Kara’s hip until she sits down in the booth, Cat sliding in besideher, their hands still clasped.

“More money for me,” Lucy says, in a song-songvoice, and Cat’s lips twitch in amusement. “And what date was it, exactly?” Sheasks, pulling out her phone, no doubt to inform the others that were bettingthat it was over.

“Don’t you think you should ask before outing usto the whole office?” Kara asks, shooting a nervous glance Cat’s way.

“Oh, please, like I said, we all knew it was justa matter of time. No-one will bat an eyelid. And anyway, I’m pretty sure thatthey’re all so terrified of Cat that they’d never dream of revealing thatthey’d bet on her. They’ll all continue to act completely oblivious.”

“It was April twentieth,” Cat supplies, andKara’s just relieved that she’s taking this so well. “Who won?”

“Not me,” Lucy pouts. “I thought you’d get yourheads out of your asses way earlier.Eve got it, I think.”

“I can’t believe you bet on us.”

“You specifically, Kara,” Lucy reaches over thetable and pats her on the shoulder. “And you just won me so much money so welldone, champ. I knew you had it in you.” Kara rolls her eyes and swats Lucy’shand away before daring to glance towards her sister, who’s been unusually quietfor the whole exchange.

“Are you okay with this?” Alex studies them forone long moment.

“I… am not super pleased that you told the queenof all media who you are, especially afterwhat happened last time she suspected you.” Both Cat and Kara winced. “But Iheard the way you spoke about her before, so I’ll give her a chance. If she comes to the DEO with metomorrow.” Alex adds the last part with a sickly sweet smile, and Kara tenses.

“As long as you promise not to lock me in a celland throw away the key,” Cat speaks before Kara can tell her sister off, “thenI’ll come in. I’ll do whatever it is you want me to do in order to prove howmuch I care for your sister.”

Alex gives Cat a curt nod, and Kara lets out along breath.

“So, Cat, how are things at CatCo? Miss yourfavourite lawyer?” Kara can always count on Lucy to smooth over any situation,and she feels Cat relax beside her, falling into her familiar banter with Lois’sister.

Kara finds herself smiling wider than she has ina long time, sitting with her girlfriend and her friends, watching as they getto know Cat a little better, and she knows that it won’t be long before theyall love Cat almost as much as she does.

[ofendlesswonder]

12 for SuperCat? Thanks :)

12. For some reason, I’m attractedto you.

“You should ask her out.” Carter’s words ringthrough Cat’s office the second that the door closes behind Kara’s retreatingform, the other woman having come to see Cat for advice about an article thatshe was thinking about writing.

“I should what?”Cat asks, aghast, staring at Carter where he sits on one of her white couches, dutifullydoing his homework.

“Kara,” he says, without even lifting his head. “Youshould ask her out.”

“Why on earth would I do that?”

“Because you like her.” Cat scoffs, and Carterraises his head to shoot her his best ‘sure,Mom’ look. “Don’t look at me like that, I know you do.” Cat doesn’t know how hepossibly could. “I know because I’ve seen you around her,” he continues, andCat peers at him suspiciously, wonders if he’s somehow acquired mind-readingpowers. “You go all soft and you smile a lot and you just look happy. And she looks at you the sameway. So you should ask her out, ‘cause I think she’ll say yes, and then you canbe happy together.”

“Things aren’t that simple, Carter,” Cat sighs.

“Sure they are – you like her, she likes you.What’s so complicated about that?” Cat can’t believe she’s having this conversationwith her teenage son.

“The fact that she’s half my age - ”

“Just because you don’t date people older thanyou doesn’t mean that Kara has the same policy,” Carter interrupts, and Catshoots him a glare. “Just saying.”

“The fact that she’s my employee - ”

“But she doesn’t work for you directly anymore.”Cat hates that he’s actually coming out with some valid points, because Cat hasa hard enough time convincing herself lately that pursing Kara would be a badmove.

And it would be, for more reasons than Cat feelscomfortable listing for her son.

Like the fact that Cat’s terrified she’ll ruinKara like she’s ruined all of her past relationships, that Kara deserves morethan Cat’s scared she’ll ever be able to give.

And then there’s Kara’s secret, the one thatweighs heavy between them.

Cat’s not been afraid to press, to let Kara knowthat she already knows, in an effortto make it easy for the other woman to come clean.

But she’s yet to do so, and it stings, to knowthat Kara doesn’t trust her.

It makes Cat want to hold herself back in thesame way Kara is, makes her wary, and how is she supposed to start something(no matter how much she may want to), with deceit and dishonesty lying betweenthem?

“She may no longer be my assistant, but I’m stillher boss,” Cat tells her son, trying to keep her voice firm. “And it’s a badidea.” Carter heaves out a sigh. “Why are you pushing me on this, anyway?”

“Because I like Kara.” This, Cat knows – despite Kara’sdisastrous attempt at babysitting, the other woman has kept an eye on Carter ona couple of occasions since, after Carter wouldn’t stop pestering Cat about gettingto spend some more time with her. “And I want you to be happy.”

“I am happy,Carter,” she tells him, and she tries to mean it, she really does, but… it justfeels like something’s missing, almost, ever since…

Well.

Ever since Supergirl had wrapped her in a hug,and Cat remembered what it felt like to be held.

Wondered what it would feel like to be lovedagain.

Cat had already been out of her depth when itcame to Kara – had been since almost her very first day, when she’d come intoCat’s office and taken her completely by surprise, a feeling that had onlydeepened as the months wore on, as Kara stuck by her, stuck close to her,despite all of Cat’s attempts to keep her at arm’s length – but that day wasthe day she really, truly surrendered to it.

Realised that Kara had wormed her way into Cat’shead and her heart, and she was there to stay.

“You’re not,” he replies bluntly. “I know you’renot, not really. Why can’t you just take a chance?”

It’s a good question, but not one Cat’s sure shewants to answer.

“Because it’s just not worth it, Carter.” Cathopes that that’ll be enough to make him drop it, but one look at hisexpression tells her that that won’t be the case. “What would you even want meto say to her, hm? ‘For some reason, I’m attracted to you, my son seems tothink that you’re attracted to me too, want to go get a drink sometime?’”

“Well, no, Mom.” Carter looks at her, horrified. “I’mfourteen and have never been on a date but even I know that that’s a terrible way to ask someone out.”

“I know, Carter,” Cat sighs. “That was a joke.”

“So how would you really ask her out?” Heprompts, looking far more interested in her answer than he should be. “Okayfine,” he says when she stays silent, “let me guess. ‘Kara, you’ve probablynoticed by now that whenever you come and see me I make googly eyes at you andthat’s because I’m crazy about you – Carter’s at his father’s this weekend,want to come over for dinner?’”

“And I thought my attempt was bad,” Cat deadpans, and Carter just grins. “Look,Carter - ” The words that are supposed to follow die in her throat because it’sthen that Cat looks up, sees past her son’s head and notices that outside inthe bullpen, instead of going to back to her own office after leaving Cat’s,Kara is leaning against her old desk, talking to Eve.

Kara, who has superhearing.

Kara, who’s so close that she could probably hearCat’s conversation with Carter without any effort at all – who might haveoverheard it by mistake, even.

Oh, god, she’s going to be sick.

Because Kara turns her head, just slightly,glances in Cat’s direction and there’s a small, soft smile on her lips and Cat doesn’tknow if it’s at something Eve said or something she’s said and Cat might just have to ban Carter from her officefor the rest of his life is this is the trouble he’s going to get her into.

“Mom? Are you okay? You look a little pale.”Outside, Kara coughs to hide her smile, and Cat thinks that she’s definitelylistening in.

And she’s definitelygoing to be sick.

“I-I’m fine, sweetheart.” She forces a smile. “Don’tyou have homework you should be getting on with?” He nods, gets back to work,and Cat forces her eyes away from Kara, focuses back on the screen in-front ofher and she reads the same sentence four times before she gives up and rubs ahand across her face, accepting that she’s probably not going to get any workdone anytime soon.

Her mind is spinning too much for that.

Because she can’t go and confront Kara, notreally, because she shouldn’t even know that Kara could overhear them.

Cat should be completely oblivious to the factthat Kara Danvers is now painfully aware that Cat has feelings for her, but she’snot and this whole situation isdefinitely going to drive her insane.

“Miss Grant?” Cat’s torn out of her thoughts bythe sound of Eve’s voice, her assistant hovering in the doorway. “Kara asked meto give you a message.” Cat raises an eyebrow, and beckons Eve over when sheindicates a slip of paper held in one hand.

Eve drops it on her desk before heading back toher own, and it takes every ounce of Cat’s self-control not to open itimmediately, but she’s all too aware of Carter’s eyes on her, waits until hereturns to his work before reaching for the note with shaking fingers.

Kara’s familiar handwriting stares up at her whenshe opens it, and Cat’s breath catches at the words.

Just so you know – I’d say yes if you ever asked.

No matter how you did it.

K

It’s Kara admitting more than the fact that shehas feelings for Cat, too. No, it’s much more meaningful than that – it’s Karacoming clean, confessing her secret, because they both know that Cat’s glasswalls are thick, that there’s no way Kara would have heard anything if therewas nothing super about her.

“Everything okay?” Carter asks, peering at herwith concern, and Cat smiles, a genuine one, and tucks the note away in herdesk.

“Yes, sweetheart, everything’s fine. There’ssomething I need to do – will you be alright here for a few minutes?” He nods,and Cat climbs to her feet, walks the now-familiar path to Kara’s new office (Catlikes to escape there, sometimes, enjoying both the quiet and Kara’s company),heart beating a rapid rhythm in her chest.

The door’s open, Kara sitting behind her desk andfrowning down at an article on her desk, covered with red pen, no doubt Snapper’slatest edits, but she looks up when Cat knocks, frown melting into a brightsmile as she meets Cat’s gaze.

“I got your note.” Cat slips inside the office, closesthe door behind her and pads over to Kara’s desk with quick, sure steps.

“You did?”

“I did.” Cat pauses when she reaches Kara, beforestretching out a hand, curling her fingers around the frame of Kara’s glasses,gratified when Kara sucks in a breath as Cat’s fingertips brush against herskin. She tugs the glasses off her face and then makes quick work of Kara’sponytail, pulling out the tie and fanning her hair over her shoulders. “Supergirl.”

“I didn’t know how to tell you,” Kara saysquietly, looking up at Cat with eyes as bright as a cloudless sky. “It’d beenso long and I just… I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.” It’s perhaps not the revelation thatshe’d been hoping for, but it doesn’t matter – because she knows now, and Kara trusts her, and that’s the greatest feeling inthe world. “I have something to ask you.”

“You do?” Kara’s eyes are teasing, her smilewide. “I can’t imagine what it might be.”

“Have dinner with me tomorrow night.”

“Cat Grant, are you asking me out on a date?”

“Don’t push it,” Cat warns, but she’s joking, andKara’s laugh is something she wants to hear over and over again.

“I’d love to have dinner with you.”

“Really?”

“Really.”Kara rises to her feet, presses a kiss to Cat’s cheek that she feels all theway down to her toes.

“I’ll pick you up at eight,” Cat says, when shefeels like she can speak without her voice wavering, and Kara’s smile isdazzling.

“I can’t wait.”

[ofendlesswonder]

Ahhh, you're back!! "Be my wife" for supercat please

22. Be my wife.

“You look like you’re about to pass out,” Alex says, hip leaningagainst the kitchen counter of the kitchen Kara’s shared with Cat ever sinceshe’d moved in six months ago. “Are you about to pass out? Can I please videoit if you do? God, that’d be great in the wedding video.”

“Can you please not use the word ‘wedding’ until after she saysyes?” Kara’s voice is more than a little strangled, high with nerves, and shedoesn’t think she’s going to pass out but she does think she’s going to be sick.

“Oh, come on, Kara, you know she’s going to say yes. She’s crazyabout you.” Logically, Kara knows that – knows that the last two years havebeen the best of her and Cat’s lives, that Cat loves her and they’ve talked about a long future together moretimes than she can count but now that the moment is here, now that there’s aring sitting heavy in her pocket, she’s terrified that Cat is going to turn herdown. “Unless you pass out at the dinner table. Then she might say no.” 

“Alex, stop torturing your sister,” Maggie calls from where she’sstirring a pot at the stove, pointing a wooden spoon threateningly in herwife’s direction. “She’s nervous enough as it is.”

“But it’s so fun,” Alex pouts, and Maggie rolls her eyes.

“Oh, Rao, I’m going to mess this up, aren’t I? And she’s going tobreak up with me, and I’m going to die alone and unhappy because I let the loveof my life get away, and - ”

“Hey.” Alex cuts her off, clamping a hand on either one of Kara’sarms and squeezing firmly. “Look at me.” Kara does. “You’re not going to messthis up, okay? You’re gonna do great. And even if you don’t, she’s going to sayyes anyway. Because she loves you. So you’ve got nothing to worry about. Justrelax.”

Kara nods, but she doesn’t know how to relax, not really – notwhen there’s a nervous energy thrumming through her veins, her heart beatingfaster than normal and she can’t sweat but if she could she knows her palmswould be damp.

Kara’s faced death countless times, faced hundreds of foes, humanand alien alike, saved the world more times than she can count but it’s this,the thought of proposing to the woman she loves more than anything on thisEarth and beyond, that stops her in her tracks.

This is thehardest thing that she’s ever had to do.

Which is ridiculous, but she just… she loves Cat so much, loves their life together, loves being together, and she’s terrified ofsomehow messing that up.

She knows that Cat’s been married before, more than once, that ithad never worked out and she doesn’t want that to happen to them, doesn’t wantCat to think that every one of her marriages has to end in failure.

“I think I’m gonna throw up.”

“Relax,” Alex insists.“It’s all going to work out.”

“And you’re not allowed to throw up,” Maggie turns the spoon onKara. “If I spent two hours helping you make – well, no, actually, just making because you’re being too much ofa useless bisexual to be of any help– this meal for Cat, you’d better fucking eat it.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Kara chirps, because Maggie’s tiny but sometimesshe’s also kinda scary – Kara’s seen her playing too many games of monopoly tonot have a healthy dose of fear over Maggie’s dark side. “Can I do anything tohelp now?”

“Nope, I’m pretty much done.” Maggie turns off the stove. “And Catwill be here soon, so we should make ourselves scarce.” Kara almost pleads withthem to stay but bites her tongue, instead hugs them both goodbye. “Good luck,”Maggie whispers into her ear, and Alex gives Kara’s shoulder one last squeezebefore they both disappear out the front door, leaving her alone.

The waiting is torture.

It’s barely been five minutes before she hears a key in the door,but to Kara, it feels like an eternity, her mind running a mile a minute,thinking over all the possible outcomes that this evening could have.

“Kara?” She hears Cat call as she closes the door behind her. “Areyou home?” Kara’s too paralyzed by the fact that Cat’s here to be able to form words. “And have you been cooking?”

Kara’s not exactly a chef – before she and Cat got together, herdiet had mostly consisted of microwave meals and takeout – and although she’sgotten a little better in the time they’ve been dating, she’s still limited bywhat she can do in the kitchen.

“You have been cooking,”Cat murmurs when she appears in the kitchen doorway. “What’s the specialoccasion?”

“I… I just wanted to s-surprise you. Maggie helped.”

“Well, it smells amazing.” Cat pads over to her, stares down intothe pot and hums appreciatively before she leans up to press a kiss to Kara’slips. “What’s the matter?” She asks when she leans away, peering up at Kara’sface. “You look… strange.”

“I’m fine.” But her voice is too high, and Cat frowns, and oh,Rao, she’s already messing it up. “Do you want to eat?”

“Not until you tell me what’s wrong.” Cat stops Kara from dartingaway with a hand around her wrist. “And don’t lie and say it’s nothing.” Karaworries at her bottom lip, and why is she badat this? “Because you never cook for me and I’ve never seen you look likethis, so something’s going on. Tell me,” Cat implores, and Kara sighs, takesCat’s hand and pulls her over to the couch, because maybe if she sits down herlegs will stop feeling like they’re about to buckle beneath her.

“Nothing’s wrong, it’s just, I’mjust… really bad at this,apparently.” She sighs again, runs a frustrated hand through her hair, and shewrites for a damn living so why haveall her words suddenly deserted her?

“Kara.” Cat’s voice is soft, patient, and she squeezes Kara’s handgently. “You know that you can tell me anything.”

“I know. You’re amazing. You know that, right?” This is easier,talking about Cat, about how much she loves her. “You’re just… you’re so good and you have such a big heart and Ilove every single thing about you, and I have no idea how I got so lucky.”

“There’s not a ‘but’ coming, is there?” Cat asks, suspicious, andKara violently shakes her head.

“No! There are no buts. Although I do love your butt.” Cat rolls her eyes. “I just… I had this whole speechplanned, you know? And it was a really good speech, too. I think it would’vemade you proud. Except I can’t remember any of it right now, not a single part,even though I practiced it so many times. Like, so many times, only I couldn’twrite it down in-case you found it so I can’t even look at it right now to remind myself - ”

“Kara.”

“Yes?”

“You’re rambling.” Cat’s eyes are sparkling, an amused smile onher mouth and in that moment Kara knows thatCat’s figured out what’s going on here. “And as much as I love your nervousramblings… is there something you maybe want to ask me?”

Kara’s relieved that Cat’s putting her out of her misery, butevery ounce of eloquence still fails her when she opens her mouth.

“Be my wife?”

“That’s the best you’ve got?” Cat asks, but she’s laughing, hereyes shining. “Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Kara Danvers’ proposal is just‘be my wife’?”

“I’d like to see you do any better,” Kara pouts, and Cat’seyebrows raise at the challenge.

“Kara Zor-El, you are the most extraordinary woman I have ever metin my entire life. Every single day I wake up and marvel that out of all theplanets in this universe, you fell to mine. That out of every city in theworld, you chose to live in mine. That out of every company in that city, you chose mine. That no matter what I threwyour way, you took it in your stride and never quit. I don’t know how you fellin love with me, but I’m so thankful that you did. I never thought I’d feellove again, but you changed that for me, changed my life, and I don’t know what I’d do without you. You make mestronger, you make me better, and I want to spend every single day for the restof my life by your side so, Kara, will you marry me?”

“Wow,” Kara breathes, her throat tightand her eyes hot with tears. “Okay, that was pretty good.” Cat laughs, loud andlong, at tugs at Kara’s hands to bring her close.

“Come here.” Cat kisses her, hot andhard and deep, and Kara groans and reaches for Cat’s hips to pull Cat into herlap. “Yes, I’ll be your wife,” Cat breathes against her lips when they part,and Kara’s heart feels like it’s going to burst out of her chest with how fullit feels. “Dreadful proposal aside.”

“Hey!” Kara pouts again. “It wasn’t that bad.”

“It was pretty bad,” Cat smiles,forehead resting against Kara’s. “But it was very you.”

“Awkward and rambly?”

“Exactly,” Cat chuckles. “Is there aring? Or did you forget that part too?”

“Oh, shoot.” Kara fumbles for herpocket, for the little black box nestled within it, and her fingers tremble asshe opens it.

“It’s beautiful,” Cat murmurs when shesees it, and Kara lets out a breath of relief. “Put it on.” Kara does, slidingthe ring onto Cat’s finger and pausing for a moment to admire the sight of it,perfect and sparkling. “I love it.”

“You do?”

“I do. And I love you.” Cat kisses her again, open-mouthed and messy and leaving Karacraving more. “I know that there’s food waiting,” Cat whispers it against theskin of her neck as she kisses her way down it, “but how about we leave ituntil later and go straight to dessert?”

Kara’s response is to lift Cat in herarms, speed them to their bedroom, and strip off Cat’s clothes until she’swearing nothing but her ring.

[ofendlesswonder]

10, SuperCat please

10. I’m so happy you’re alive.

This is also posted on ao3, because apparently I have not lost the skill of being able to turn a five word prompt into something that is definitely longer than a drabble. 

Set at the start of s2, with the usual assumptions applied - no Mon-Hell, Cat didn’t leave, etc. 

Supergirl falls from the sky, and the world fallsout from underneath Cat’s feet.

She’s in her office when it happens, pacingin-front of her desk in the middle of a meeting.

It’s nothing, at first – just one screenflickering with grainy cellphone footage of an alien involved in an altercationdowntown – and Cat thinks nothing of it as she turns on her heel and continuesher tirade.

A few moments later two screens show the flutterof a red cape as Supergirl arrives on the scene, and Cat thinks it’ll bebusiness as usual – there’ll be a fight, the alien will be caught, andSupergirl will triumph, coming home to Cat later that evening, if a littlebattered and bruised.

Their relationship is still new, just a few weeksold, had happened shortly after Kara’s promotion to reporter when the powerdynamics between them hadn’t been quite so extreme and neither of them had beenable to ignore the simmering attraction between them for any longer.

It’s new, and no-one knows yet, save for Carter –they’d wanted some time to figure things out for themselves before tellingother people – and Cat doesn’t think she’s ever been so happy.  

It’s hard, though, dating a superhero.

And not just because it keeps Kara so damn busy.

It’s more than that – it’s having to deal withthe person you care about regularly putting themselves in danger, knowing thatone day they might not come home, having to suffer through every kick and punchwhen the battles are caught on camera, and not knowing what the outcome willbe.

Today, it isn’t business as usual.

Because Kara looks out of her depth, out there onthose screens (on all of them now, the battle dragging on and capturing theattention of everyone in the office, Cat’s meeting abandoned as her employeesgather in-front of the screens, watching with baited breath as the city’s herotakes a beating), her face bloodied and bruised, and when her opponent deliversanother blow, it’s hard enough to knock her from the sky and send her crashingdown to the street below.

The office is silent as everyone holds theirbreath, waiting for Supergirl to rise back into the air and finish things.

But she never does.

Cat watches as a figure dressed all in blackdarts into view on the screen, can see the tension in the woman’s shoulders andeven though they’ve never officially met she recognises Alex Danvers as shedashes towards her fallen sister.

Alex is followed a moment later by several othersbefore the screens go black, presumably due to DEO interference, and Cat feelssick because she knows they wouldn’t do that unless they had a damn goodreason.

Cat forces herself to turn away, catches the eyeof a very pale James Olsen and watches as he raises his phone to his ear withtrembling fingers before disappearing from view. Cat is desperate to go afterhim, to find out what’s happening, but she knows she can’t, has to keep herselftogether especially now, with her office so crowded.

Instead, she takes a breath and snaps at them allto get back to work, even though she knows she won’t be getting anything doneherself for the rest of the day, not until she knows that Kara’s okay.

She tries calling Kara’s phone, even as she knowsit’s useless.

She calls and calls and calls, but no-one everpicks up.

She keeps an eye on the news coverage, too,in-case anyone had captured footage of Supergirl being taken away, or somehow,miraculously escaping unscathed.

Cat can barely believe her luck when, just a fewhours later, Supergirl appears on-screen again, stopping a robbery downtown.

The office cheers at the sight of her, but Catnotices James, waiting for something at the printer with deep lines around hiseyes and a dark expression on his face, barely even glance towards the screen,and something tells Cat that whoever it is, flying through the sky in red andblue, that it’s not the woman she’s falling in love with.

Her relief fades to panic, because the onlyreason to employ a Supergirl double to convince the city that she’s alive andwell would be if the woman herself wasn’t going to be able to anytime in theforeseeable future.

The thought leaves her cold, and she calls Karaonce more.

It goes straight to voicemail.

//

Later that day when she leaves the office, Cattells her driver to take a detour.

She goes to Kara’s apartment building, rushes outof the car before it’s even fully stopped, all but runs inside and up thestairs, and is out of breath by the time she reaches Kara’s door.

She knocks, but no-one answers.

She waits a few minutes, and when there’s stillno answer she reaches for her purse, grabs a rarely used bobby pin and doessomething she hasn’t done in a long, long time – she picks the lock.

It’s just as easy as she remembers, and sheglances over her shoulder to check there’s no-one watching before she opens thedoor and slips inside.

It’s empty, and it looks like Kara left in a hurrythat morning – there’s a coffee cup waiting to be washed by the sink, anunfolded pair of pyjamas lying on the floor next to an unmade bed, a notebookwith a few hastily scrawled notes lying open on the sofa.

Cat almost expects Kara to come swooping throughthe window at any moment, imagines the confusion that would be on her face atfinding Cat inside her home, the way she’d laugh in delight when she found outthat Cat was an expert when it came to breaking and entering.

It makes her heart ache, and Cat wonders ifshe’ll ever see Kara again and chokes back a sob, tells herself to keep ittogether until she knows for sure how bad things are – vows to find out forherself in the morning.

She takes one last look around the apartmentbefore she leaves, heading back to her own place and the welcome distractionthat she knows Carter will provide.

//

Cat barely sleeps that night, gets to work almostan hour earlier than she normally would, and all but pounces on James Olsenwhen he walks through the door, summoning him into her office with a mere look.

“Everything alright?” He asks, looking wary, andCat scrutinises him for a long moment, trying to gauge his emotions – hedoesn’t look like he’s grieving, and Cat takes some small comfort in that,because it means that Kara must still be alive.

“How is she? Supergirl? After the fightyesterday?”

“Oh.” James looks surprised by the question,blinks a couple of times before he forces a smile. “Well, you saw her dealingwith that robbery last night, she’s fine. That other fight just looked a lotworse than it actually was.” He’s lying, Cat can tell, but she doesn’t call himout on it, lets him think she’s reassured.

“Glad to hear it.” Her smile is tight, and shewonders if he notices. “Do you know what time Kara will be in today? I need totalk to her about something.” She asks because she expects him to tell her thatKara’s called in sick, but she doesn’t get the answer she’s expecting.

“I’m pretty sure she’s already in hernot-so-secret office.” Cat’s heart leaps, but she tries not to show it, simplydismisses James with a nod and waits for him to leave before she makes abeeline for Kara’s office.

Logically, she knows that she’s not going to findwhat she wants there – Kara would have never ignored her calls if there wasnothing wrong – but she can’t stop the bloom of hope that springs up in herchest.

Her heart stutters when she opens Kara’s officedoor and finds her sitting behind her desk, her hair scraped into her signatureponytail and glasses perched on her nose, wearing a blue blouse that Cat’snever seen her in before.

“Kara,” she breathes, taking a hesitant steptowards the other woman and letting the door shut behind her. “You’re okay.”

“Of course I’m okay, Miss Grant. Why wouldn’t Ibe?” The words, along with the little frown of confusion on Kara’s face, arelike a bucket of cold water over her head, draining her hope away because this,this stranger staring at her through Kara’s blue, blue eyes… this isn’t Kara.

This is whatever imposter was flying aroundNational City last night draped in a cape that didn’t belong to them.

This wasn’t herKara.

A look crosses not-Kara’s face that Cat can’tdecipher before it’s smoothed away, and she opens her mouth to say somethingbut Cat cuts her off with a wave of her hand, forcing a smile that she knowsdoesn’t reach her eyes.

“I noticed you weren’t around yesterday afternoon– Snapper said you weren’t feeling well,” Cat lies. “Just wanted to check youweren’t spreading your germs around my bullpen.”

With that Cat turns on her heel and leaves,stalking back to her office and wondering what the hell she’s going to do now.

She checks her phone but Kara still hasn’tcalled, and she’s all set to dust off her investigative skills and find outwhere the mysterious DEO base that Kara’s mentioned a couple of times islocated before Eve waves her down with an emergency at the Tribune that Catcan’t ignore.

She’s just finishing up when a dark shadowappears across her desk, and there’s a pointed barb on her tongue aboutinterrupting her without an appointment that dies on her lips when she glancesup into the face of none other than Alex Danvers.

She looks furious,her jaw tight and her eyes dark and hard, intimidating in her DEO gear andthere’s an FBI badge in her hand that she’d no doubt waved in order to make herway into Cat’s office without being challenged.

Over Alex’s shoulder, Cat sees the Kara imposterhovering in the doorway, and every single pair of eyes in the bullpen lookinginto her office.

Cat supposes that her employees thinking she’sunder investigation from the FBI will be worth it if she finally gets heranswers about Kara.

“Shall we talk somewhere more private?” Catsuggests, and for a moment she thinks Alex is going to disagree before she nodscurtly and motions for Cat to lead the way.

She does, rising to her feet and stepping ontoher balcony, sliding the door firmly shut after Alex and not-Kara follow herout into the warm morning air.

“How long have you been sleeping with my sister?”Alex asks as soon as the door closes, whirling towards Cat in a cloud of angerthat almost makes her take a step back.

“I don’t know what you’re - ”

“Don’t lie to me,” Alex hisses, before shereaches out and presses Cat back against the wall, hard enough to make herwince. Alex leans her weight against her, strong and solid, her eyes wild, andCat thinks she’s probably lucky that there isn’t a hand wrapped around herthroat.

“Alex.” Not-Kara appears at Alex’s elbow, awarning note in her voice and Cat hates it, turns towards the imposter with hermost venomous glare.

“Stop using her voice,” she snaps, words drippingwith poison, and both Alex and the imposter look taken aback. “And her face.You don’t deserve to wear it.”

“Very well.” Alex releases her hold as theimposter steps away, and Cat blinks when Kara’s form transforms into a verydifferent one. “J’onn J’onzz.”

“You were here the night that Livewire attackedme,” Cat remembers. “You’re an alien, too?” He nods. “Are - ”

“You don’t get to ask question when you stillhaven’t answered mine,” Alex interrupts angrily. “You and my sister. How.Long.” The question is spat through gritted teeth, and Cat gets the impressionthat it’s going to take her a very long time to win over the sister.

“A few weeks,” Cat replies, pushing herself awayfrom the wall she’d been backed against and dropping onto one of her outdoorsofas. Alex follows behind her like a shadow, like she’s afraid that Cat issomehow going to disappear.

“And I suppose it was your idea to keep it asecret? Didn’t want anyone finding out you were dipping your pen in the companyink? Dating a lowly reporter?” Alex’s tone is acidic, and Cat wonders just howmany stories Alex had heard from her sister about Cat being an impossible bosswhen Kara was her assistant.

She feels a twinge of regret, like she alwaysdoes whenever she thinks back to those days, but it had been her way of keepingKara at arm’s length, at stopping herself falling too far and doing somethingstupid like jeopardising both of their careers.

And she’s remorseful about their past, has sinceapologised profusely for it, and Kara had forgiven her – she didn’t owe AlexDanvers any of that.

“It was a mutual decision,” Cat replies coldly,staring Alex dead in the eye. “We both decidedto keep things quiet while it was new. Maybe Kara was afraid how herjudgemental sister would react.” Alex’s lips curl into a sneer, and Cat swears that one of her hands jumpstowards the gun at her hip, but the motion’s stopped by J’onn as he settles ahand heavily on Alex’s shoulder.

Cat wonders if he’s holding Alex against the seatso she doesn’t lunge towards her.

“Ladies, I don’t think Kara would be very happyif she knew the two of you were at each other’s throats,” J’onn reasons, andCat feels a flash of guilt as Alex looks contrite. “She’d want you to getalong.”

“Is she still alive?” Cat finally voices thequestion she’s been too scared to ask, and Cat doesn’t take another breathuntil Alex gives a curt nod.

“Barely, but yeah, she’s hanging in there.” Itdoesn’t fill her with as much relief as she’d like, because Kara’s clearly notout of the woods yet, but at least she’s still breathing.

“Can I see her?”

“That depends.” Alex stares at Cat for one longmoment, sizing her up. “You gonna out her as Supergirl?”

“Oh, please,” Cat rolls her eyes. “I’ve known shewas Supergirl since practically the moment she put on that cape. If I didn’texpose her then, I’m sure as hell not going to do it now that I’m dating her.”

“Why not? Dating a superhero’s sure to get you onthe front page, and we all know how much you like the limelight.” She knowsthat Alex is merely pushing for a reaction, but Cat still bristles at thewords.

“Your sister is more important to me than beingon the front page,” Cat scoffs. “And contrary to what you might believe – I’mnot an idiot. I know that dating Supergirl publically would put a target on notonly my back, but my son’s, too. If you don’t believe that I’d do anything toprotect Kara, know that I would do anything to protect him.”

“I believe you,” Alex says, after a few momentsof loaded silence. “But if, for whatever reason, you have a change of heart –you won’t live to regret it.” Alex’s smile is sickly sweet, but Cat knows thatshe means the threat beneath it.

“So can I see her?”

“Come with me.” Cat goes, holding her head uphigh as she goes, whispering to Eve on the way past to cancel everything forthe rest of the day and to tell James that he’s temporarily in charge, andignoring the curious eyes of her employees as she follows Alex to the elevator.

On the street below she’s bundled into the backof a van, and mutters angrily about the indignity of it all as Alex and J’onnsettle in on either side of her, a nameless third agent pulling onto the roadas soon as the door shuts behind them.

“I feel like I’m being kidnapped.”

“Just be glad we didn’t blindfold you,” Alexshoots back, and Cat has to bite her tongue to stop herself snapping at theother woman.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Hasn’t stopped you before,” Alex mutters, and asshe runs a tired hand through her hair Cat gets a glimpse of the woman beneaththe government agent persona she wears like a shield. She sees a woman worriedsick about her little sister, sees a woman who feels like she’s failed her sister, a woman who probablywon’t sleep until Kara wakes up, who resents having to leave Kara’s side tocome and deal with Cat.

“How did you know? That Kara and I weretogether?” She supposes it could have been the dozens of phonecalls, or maybethey knew that Cat had visited Kara’s apartment last night, but it was quite ajump from that to figuring out they were in a relationship.

“He can read minds,” she Alex replies, stabbing athumb in J’onn’s direction, who looks a little sheepish.

“He can what?”Cat interrupts, eyes widening and anger coiling in her stomach. “You read mymind? Without my permission? That’s a gross invasion of privacy, practically a violation how dare you - ”

“In my defence,” J’onn interrupts weakly, puttinghis palms up, “I didn’t mean to. Butyou were projecting your emotions so strongly that it… well, it was impossiblefor me not to catch a glimpse and once I did and learned of your connection toKara… I had to dig a little deeper, find out what you knew. For her protection.”Cat is stunned, feels sick at the thought of someone rooting around in herbrain, rifling through her thoughts, tainting the private memories that she andKara shared. “For what it’s worth, I am sorry.” His voice is soft, and he does look apologetic. “And I’m sorryabout the interrogation, too. I know that you care for her deeply.”

“I just wasn’t so sure,” Alex adds. “I wanted tosee it for myself, see how the woman who treated my little sister like dirt fortwo years could turn into someone she wanted to be with.” Cat winces, but shedoesn’t deny it, knows she can’t.

“And what didyou see?” Cat asks, curious, even though a part of her is afraid of the answer,knows that Alex’s opinion of her will matter, somewhere down the line, even ifKara has forgiven her.

Alex studies Cat for a long moment before shereplies.

“I saw someone trying to pretend that she wasfine, but below the surface was absolutely terrified. I saw someone whocouldn’t sleep last night because she worried about my sister, worried enoughto call her thirty times, who knows her well enough to realise when she’s notherself, who cares about her and would do anything to protect her. And I… I’mglad she has that. So don’t fuck it up.”

“Or I won’t live to see another day?”

“Something like that,” Alex smirks, and Catdoesn’t remember the last time she ever felt intimidated by anyone, but AlexDanvers is getting pretty close.

The car pulls to a stop then, and Cat climbs outinto a parking garage and is quickly led to a nearby elevator.

“Am I allowed to know where I am?”

“Nope.” Alex leans one shoulder against the wallas they whizz up the floors.

“What if I want to visit Kara?”

“I’ll come kidnap you again.”

“How charming.” Out of the corner of her eye, shesees J’onn’s lips twitch in amusement. The elevator doors ding open a momentlater, and Alex grips Cat’s arm and pulls her close.

“If anything about this facility ends up in thenext issue of the Trib - ”

“You’ll make my life a living hell, smother me inmy sleep, yadda yadda yadda,” Cat yanks her arm out of Alex’s grip, and theagent looks impressed by her strength. “I got the memo. I’m here as Kara’sgirlfriend, not a reporter.”

Alex looks pleased by the answer, nods to herselfbefore stepping out onto the bustling floor, and Cat follows close behind her,ignoring the curious looks that get thrown their way.

Cat tries not to look around too much, lest Alexaccuse her of gathering intel, keeps her gaze focused solely on Alex’s back.She’s led through a set of doors and the noise dies down, the air smellingsterile, and she risks a glance around her to see that they’re in what looks tobe a medical bay.

“Kara’s in there.” Alex tilts her head towardsthe door they’re standing in-front of. “Before you go in, you should know… shedoesn’t look great. She’s broken and she’s bruised and she looks worse thanyou’ve ever seen her look before. We’ve got her under a sun lamp to try andhelp her recover, so you can’t really touch her, but you can talk to her, lether know that you’re here. She might be so shocked I let you in that she’ll wakeright up.” Cat manages a faint smile, and Alex reaches out to squeeze her hand.“It looks bad, and it is bad, butshe’s gonna pull through. She’s strong.”

“The strongest person I know.”

“You ready?” Cat nods, and Alex presses the dooropen to let Cat step inside. Her breath catches when she sees Kara, lying stillon the hospital bed within, the only sign that she’s alive the slow rise andfall of her chest and the rhythmic beeping of the machine she’s hooked up to.Even under the yellow light she looks pale and sickly, half her face covered byblack and blue bruises.

“Oh, Kara.” She’s so preoccupied by Kara’s frailform that she doesn’t even notice that there’s another woman in the roomsitting at Kara’s bedside, and as she turns at the sound of the door Catrecognises Kara’s foster mother.  

“Mom, I didn’t realise you were here already.”

“Kal-El came to get me,” Eliza replies, eyeingCat warily. “He just left.”

“You remember Cat Grant, right?” Alex asks,nudging Cat forward.

“Of course I do,” Eliza nods, eyebrows pullinginto a frown. “But that doesn’t explain what she’s doing here.”

“She and Kara are…”

“In a relationship,” Cat supplies, because she’snot entirely sure what Alex is going to end that sentence with. Eliza’s eyeswiden in surprise, and Cat sighs. “This isn’t exactly how I imagined the wholefamily finding out.”

“It’s not how I imagined I’d meet my daughter’sfirst girlfriend, either,” Eliza says, after she’s gotten over the shock. “Butwe can talk later. I’m sure you’d like to spend some time with her.” Cat nods,and Eliza climbs to her feet. “Alex and I will be outside if you need anything.”

The door opens and shuts, and Cat’s left alone,the room silent aside from the machines.

She makes her way over to Kara on unsteady legs,sinks down onto the chair Eliza had just vacated, and lets out a long breath asshe takes in the sight of her half-dead girlfriend.

It’s shocking, to see her like this – Kara isalways so animated, so full of life, always moving even if she was justfiddling with her glasses or her hands.

But now she’s so still, so quiet, so far away from the woman Cat knows that it shakes her tothe core.

She’d known Kara was in a bad way but to see it, to see her like this… it’ssomething else entirely.

Kara’s hand lies outside the glow of the sunlamp, and Cat reaches out to take it between her own, fingers shaking as sheruns her thumb across Kara’s skin.

She’s warm, at least, and the steady beat of herpulse in her wrist reassures Cat that she’s still fighting.

“I don’t ever want you to scare me like thisagain,” Cat tells her, blinking back the tears that threaten to fall. “Do youhear me? You need to be careful,Kara, because I can’t… I can’t lose you. It’s taken us so long to get to wherewe are today, to have that snatched away before we even get started? That’s cruel,Kara. You wouldn’t do that to me, would you? Although I suppose you could say Ideserve it.” She sighs, and squeezes Kara’s hand gently between her own. “ThatI don’t deserve you, because god, Kara, I don’t. You’re a better person than I’llever be, but for some god unknown reason you want me, and I’m not letting yougo.”

Her gaze rests on Kara’s face, her eyes closedand she’d look almost peaceful, if not for the bruises. Cat wants to kiss eachand every one of them away.

“So you’d better come back to me, Kara Zor-El. BecauseI don’t know how to do this without you, not now. Not now that I know what wecould have. That I could fall in love again.” Her voice cracks, and the tearsstart to fall, building faster than she can wipe them away.

It’s unimaginable, the thought of losing her. It’sonly been a few weeks, but it’s been the happiest few weeks of her life, andKara has been a part of her life for so much longer than that, and Cat honestlydoesn’t know what she’d do without her.

She doesn’t ever want to find out.

She sits there a while longer, until the tearshave dried on her cheeks, until she can’t stand to see Kara looking so ill foranother second.

In the hallway outside, Alex is asleep on Eliza’sshoulder, and the elder woman smiles up at Cat as she closes the door to Kara’sroom quietly behind her.

“I hope Alex wasn’t too hard on you earlier,”Eliza whispers. “She’s a little protective of Kara. Always has been.”

“Nothing I couldn’t handle.” Cat’s never beengood at the meet-the-parents stage of a relationship, not when the one sheshares with her own mother is so strained, and she feels uncharacteristicallynervous as Eliza looks up at her. “Could you thank her, when she wakes up? Forbringing me here?”

“Of course.” Cat tucks her hands into the pocketsof her jacket and wonders if she needs an escort to get out of the building aswell as in. “I know we’re not meeting under the best of circumstances, but I’mglad that Kara’s found someone.”

“Even if I’m old enough to be her mother?”

“Age is just a number,” Eliza shrugs, careful notto wake her sleeping daughter. “As long as she’s happy, I’m happy. And I’d loveto have you over for dinner, once she’s feeling better.”

“I’d like that.” Cat manages a small smile at thethought.

“Oh, before I forget, Alex wanted me to give youthese.” Eliza hands Cat a lanyard and a post-it with GPS co-ordinates scribbledon it. “A visitor pass, so you can come and go whenever you please, at leastwhile Kara’s recovering. And the address.” Cat feels a rush of gratitude, feelsmore tears gather in her eyes and blinks them hastily away. “Come back wheneveryou like.”

“Thank you.”

//

Cat visits at least once a day.

Sometimes twice – once in the morning before shegoes to the office, and always after she’s finished for the day. Sometimes shebrings her tablet and carries on working, talking to Kara as she does, drawingcomfort from just being close to her.

Every day, the bruises fade a little more, brokenbones start to set, and pale skin gains a little more colour.

It’s an agonisingly slow recovery for someone whoshould be unbreakable, but at least she’s getting better.

That’s what Cat tells herself, anyway, when the tearsthreaten to overwhelm her as she looks down at Kara’s motionless body.

That with every passing day, Kara grows stronger,heals more, and is one step closer to opening her eyes.

It takes nearly two weeks, but eventually ithappens.

It’s two a.m., and Cat’s in a fitful sleep (she hasn’tslept through the night since the day Kara fell from the sky, sees it everynight in her dreams, knows she won’t be able to truly rest until the otherwoman is curled up in bed beside her) when her phone rings.

She groans as she runs a hand over her face,reaching for her phone and looking at the screen with bleary eyes.

When she sees that it’s Alex calling she sitsbolt upright in bed, because Alex wouldn’t call unless it was serious, unlesssomething was wrong, and no, no, no,it’s not possible for Kara to slip away in the middle of the night, not aftershe’d spent so long fighting against it.

“Alex?” Cat’s voice is strangled, tight withworry. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong, Cat.” Cat hears the sheerrelief in the other woman’s voice, the underlying note of happiness, and forthe first time in days, feels a twinge of hope. “She’s awake.” Cat presses a hand against her lips to smother asob, overwhelmed by the flood of emotion that rushes through her at the words. “And she’s asking for you.”

“I’m on my way.”

“I already sent a car for you,” Alex says, and Cat isfilled with gratitude for the other woman – they’d spent a lot of time togetherover the last two weeks, and had formed an unlikely almost-friendship over thehours spent at Kara’s beside. “It shouldbe there in a couple of minutes.”

“Thank you.” She pulls on the first clothes shecan find, puts on the minimum amount of makeup she feels comfortable leavingthe house in and runs a brush through her tangled hair before dashing for theelevator.

It takes what feels like an eternity to arrive,and the wait as it descends, floors ticking by one by one, is unbearable.

The car isn’t there when she reaches thesidewalk, and she taps her foot impatiently as she waits, barely letting itpull over before she’s tugging at the door.

It isn’t a long drive to the DEO’s city headquarters,but it feels like forever, and Cat is practically vibrating with the need tomove by the time they get there, rushes away as soon as they’ve come to a stop.

She’s breathless by the time she reaches Kara’sroom, steps through the open door and the only thing she sees is blue, blueeyes that crinkle in the corners when she meets Cat’s gaze, Kara’s smile sowide and so bright and so alive thatCat nearly starts crying again.

Instead she flings herself at Kara, ignoring theother people in the room (Alex and Eliza and J’onn), wrapping her in a hug andburying her face in Kara’s shoulder.

“Ouch,” Kara says but she’s laughing, and herarms wrap around Cat’s back to bring her close. “Kinda fragile here, you know.”

“Sorry,” Cat replies, even though she’s anythingbut, and she leans back and cups Kara’s cheek, eyes scanning across her faceand assessing the damage.

Kara looks surprisingly chipper for someone who’sbeen in a coma for two weeks, her cheeks red and her eyes bright, and Cat’sfilled with more relief than she knows what to do with.

“I’m so happy you’re alive,” she whispers, thumbtracing Kara’s cheekbone, “but if you ever do anything like that to me again I’mgoing to kill you.” Kara grins, and it’s so beautiful that it makes Cat’s heartache, and she knows that she’d missed Kara but she had no idea how much, not until she had Kara in her armsagain, so soft but strong and awake.

“I’m not planning on it,” Kara tells her, armstill slung around Cat’s back, keeping her close. “Trust me. I feel like I gothit by a train.”

“Actually,” Alex pipes up, arms folded across herchest as she leans her hip against Kara’s bed, looking more relaxed than Cathas ever seen her, “judging from the extent of your injuries, you probably gothit by the equivalent of about ten trains.”

“Gee, thanks, Alex.”

“You’re welcome.”

“There’s no lasting damage, is there?” Cat asks,because she knew they were waiting for Kara to wake up before they could reallyassess her injuries.

“Doesn’t seem to be,” Alex answers. “We won’t knowfor sure for another couple of days, but for now things are looking good.” Alexreaches out to squeeze Kara’s leg. “You were lucky.”

“None of you are ever going to let me out in thefield again, are you?”

“Not until you’re healed,” they all say at the sametime, and it’s the first time Cat has heard laughter echo around this room.

“Besides, J’onn’s loving putting on a skirt andflying around the city, aren’t you, J’onn?” He looks thoroughly unimpressed byAlex’s teasing. “See, look at that face. Loves it.”

“Did it haveto be a skirt, Kara?” He asks with a sigh. “Why couldn’t it be pants?”

“Hey, take it up with Winn, not me. He designedit.” J’onn grumbles to himself before making his excuses to leave, biding themall goodnight as he goes.

“We should probably get some rest too, Mom,” Alexsays when he’s gone. “Give these two some time to catch up.”

When they’re alone, Kara shifts in the bed sothere’s space beside her, tugs at Cat until she’s lying carefully next to her.Cat rests her head on Kara’s chest and wraps an arm around her waist, justbreathing her in, and doesn’t realise she’s crying until Kara gently tilts herhead up and swipes away her tears with her thumb.

“Hey, what’s wrong?”

“I’m just… I can’t believe you’re awake.” Shesniffs, and hopes Kara doesn’t think she’s pathetic. “I really thought I wasgoing to lose you.”

“But you didn’t,” Kara is quick to reassure her,taking one of Cat’s hands and resting it over her heart. “See? Still here. Notgoing anywhere if it involves being away from you.” Kara’s heartbeat is steady,familiar, and Cat draws comfort from it.

“Are you in pain?”

“Only a little. It’s not so bad.”

“You’re a terrible liar.”

“Having you here makes it better.” Kara pulls Catclose, presses a kiss against her lips that’s achingly gentle. “Can you stay?”

“If you want me to.”

“Carter?”

“He’s at his father’s.” Kara hums, and Cat shiftsso that they’re face to face, pressing her forehead against Kara’s.

“Speaking of family…” Kara trails off, and Cathears her swallow. “You met my sister and my foster Mom like, officially? Howwas that? Cause I know we were supposed to be taking things slow, and no-onewas supposed to know, and I guess I messed that up, but – why are you smilingat me like that?”

“Because I’ve missed this.”

“Missed what?”

“Your nervous rambling.” Kara pouts, and Catwipes it away with a kiss. “Your sister threatened to murder me if I ever hurtyou, but aside from that, it was fine. I think we’re friends now. And Elizawants to have me over for dinner.”

“So you charmed the whole family, huh?”

“I am verycharming.” Kara grins before kissing her again until they’re both breathless. Whenthey part Kara’s eyes stay closed, and Cat pokes her in the side until sheopens them. “You have been asleep for two weeks – you can’t seriously be tired.”

“I need to rest!” Kara protests, and Cat laughsas she settles down beside her. “And so do you. Alex told me you’ve beenworried sick about me, hardly sleeping.”

“I couldn’t stop seeing it, whenever I closed myeyes. You falling.”

“But I’m okay. I’m okay, and I’m right here.” Karashifts, pushing at Cat’s hip until she rolls over before pulling Cat’s backagainst her chest and slinging an arm around her waist to hold her close. “I’mnot going anywhere,” she says it again, with a soft kiss to Cat’s shoulder. “Ipromise.” Kara’s breath is warm against her ear, soft and even, and Cat canfeel the other woman’s heartbeat against her back, strong and steady, and she closesher eyes.

There, in that tiny hospital bed with the lumpymattress, wrapped Kara’s arms, Cat has the best night’s sleep she can rememberhaving in a long, long time.

[ofendlesswonder]

Hi! Could you please do a no. 10 for SuperCat? Thanks and happy new year!

(The happy new year just showcases that it’s been 84 years since I last posted anything but I thought I’d try seeing if I could still make the words do the Thing I am sorry this took so long).

10. “I just want this.”

& bonus 19. “Come home with me.”

It starts with a messy kiss onCat’s balcony, as Supergirl tells her goodbye and wishes her luck on her latestadventure.

They’re stood close together, armspressed against one another as they both gaze out at the city, and Cat can’thelp but revel in being so close to the woman that has come to mean so much toher over the past few months.

Kara might think that Cat is onlyinterested in the Supergirl side of her, but that is far from the truth – andCat would tell her so, if only Kara would tell her the truth. But her final fishing attempt had been brushed off with asoft smile and an amused laugh, and Cat isn’t going to push it any further.

If Kara wants to keep up thecharade, then so be it.

Cat can deal with that – althoughthe next few months away from this place would be much more bearable if sheknew that her hapless former assistant could fly across the country to see herand update her on how her company is running in her absence.

Not that Cat lacks confidence inJames – she’d appointed him for a reason, and she knows her legacy will be safein his capable hands.

She wonders if Kara will be, too.

The thought creeps into her mindand Cat hates the fact that it hurts, that she’s managed to fall hard enoughfor her assistant (former assistant, she reminds herself, sternly), that itstings to imagine her with someone else, even if that person is much bettersuited to her than Cat herself will ever be.

It’s one of the reasons why sheneeds to leave – because after Myriad, after that damn hug, it’s impossible for her to ignore her growing feelingsfor Kara and she needs to get away, she needs a little time and a littledistance, and she needs to give the girl room to grow into herself, away fromCat’s shadow.

So Cat bids her goodbye, and shetells her to be safe, because she knows that sometimes Kara thinks she’sinvincible and can be reckless – she’d flown into goddamn space after givingCat her little goodbye speech, she’s seen the grainy video footage of it andhad been convinced that she’d never see the girl again – and Cat isn’t going tobe around to tell her to slow down anymore.

She thinks of how far they’ve come– how far Kara has come, how she’s grown into the hero that this city needs –and can’t help but smile.

Kata tells her to be safe, too,and there’s a world of emotion behind those blue eyes, and Cat remembers herclutching at a pillow and the tears in her eyes as she’d hugged Cat goodbyeearlier that day.

She knows that she will be missedaround these halls, but what Kara doesn’t know is that she will be missed inCat’s life, too.

Cat can barely breathe when shenotices Kara’s eyes flicker to her mouth for one long moment.

She might not have noticed had shenot been drowning in a sea of blue, but oh, she does, and she thinks wonderingwhat it might mean will drive her mad.

Kara is warm at her side but Catstill shivers, and she’s expecting Kara to turn around and leave any momentnow, to tell Cat to come back soon and shoot off into the night.

Instead, Kara turns to face hermore fully, and when she whispers ‘I’m going to really miss you’ Cat swearsthat her heart twists in her chest.

“Oh, please.” She tries to brushit off, but her voice is thick with emotion and she knows that Kara isperceptive enough to pick up on it. “You’ll barely even notice that I’m gone.”

“I will,” Kara says, and it’squiet but insistent. “You’ve always been here for me whenever I needed you.”

“I still could be, if you gave meyour number.” She’s teasing but there’s a part of her that means it, that wouldkeep Kara in her life in a heartbeat if that was something that she wanted –even if it might break Cat clean in two.

“I think you already know mynumber.” It’s barely more than a whisper, almost lost to the wind that fluttersaround them, and Kara looks away as she says it, over the side of the balconyand down at the city below.

Cat blinks at the other womanslowly, breath caught in the back of her throat, because that’s the closestthing to an admission she thinks she’s ever going to get.

There are a hundred things shecould say to that – a hundred things she wantsto say – but she can practically feel the tension radiating from the otherwoman, Kara’s shoulders set and her eyes swimming with something that looks alot like fear and Cat is taken back to the last time they’d been here, when Cathad accused her assistant and Supergirl of being one and the same.

She’d reacted wrongly, that time,had forced an issue when she should have instead focused on building up enoughtrust for Kara to open up to her, and she has little intention of ruiningthings between them again.

“Thank you,” she breathes, and shewatches all of the tension drain out of Kara in a single exhale, and then Catis being swept up into a hug fierce enough to make it hard for her to breathe.

Not that she’s complaining –Kara’s soft and solid against her, and Cat closes her eyes and relaxes into theembrace, her hands curling into the soft material of Kara’s cape, holding herclose and never wanting to let her go.

This is dangerous, she knows that– it’s already going to be difficult enough for her to get over this, to getover Kara Danvers, who had walked into her life with her sunny optimism andtorn down every single one of the walls Cat had shoved up around her heart thelast time it had been broken – but she can’t help but hold Kara tighter.

When Kara pulls back she staysclose, reaches up a hand to dance her fingers across Cat’s cheek, and it’s onlythen that Cat realises that she’s crying.

“What’s wrong?” Kara asks, hervoice soft and concern in her eyes but Cat can only shake her head because howcan she even begin to tell her half of the things on her mind? That as much asthe thought of diving exhilarates her, she’s going to miss Kara being there forher each and every morning with a latte and a smile? That she’ll miss someonelooking out for her as carefully as Kara always has, anticipating her everyneed and desire before she barely even knows them herself? “Did I hurt you?”The way she shifts to take a step back makes Cat wonder how many people she’dinadvertently injured before she’d managed to get her powers under control, andCat catches Kara’s hand before she can pull away.

“No, I’m okay.” Kara’s mouth isturned down at the corners and Cat knows that she’s not even remotelyconvincing as she feels another tear fall. “I’m just… scared.”

“But you’re never scared.” Kara’svoice is almost as soft as the thumb she swipes beneath Cat’s eyes, fingerscurling around the side of her cheek. “It’s one of the many things I admireabout you.” Cat’s lips curl into a small smile. “Cat, about what I said before,about who I am - ”

“We don’t need to talk about it,”she murmurs, because there’s a quiet panic in Kara’s eyes like maybe she hadn’tquite thought it through, what it might mean for Cat to know the truth abouther identity. “Not ever, if you don’t want to. I’m just… I’m glad you told me.That you trust me.”

Kara’s response takes Cat bysurprise.

One minute she’s staring down ather with something like wonder on her face, and the next minute she’s sliding herhand into Cat’s hair and bringing their lips together for a kiss that’s notnearly long enough for Cat to fully enjoy.

“Of course I trust you,” Karabreathes against her lips, and then they’re kissing again only this time, Catisn’t sure who started it.

Not that it matters, when Kara’slips part for her tongue as she presses Cat back against her balcony railing,her hips slotting against Cat’s as Cat wraps a hand around the back of her neckto keep her close.

God, this shouldn’t be happening,not when Cat’s trying to keep her distance, not when she’s supposed to beleaving to avoid falling any harder for the woman that’s nipping at her bottomlip and trailing open-mouthed kisses down the side of her neck.

She threads her fingers throughKara’s hair and tugs and god the moan that reverberates againsther skin is a sound that she’s going to be playing on repeat for the rest ofher life.

“W-what are we doing?” Cat managesto ask, as Kara’s tongue flickers against the pulse that throbs in her neck.“We shouldn’t – this shouldn’t behappening.”

“Why?” Kara pulls back to ask thequestion, a half-pout on her lips that Cat aches to kiss away. “I don’t workfor you anymore, directly or indirectly. There’s no more secrets between us.And I don’t know when I’m next going to see you again – I didn’t know when Iwas going to get the chance to tell you how I feel.”

“What about James?”

“That was never going to workout.” Kara shakes her head, though there’s a flicker of regret in her eyes. “Ithought it would. I thought I liked him, that we could make it work and I triedbut I… I couldn’t stop thinking about you.” Kara leans in for another kiss,slow and sweet enough to make Cat melt against her. “For a long time I wasn’tallowed to be who I wanted to be. I had to hide my powers, fit in, do what wasexpected of me. But now I… I’ve lived my life in the shadows for so long andI’m tired, Cat. Tired of hiding,tired of not going after what I want. The world almost ended and I realisedthat I haven’t… I’ve barely lived becauseI was always too scared to be who I really am. And I just… I just want this. Ijust want you. And I don’t know if it’ll even work out because you’re leavingand we’re so different and what would you even see in me, anyway? But I… I hopethat maybe you want this, too.”

“Kara…” Cat slides her hands fromKara’s hair to cup her cheeks, barely able to believe that any of this is real.“I… think you already know that I want this too, but this? You and me? It’s aterrible idea.”

“Maybe.” Kara’s lips curve into asmall smile. “But what if it’s not? What if it’s the greatest thing that everhappens to either one of us?”

“You and your sunny Danverssentimentality.” Kara’s smile widens, and Cat can’t help but tug her down foranother, harder kiss.

“Maybe you should take your ownadvice.” Kara stays close when they part, and Cat can feel her breath on herlips, her heartbeat through her chest.

“Mm, and what’s that?”

“Dive,” Kara breathes. “With me.”

Cat thinks her mind has been madeup since the moment that Kara kissed her. She still thinks that it’s a terribleidea – that it’s more likely to end in pain and heartbreak than a happily everafter, but Kara makes her want to be better, to be less cynical, to try for achance at happiness long after she’d decided that she was going to end upalone.

She’s wanted this for a long time,can’t bring herself to send Kara away, even though there’s a part of her thatthinks she should.

So instead she pulls Kara closer,kisses her again, and murmurs ‘come home with me’ against the corner of herlips.

She yelps in surprise when Kararesponds by gathering Cat up into her arms and lifts her up into the sky. Cat’seyes squeeze tightly shut and she clings on for dear life, and Kara’s laughterrings in her ears, loud enough to be heard despite the wind that whips aroundthem.

Kara’s hands hold her tightly andeven hundreds of feet off the ground, Cat feels safe in her arms, hopes thatthere will never come a day where Kara wants to let her go.

[ofendlesswonder]

How about #16 for Supercat? Hope you & Vinny have a wonderful New Year's! :)

16. “I did a pregnancy test.”

Cat smiles as she steps into herapartment and sees that the lights in the hallway are on, the shoes she’d seenKara leave for work in that morning stacked neatly beside the door. She expectsto find her girlfriend in the kitchen or on the couch watching the TV, frownswhen she rounds the corner and sees both spaces empty.

She pads into her bedroom to seeif her supersuit is also missing, pouting at the thought that she might have togo a little longer without drawing the younger woman into her arms.

Cat has been on the other side ofthe country for almost three weeks, in the midst of setting up her newestventure in Metropolis, and her delayed flight had meant that she’d only gottento see Kara for only the briefest of moments that morning before she’d had toleave for work.

But Kara had promised to finishearly, to be waiting for Cat when she got back from running errands allafternoon, and her pout quickly turns to a frown when she sees that theirbedroom is empty but Kara’s suit is still hanging in their shared closet.

She feels a flutter of panic,then, but quickly bites it down, calls out Kara’s name and hates the way itsounds, scared and a little frantic.

There’s no reply, but she hears amuffled sound coming from the direction of their bathroom, frown deepening asshe pads quietly over to the closed door. She listens for a moment but hears nofurther noise, braces herself before she wraps her hand around the handle andshoves the door open.

Inside, Kara is sat with her backagainst the wall, her knees bent so that she can rest her forehead on-top ofthem, arms wrapped around her calves, and Cat has never seen her look so small, lets out a gasp before she’smoving, flying onto her knees at Kara’s side.

“Kara? What is it? What’s wrong?”She fears the worst immediately, that she’s been hurt in a fight or that she’slost someone (she’s seen Kara terrified because Alex had been injured, seen hercry all night over a life she hadn’t been quick enough to save), and when Karalifts her head and Cat sees the watery eyes and tear-stained cheeks, panicclutches at her heart. “Talk to me,” she pleads, a hand curling around Kara’sjaw, thumb smoothing over her cheek before she slides her arm around Kara’sback and tugs at her until her head rests on Cat’s shoulder. “What happened?”

“I… no-one’s hurt,” Kara sniffles,and Cat combs a hand through her hair and presses a kiss to her forehead andtries to bite back her rising panic because she doesn’t know what’s wrong. “It’s… oh, Rao.” Kara pulls away from Cat, buries her face back in her hands,and Cat has to pry her fingers away.

“Kara, look at me,” she pleads, catchesKara’s eye and holds her gaze. “Whatever it is, we can work through ittogether, okay? Just… tell me what happened. Tell me how to help.”

“I don’t know if you can help.” Kara laughs, a slightlyhysterical sound. “Or if you’ll want to.”

“What?” Cat’s eyebrows knit into afrown. “Of course I’ll want to. I love you.”

“I love you, too,” Kara sighs, andthat alleviates some of Cat’s worry that Kara might have decided that she doesn’twant to do this anymore. “Okay… I… whilst you’ve been gone I’ve, um, beenfeeling kind of weird?” Kara doesn’t look at Cat as she speaks, hunches in onherself, eyes on the floor as she runs a shaking hand through her hair. “Like…like I’m sick, but I can’t get sick? So I told Alex, and she ran some tests,but she couldn’t find anything.”

“So you’re okay?” Cat asks, eventhough she already knows the answer – looking at her right now, Kara is thefarthest thing from okay possible.

“I… no.” Kara laughs again, but it’sshaky this time, and the breath she takes makes her shoulders quake. “Alexcalled me a little while ago, she said… she said there was one thing we hadn’t tried.That… that just because I look human doesn’t necessarily mean that my biologyis human, too.” Kara looks terrified, and Cat doesn’t know how to put her atease, doesn’t know what she’s trying to say.“And she… Rao.” Kara lifts her head, finally meets Cat’s gaze, and there’s anapology written across her face. “She thought I might be pregnant.”

Kara whispers it, as though thatmight make it less real, but it still seems to echo around the room, reboundingoff the tile and into Cat’s ears over and over again.

“P-pregnant?” Cat repeats, eventhough she knows she’d heard Kara correctly, and she had been kneeling but nowshe drops back so that she’s sat on the floor, legs folded under her, numbnessspreading throughout her body. “But… h-how?” She glances up, can’t quite helpthe slight note of accusation in her voice, hates the hurt she sees reflectedback at her in Kara’s eyes.

“I didn’t cheat on you,” she says,stiffly, and her entire demeanour has changed. She’s no longer apologetic, headbowed; instead her back is straight, and her eyes are steely as they meet Cat’s,her jaw clenched tight.

“I didn’t…” Cat trails off, closesher eyes and pinches the bridge of her nose. “I’m sorry,” she offers, and Karaknows that an apology is not an easy concession for her. “I didn’t mean to suggestyou had, I just - ”

“Didn’t think it was possible fortwo women to have a baby?” Kara helps her out, and the smile she throws Cat’sway doesn’t even come close to reaching her eyes. “Yeah, well. Apparently ifyou’re Kryptonian it is, because I did a pregnancy test, and…” Kara trails offagain, her voice thick with tears as more spring into her eyes, and Cat doesn’thesitate to pull Kara into a hug, squeezing her so tight that she’s sure thatit will leave bruises on her own arms.

Kara’s face presses into the sideof her neck and she sobs, and Cat cradles the back of her head with one handand rubs circles at the small of her back with the other, lets her cry and cryuntil there are no more tears left.

“I’m pregnant, Cat,” she whispers,and it’s anguished, terrified, andCat remembers how she had felt, at barely twenty-two, sobbing in a bathroom ofher own, her life’s plan in ruin as she’d stared down at that tiny little plusand knew that nothing would ever be the same again. “I’m so sorry.”

“Hey, hey.” Cat tilts Kara’s headup, kisses her, soft and sweet, tasting the salt of tears on her tongue. “Youhave nothing to apologise for – you’ve done nothing wrong.”

“But I should’ve… I should’ve known that this could happen! That Imight… I’m not ready to be a mother, Cat! I - ”

“You already are a mother,” Cat reminds her, softly. “To Carter.”

“But that… that’s different. He’snot a baby, I… I don’t know the firstthing about babies, or about being pregnant, or about - ”

“Well, luckily for you,” Catinterrupts her, because she’s getting a little hysterical, and her eyes arewild and Cat knows she needs to soothe her. “I have a little experience in thatarea.”

“You… you’d help?” Kara’s voicecracks, and she looks so uncertain thata little piece of Cat’s heart breaks, too.

“Kara, of course I’m going to help.” Her eyes fill with more tears. “I ampartly responsible for this, am I not?” She asks, and even though she’s prettysure she’s in shock she knows she needs to be the calm one, here. “And while Ican’t say that I expected to have another child – especially at this age,” shefrowns a little as she thinks about it, tries to push back those oldinsecurities about the years that separate the two of them, “and I don’tunderstand how it’s even possible, but… I love you.” She shifts, glances down, andthere’s no noticeable swell to Kara’s stomach but she reaches out and settlesher palm over it all the same. “Both of you.”

Kara starts crying again, lungesforward to wrap her arms around Cat and kiss her with desperation, kisses heruntil they’re both dizzy, until Cat has to lean away to catch her breath.

“Have you told your sister?” Catasks softly, helping Kara as she wipes at her cheeks.

“No, I… I thought you should bethe first one to know.” Cat smiles softly, and her heart is racing in her chestand her mind is running through a million thoughts a minute – about how thiscould have happened, about how different Kara’s pregnancy may be from her own,about what the hell she’s going to do if the baby has powers because she’s not sure she can keep up with a regulartoddler, never mind one that can float up to the goddamn ceiling when they’rehaving a tantrum.

Breathe, she reminds herself, because she can worry about the restof it later – Kara’s wellbeing should be her first concern, and Alex Danvers isprobably the world’s leading expert in Kryptonian biology, can do a hell of alot more for Kara than Cat can.

“Okay, well, maybe we should callher?” She suggests, because she thinks having Alex here will help calm Karadown, too. She nods, climbs to her feet and pulls Cat along with her, snatchesher phone up from the bathroom counter and goes to call Alex from Cat’sbalcony.

Cat sits on the edge of their bedand feels numb once again, numb and absolutely fucking terrified, but then she glances up, catches Kara’s eye as she pacesalong the balcony railing, looking absolutely radiant in the rays of thesetting sun, and thinks that maybe she can do this.

Maybe she can become a mother again, so long as she has Kara at her side.

[ofendlesswonder]

supercat, 1!

1. Could you ever be happy with me?

“You’ve been avoiding me.” Cat jumps at the soundof Kara’s voice, nearly dropping the phone she’d been typing on as she roundedthe corner of the hallway to her apartment in shock.

Kara would be apologetic, if not for the factthat Cat has been impossible to get ahold of for the past few days.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Cat’s shockturns into anger before Kara’s very eyes, as she draws herself up to her fullheight and shoots Kara her best glare. “How did you even get in the building?”

“Well, I tried to front desk but apparently I’m no longer on your list ofpermitted visitors.” Cat at least has the grace to look a little guilty. “So Icame through the window, instead. Considering the price you pay for this place,you should really have better security.”

“The place isn’t exactly superhero-proof,” Catscoffs, having finally been let in on Kara’s secret a few weeks prior. “I hopeno-one saw you.”

“I was careful,” Kara shrugs. “Are you not goingto deny that you’ve been avoiding me?”

“I’ve just been busy,” Cat argues, but Kara knowsher well enough to know that she’s lying. “You’re not my number one priority,you know.” It stings, but Kara doesn’t let it show. “You shouldn’t be here.”

“Well, I couldn’t think of any other way to talkto you, seeing as you refuse to take my calls, let me into your building, andalways seem to somehow be on a very important video call whenever I come toyour office.”

“So you decided to break into my home?”

“I just want to talk,” Kara sighs, and it’s heavyand exhausted because she’s just so tired,tired of being ignored, tired of Cat trying to pretend that everything’snormal.

“Carter - ”

“Is with his father.”

“So you’ve been stalking me, too?” Cat asks,raising an eyebrow, and Kara rolls her eyes.

“Hardly. I was your assistant for two years, Cat,I know your schedule.” She looks at Cat expectantly, and the other woman heavesa sigh before reaching for her keys.

“Very well, come on in.” Kara’s been here moretimes than she can count, but it’s been a while since her last visit – that wasmonths ago, before Myriad, before everything had changed and she’d beenpromoted.

It seems like a lifetime ago.

“Would you like anything to drink? I have afeeling I’m going to need one to get through this conversation.” Kara shakesher head, tries not to wince as Cat pours herself a generous glass of scotchand takes a large gulp. “Okay.” She waves a hand in Kara’s direction. “Youwanted to talk, so talk.”

“I just want to know why. Why you don’t want to see me, why you’re avoiding me, why - ”

“Did I hurt your poor little feelings, is thatit?” Cat’s eyes are dark and hard, and the fingers wrapped around her glasstremble, and Kara doesn’t remember the last time she saw Cat look so mad.

She doesn’t know if she’s ever had that muchanger directed solely at her.

“Youkissed me, Cat,” Kara snaps, becauseshe’s angry herself, angry that Cat won’t just talk to her, why they can’t just be adults about this whole thing,and Cat seems to deflate a little at the words.

“A mistake.” The response is clipped, and Cattakes another long sip of her drink before she sets it down. “As I said at thetime.”

“See, I don’t think it was.” Kara takes a daringstep closer to Cat, and another, doesn’t stop until she’s close enough to reachout and touch the other woman, has to ball her hands into fists at her sides inan attempt to stop the temptation to try.

“You don’t know anything,” Cat whispers, but Karashakes her head.

“I think I do.” Kara’s own voice is quiet. “Idon’t think it was a mistake – if it was, you wouldn’t have stayed away fromme. But you have, because you’re scared it’ll happen again.”

“I’m not scared,” Cat scoffs, but her voicewavers as Kara leans closer, and Kara watches her throat bob as Cat swallows.“I told you, I’ve been busy.”

“Or maybe you’ve just been keeping yourself busy, so you don’t have to think about me.” Karareaches out both of her hands, settles them on the marble counter on eitherside of Cat’s hips, and presses forward so that they’re breathing the same air,so that she can practically taste the scotch on Cat’s lips. “About kissing me.Touching me.” Cat’s breath catches, and it takes every ounce of Kara’sself-control to not close those last few centimetres between.

“Where did this confidence come from?” Cat asks,breathless.

“From you,” Kara answers honestly. “You make meconfident. And I know you like it, because you told me once that brazen was agood colour on me.”

“You don’t feel the urge to throw me off abuilding, do you?”

“Depends if you keep being impossible or not.”Cat manages a small smile. “Look, if you want me to go, if you really do thinkit was a mistake and you never want to see me again, I… I’ll stay away.” It mightkill her, but she thinks she could do it, if that was what Cat truly wanted. “Allyou have to do is say the words.”  

Cat looks up at her then, meets her gaze, hereyes dark and beautiful and all Kara wants is to drown in them.

“I should.” It’s a whisper, soft and quiet andKara doesn’t breathe when Cat reaches out a hand and settles it on Kara’schest, toys with one of the buttons on her shirt with shaking fingers. “Thatwould be the right thing to do.”

“Why?”

“Because you deserve so much better, Kara.” It’sthe truth that Cat’s been hiding from her, the thing that Kara has been sodesperate to discover, what Cat has been holding back since that night whereshe’d kissed Kara with reckless abandon, leaving her breathless and dazed and incredibly turned on – before pullingaway with wide eyes and a hand pressed to her lips, telling Kara that thatcould never happen again before turning on her heel and walking away. “Youdeserve the world.”

“Maybe I don’t want the world,” Kara murmurs. “MaybeI just want the most powerful person in it.”Cat shakes her head, and Kara barely refrains from growling in frustration. “Don’tdo that. Don’t try and tell me what I want, or what’s best for me, because you don’t know what that is.”

“Neither do you,” Cat insists. “You don’t knowwhat I’m like, Kara - ”

“Are you kidding me?” Kara cuts her off. “Ofcourse I do, I was by your side for two years, Cat. I do know you. Inside andout. I know what I’d be getting into.”

“Are you sure?” Cat holds her gaze, eyes steady. “Becauseif we do this, Kara, you have to be sure. I want you to ask yourself, could youever be happy with me? Really, truly happy? Because if you can’t say yes, if youcan’t see any kind of future for this, then I… I can’t do this. It woulddestroy me if I had to watch you walk away.” That last part is whispered, soquiet that Kara barely hears her.

“You are scared.”Cat looks away, and Kara cups Cat’s cheek in one hand, tilts her head so thattheir eyes meet once more. “You don’t need to be. I can’t promise a future, andI can’t promise forever, because I don’t know what’s going to happen down theline and I’d never want to lie to you. But I can promise you this: that I want this, that I want you, I want a future with you. I’ve neverbeen more sure of anything before in my life.”

That seems to be enough for Cat, because shefists her hand in Kara’s shirt and tugs her close, leans up and presses a kissto Kara’s lips that makes her knees weak and her head spin, and when they partthey’re both breathless.

“Wow,” is all Kara can think to say, and Cat’ssmirk is wicked. “So, can I take you out for dinner tonight?”

“Are you asking me out on a date?”

“I thought…. Is that not… do you not want to go on a date with me?”

“Mm, I would very much like that,” Cat tells her,before she’s spinning them around, keeping her hand clasped in Kara’s shirt andbeginning to pull her through the apartment. “But I can think of much more…interesting ways to spend the night.” Cat pauses in her hallway, and Kara’seyes skitter down it, landing on the door to a room that she has never beeninside, but knows is Cat’s bedroom. “Can’t you?”

[ofendlesswonder]

13 supercat

13. Do you ever think we should stop this?

Cat poses the question one night when they’relying in bed, sweat cooling on their skin, tangled up in the sheets and each other,waiting for their heartrates to return to normal.

“Do you ever think we should stop this?” Catasks, voice quiet in the otherwise silent bedroom, and Kara twists so that she’sfacing Cat, propping her head up on her elbow and trying not to look toopleased about the way that Cat’s eyes flicker down to her chest when the sheetspool around her waist.

“Stop what?”

“This.” Cat’s lying flat on her back, staring upat the ceiling, and gestures a hand between the two of them. “You and me.Sleeping together.”

“Why would I want to stop having the best sex ofmy life?” Kara asks, and when Cat doesn’t smirk at the compliment she starts togrow concerned. “Cat? Where’s this coming from?” Cat heaves a sigh and turnsher head, meets Kara’s gaze, her eyes dark, face pensive. “Talk to me.”

Kara knows that that’s a big ask because they don’ttalk, not really – not about what’s going on between them, anyway.

It had started in National City, the night beforeCat had left, when Kara had been spiralling at the thought of her lifechanging, at the thought of not seeing Cat every day, or her being in adifferent city, a different country,maybe, and she’d just… she’d been intending to go and visit Cat on her balconyfor one final private goodbye but had revealed her secret before kissing her,instead.

She still, to this day, does not know where hercourage had come from, but Rao, it was the best thing she’d ever done, becauseCat had kissed her back, pulled her close, and they’d spent the night learningone another’s bodies in Cat’s penthouse apartment.

Come morning, Cat had shooed her away, told herthat this could never happen again… but less than a week later, Kara had gottena call.

Cat was in Paris, and she was drunk, and she wasneedy, and Cat had barely finished telling Kara about how much she’d beenthinking about that thing she did her tongue before Kara was making the firstof what would become several trans-Atlantic flights, faster than the speed ofsound.

It had become the start of a fling, of Catcalling and Kara flocking to her (or sometimes Kara calling and asking if shecould come over, and Cat would always, always say yes and Kara would always,always go, no matter where in the world Cat was).

But they don’t talk about it.

Even though it’s been months.

“I just… I’ve been thinking.” Kara doesn’t thinkshe likes the sound of this, or the sad look in Cat’s eyes. “And this… this can’tbe what you want. Flying across the country three times a week just to spendthe night with me.”

“If it wasn’t what I wanted, I wouldn’t be here,”Kara replies quietly. “Would I?”

“But it’s not… it’s not good for you. Are you seeing anyone else? Dating?” Kara doesn’t answer,but she knows she doesn’t need to – she’s sure her face says it all. “You shouldn’tput your life on hold for me.”

“I’m not,” Kara insists, and her stomach feelsfunny because Cat sounds like she maybe wants to stop what they’re doing, stopseeing her, and she doesn’t knowwhere any of this came from but she does know that she doesn’t want to havethis conversation. “And I don’t want anyone else – what’s wrong with that?”

“Everything,” Cat sighs, closing her eyes. “Youdeserve better than this. Running yourself ragged flying between here andNational City to sleep with a woman old enough to be your mother.”

“Where is this coming from?” Kara repeats,because she knows that this isn’t coming out of the blue, that something musthave triggered this, because she’d been here two days ago and Cat had kissedher goodbye and things had been fine.

For a long moment, Kara thinks that Cat isn’tgoing to reply, is just going to send Kara on her way and tell her not to comeback.

But then Cat blinks, and Kara sees something likevulnerability in her eyes before she quickly looks away, focusing back on the highceiling above them.

“I saw the photos, the ones from your sister’swedding last weekend.” Kara frowns, not understanding where this is going. “Youlooked beautiful,” Cat adds, barely louder than a whisper. “And so did yourdate.”

Understanding dawns on Kara, then. She hadn’twanted to go alone, especially because she was the maid of honour, and afterdiscovering that both Winn and James already had dates, Kara had asked Lena,instead.

There wasn’t anything to it – they’d gone asfriends, and had a good time, and at the end of the night Lena had gone homewith one of Maggie’s friends, and Kara had gone home alone.

“Oh.” Kara blinks, because she’d never expectedCat to be jealous, because thatimplied that she had feelings for Kara that went beyond just having a warm bodyto spend the night with, and that was… incomprehensible.

Because it seems so impossible, that Cat would fall for her. She knew Cat was attractedto her, obviously, but Kara had always assumed that it was the allure ofSupergirl, of sleeping with a superhero, and nothing at all to do with KaraDanvers, awkward bumbling former assistant.

“Lena’s just a friend,” she eventually manages tosay. “There’s not… there’s nothing between us.”

“But there could be.” Cat turns back towards her.“I saw the photos of the two of you together and… that’s what you should have,Kara. A beautiful woman on your arm, someone your own age, someone available.”

“You’re beautifuland available,” Kara counters. “Unlessyou’ve actually been seeing someone else this entire time.”

“You know that’s not true,” Cat rolls her eyes. “AndI mean available in the sense of being there, in National City. Not the otherside of the country.”

“That’s never mattered to you before,” Karapoints out. “And it’s been months.”

“It should have never started in the first place.”

“You were the one that called me, after you left.”

“I know.” Cat closes her eyes, lets out a longbreath. “And maybe that was a mistake.”

“I don’t think that it was,” Kara says, and shereaches hesitantly for Cat’s hand, takes it between her own and squeezes. “Ithink it was the best thing that ever happened to me.”

“Kara - ”

“Don’t,” Kara cuts her off with a quick shake ofher head. “I know you think that I deserve better, that I should be seeingsomeone like James or Lena, but I don’t want them, Cat, I want you. Do you think I’d be here if I didn’t?That I’d drop everything to fly here whenever you call to tell me you miss me?I’d have much rather had you as my date to Alex’s wedding but I… I didn’t wantto ask in-case I ruined things between us.”

“You’d have taken me?”

“Of course I would,” Kara breathes, because howcan Cat not see how much she means to her?

“What would your sister have said? Your fostermother? Your friends?”

“What they think doesn’t matter to me,” Karashrugs. “But for what it’s worth… I think they’d see how happy I was with you andwouldn’t care about anything else.”

“You think we’d be happy?”

“Yeah, Cat.” Kara squeezes her hand again. “Ithink we would.”

“But you deserve so much more.”

“Are you kidding me? You’re Cat Grant, queen of all media and one of the most powerful peoplein the world. You’re smart and you’re talented and you’re so beautiful that sometimesit almost hurts to look at you.” Cat’s eyes roll, but there’s a smile playingaround the edges of her lips. “How could I ever do better than that?”

“I might be all of those,” Cat concedes, “but I’malso old and jaded and difficult, andmy life is here, now, thousands of miles away.”

“Distance hasn’t stopped us before,” Kara pointsout. “Are you really not going to give us a chance? Give up without eventrying?”

“I should. I should send you out the window andmake sure you don’t come back.”

“But?” Kara prompts, because it seems like there’sone coming (or so she hopes, anyway).

“But,” Cat sighs, “I’ve never been very good atresisting temptation – especially when it comes to you.”

“So we can try?”

“We can try,” Cat confirms, and Kara’s heartswells. “If that’s something that you want.”

“It is.” Kara tugs Cat towards her, kisses heruntil they’re both breathless, feeling like the luckiest woman alive.

Because it had been enough for her, having Catlike this – just a part of her, just a few times a week – because she neverdared dream she might one day get to have something more.

Never thought that Cat would fall for her, theway Kara had for her (hard and fast and so very, very deep), never hoped thatone day they could be more than friends.

“So can I take you out on a date tomorrow night?”Kara asks, eyes bright and what she’s sure is a stupid smile on her face, butshe doesn’t care because she’s so full of happiness that she could burst.

“If you keep kissing me like that,” Cat says,voice husky and her hands warm as they slide up Kara’s sides to cup herbreasts, “then I’ll agree to anything you want.”

[ofendlesswonder]

14 for supercat 😍 nice to have you back on writing mode 😘

14. You know, it’s okay to cry.

Kara lets herself into Cat’s apartment with thekey she’d been given for their three month anniversary, humming quietly underher breath, high on her earlier victory over the DEO’s latest hostile alien,and the fact that she gets to spend the evening with her gorgeous girlfriend.

Cat is nowhere to be found when she steps inside,but Kara sees Carter curled up on the couch, the TV playing quietly in thebackground.

“Hey buddy,” she calls as she hangs her coat bythe door and kicks off her shoes. “Your mom around?”

“She’s in her study. Work call.” Carter’s voicesounds funny, and Kara frowns, concerned.

“You okay?” She asks as she rounds the corner ofthe couch, finding him with his knees pressed against his chest and his chinresting on-top of them, his eyes red and shimmering with unshed tears. “Carter?What’s wrong?”

She’s quick to drop onto the couch beside him,reaches out a tentative arm and only wraps it around his shoulders when he leansinto her to let her know he’s okay with the touch. Kara pulls him close and herests his cheek on her shoulder, and Kara waits quietly, giving him all thetime he needs to respond.

“My hamster died,” he says eventually, and Karagives him a gentle squeeze.

“Oh, Carter, I’m so sorry.” Kara knew how much he’dloved the tiny ball of fur – he’d looked after it all by himself, and was neverfar from its side when he was at home. “But he was a few years old, right?”Carter sniffles and nods. “And you gave him a pretty great life, kid.”

“You think so?”

“I know so.” Kara gives him another squeeze,hating seeing him so upset and wishing she could do something to help. “Rememberthat time he escaped from his cage and I came home to find your Mom standing onthe kitchen table?” Cat had thought she’d seen a mouse, and a sheepish Carterhad had to scour the floor for the escaped rodent – at least until Kara camehome and used her x-ray vision to find his hiding place.

“Yeah,” Carter chuckles. “I think that’s the mosttrouble I’ve ever been in.” He sniffles again before turning further into Kara’sshoulder, and she rubs gentle circles on his back as he finally lets the tearsfall. “I’m sorry,” he mumbles, pulling away and wiping furiously at his eyes.

“Why are you sorry?” She shifts away only to graba tissue from the coffee table.

“For crying on you. I made your shirt all wet.”

“That’s okay,” Kara shrugs, dabbing Carter’scheeks carefully dry. “It’s just a shirt.”

“But boys shouldn’t cry,” he tells her, lookingdown at his hands, and Kara frowns.

“Who told you that?”

“I overheard some people at school. They saidthat boys shouldn’t cry because it means that they’re weak.”

“Want to know what I think?” Carter nods. “Ithink those kids are idiots.” His lips twitch. “I’m serious, buddy, idiots.Because, you know, it’s okay to cry. We shouldcry, because it’s healthy, because you shouldn’t keep things bottled upinside. Crying doesn’t make you weak – I think it makes you strong, because you’renot afraid to show your emotions.”

“Do youcry?”

“Are you kidding? All the time. Once I criedbecause my sister ate the last potsticker.” Carter laughs at that, a real onethis time, and when she hears a snort coming from her left Kara jumps and turnsto see Cat hovering in the hallway, leaning against the wall and watching themwith her arms folded and a fond look on her face. “How long have you beenstanding there?” Kara asks, because she hadn’t even heard the other womanapproach.

“A while,” Cat answers, padding towards them withbare feet. “I didn’t want to interrupt.” When she reaches them, Cat drops intoKara’s lap and ruffles Carter’s hair gently. “How are you feeling, sweetheart?”

“I’m okay.” He manages a brave smile, and Catpresses a kiss to the top of his head.

“How about we go out and get some ice cream?Someone,” Cat nudges Kara’s side, “once told me that that’s the cure foreverything.”

“It’s true,” Kara says, nodding seriously. “AndI, for one, would love some ice cream.”

“The day you don’tis the day I know that something’s terribly wrong,” Cat teases. “What doyou think, Carter?”

“Ice cream sounds good.” He disappears to hisroom to clean himself up, and Kara leans back against the couch and pulls Catwith her.

“I didn’t overstep, did I?” She worries, shealways worries when it comes to Carter, because he’s Cat’s kid, not hers, andshe’s always wary of parenting him too much and overstepping a boundary, eventhough Cat’s never set any.

“Of course you didn’t.” Cat twists in her arms,presses a kiss to Kara’s lips. “You handled it perfectly, like you always do.”Kara smiles softly, and Cat matches it with one of her own. “I love how goodyou are with him.”

“Yeah?”

“Mm. No-one else has ever… no-one else has reallytaken any interest in him, wanted to spend time with him because they want to, not just because they think it’ssomething I want. But you’re… you’re different. You really care about him.”

“’Course I do, he’s amazing. Just like his mom.”She kisses Cat again, a little harder this time, and Cat threads her handsthrough Kara’s hair and sighs against her mouth.

“You guys are making out, aren’t you?” Carter’svoice calls a moment later, and when they part they find him standing in thehall, a hand over his eyes. “Let me know when it’s safe for me to look.” Catrolls her eyes, and Kara stands, lifting Cat with her and setting her gentlyback on her feet.

“You can open your eyes now.” Carter cracks oneopen cautiously before dropping his hand from his face. “You ready? I’m hungry.”

“You’re alwayshungry,” Cat and Carter say in unison, and Kara shrugs.

“It’s my metabolism! I can’t help it. I burn alot of calories, saving the world and all.”

“My hero,” Cat says, with no small amount ofsarcasm, and Kara grins before taking Cat’s hand and tugging her towards thedoor, Carter following in their wake.