Then, I thank you for your service, but you’re dismissed, effective immediately. I hope you’ll comply. The United States does not want a war with Supergirl.
They’re are on laundry duty while Eliza and Jeremiah clean the kitchen. Kara’s first proper Earth holiday, Thanksgiving, was as weird as all her other Earth-firsts. But, at least this one came with a great menu. Alex is measuring out the detergent while Kara dumps all of the table linens into the washer. She triple checks for anything red, remembering the look on Eliza’s face when she discovered one of Kara’s red socks had made it’s way into a load of whites.
“What’s the next holiday?”
“Chanukah,” Alex says absently, dumping the cap of detergent into the washer.
“Is that just for America, like Thanksgiving?”
“No,” Alex says, replacing the detergent lid and wiping her hands on the front of her jeans. “It’s a Jewish one. We light candles, play games, eat fried food, and get lame presents.”
“That sounds like a holiday we had on Krypton. Except for the fried food and presents. But any holiday where you eat french fries and mozzarella sticks sounds great.” Kara grins.
“Well, not those kinds of fried foods,” Alex motions for Kara to close the washer lid and, once she does, pushes in the dial on the machine so it starts.
“Then what kind?”
“Well, like. Latkes, and-”
“What’s a latke?”
“A potato pancake,” Alex sighs, trying not to get frustrated.
“Ohhh,” Kara nods, not sure if the image in her mind is right.
“Like a hashbrown from McDonalds, but not really,” Alex frowns and Kara’s eyes widen with delight. “There’s also sufganiyot. Not everyone has them, but our congregation does ‘cause the rabbi’s wife is Israeli.”
“And what are those?” Kara’s eyes are huge and Alex has to hold in a laugh. Kara is hands down the hungriest person alive.
“Israeli doughnuts,” she grins, because Kara’s eyes are practically sparkling.
“Oh, I love doughnuts.”
Before their first day back at school, Alex takes Kara aside and explains Christmas. It sounds like a wonderful holiday, too, and when Kara asks when they’ll get a tree, Alex cringes.
“We won’t.”
“But-”
“We’re Jewish. We don’t celebrate Christmas.”
“Oh. Like Easter?”
“Right,” Alex nods, hands stuffed in her pockets. “But, well. Everyone else celebrates it. So you’ll experience it.”
“Well that’s good,” Kara nods, “do they eat fried food, too?”
“I don’t think so. They eat ham?”
“Oh,” Kara frowns, tapping her chin, “clearly Jewish people have the better holiday.”
“Make sure you tell the kids at school that when they tease you for not celebrating,” Alex chuckles, patting Kara on the back.
The first night there’s a party at the synagogue. Everyone’s bringing their personal latke recipe, there’s a band and story time and a bunch of fun crafts. Kara’s been excited all week. The kids from Kara’s Hebrew school are far too cool and plan on ditching once the candles are lit, but Eliza has made Alex promise to stay with Kara for the whole evening.
Alex is bitter and grumpy, but perks up when Eliza hands her a big box.
“Pick one for each of us.”
“I want the Lego one,” Jeremiah calls from upstairs and Kara’s brows shoot up.
“What’s in there?”
“The chanukiyot. Menorahs,” Alex yanks the lid off of the box and Kara peers over her shoulder at the jumble of objects. “We’ve got a lot.”
“Oh, we light those each night!” Kara bounces around and sits cross-legged across the box from Alex.
“Yep,” Alex starts pulling them out, “we’ve always brought one for each of us to the synagogue’s party. Mom always picks them out though.”
As Alex takes out each chanukiah, Kara has to resist the urge to pick them up and look at them. They’re all beautiful, some are ornate and expensive looking, while others are simple and plain. A lot of them still have globs of white or blue wax stuck to the arms and Alex grumbles about being stuck cleaning them again this year.
“Do you like this one?” She holds up one that’s solid, without branches, and instead has a mosaic of different blue tiles, arranged to form a Star of David in the centre of both sides.
“It’s pretty,” Kara oohs appropriately.
“It’s one of mom’s favourites. You can take it this year,” Alex nods, setting it down firmly.
“I can?” Kara bites her lip.
“Yeah,” Alex says, looking briefly at Kara with a smile, “mom said one for each of us.”
“Right,” Kara nods, trembling with excitement.
“You remember how to do it?” Eliza says quietly to Kara. They’re all in the synagogue’s social hall. The rabbi is giving a little speech about miracles and ‘embodying the miracle of light in these times’. Kara can smell the latkes on the other side of the room, but right now, the task at hand is lighting the chanukiah.
There have to be at least 30 of them, all set up on the party tables lined with aluminium. Jeremiah and Eliza are to Kara’s left and Alex is to her right, closer to her friends who are still trying to get Alex to ditch with them.
“I got it,” Kara nods, holding the shamash in her right hand. Jeremiah passes his flame to Eliza, who passes it to Kara, and then with trembling fingers, Kara holds the light to the slender white candle on the far right of the chanukiah.
“That was the easy part,” Alex mutters, for Kara’s super-hearing only. “Blessings are up next.”
But Alex doesn’t get it. For Kara, the blessings are the easy part. She doesn’t have to gentle her voice, slow her words to be more precise. Her body is still a wild card, movements require so much focus, especially the ones that are delicate. Like lighting a candle.
Home. Krypton. It’s suddenly is less of a memory. The light of the chanukiah is almost like the light of Rao; the smells of food and fire and lamp oil; the blessings are ancient calls of gratitude. It’s close, so close it’s almost enough to bridge the gap, to make her forget she’s not home.
With her eyes closed, she can almost hear her mother’s voice at the very edge of the crowd, clear and firm and true. For a moment, she feels her mother’s hand in hers, warm and alive, comforting. But, when she opens her eyes and looks down, Eliza’s hand is grasping hers. And then Alex reaches out and takes her other hand.
Kara’s cheeks are wet from tears she had no idea she was crying. The candle lights blur in her vision and the mixed voices of the congregation picking up the final prayer shake her back to reality.
A/N: If you let me choose, I’m always going to pick the Danvers sisters, so here we go with Kara and Alex.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
“I made it for you!” a small girl, probably around four years old, says with a toothy grin as she holds out a colorful piece of paper to Supergirl, who is mingling with the crowd.
From inside the cordoned off area, Alex smiles at the sight. She always loves seeing the positive influence that Supergirl has on people, especially children. She’s so proud of the hero Kara’s become.
“I can tell,” Supergirl says, crouching down to match the girl’s height and mirroring her smile with one of her own. “It looks just like me. Thank you!”
She hugs the girl, who sways back and forth in her arms, unable to stay still with her energy and excitement.
Alex is about to return her attention to the containment scene happening around her when the girl runs under the barricade tape.
“I made one for you too!” the girl exclaims.
“Becca, get back here!”
Becca’s mother shouts.
Alex is several feet behind the barricade tape and waves off the closer DEO agents that move to intercept
Becca. She takes a few steps towards Becca and takes her hand. “Let’s get back to your mom.”
“Sorry about that,” Becca’s mom says.
“That’s okay,” Alex says lightly, not wanting to upset the little girl. “We have to stay on this side of the tape, okay, Becca?”
But Becca is focused on one thing only.
“This is for you!” she says, this time handing Alex a colorful drawing.
“Becca is a big Supergirl fan,” Becca’s mom explains. “She watches a lot of Supergirl footage, and she noticed you’re there by Supergirl’s side a lot, so she’s become a fan of you too.”
Alex did not expect that. “Oh, wow, that’s–uh–”
“Amazing,” Supergirl finishes for her, her grin even wider than it was before.
“Yes, thank you!” Alex says, giving Becca a hug.
“Wanna know a secret?” Supergirl says to Becca in a faux whisper.
Becca leans in, face bright with curiosity and excitement at being trusted with one of Supergirl’s secrets.
“I’m a big fan of her too,” Supergirl says.
“Supergirl,” Alex groans, feeling her face heat up with embarrassment.
Supergirl smiles at her. “It’s true.”
Eager to move on, Alex looks down at the drawing. It’s pretty typical for a child, broad crayon stokes depicting her clad in all black with red hair. Next to her is Supergirl, who is much more colorful. Alex has seen a lot of the fanart that Kara’s gotten from fans. She never thought she’d get some of her own.
“Thank you,” Alex tells Becca again. “I am going to keep this forever.”
Becca squeals with delight, and it’s all her mother can do to pull her away in the end.
When Alex glances at Kara, the giant grin is still there.
“Please stop,” Alex says as she turns back towards the containment scene.
Kara follows her. “I can’t help it. I’ll always be really happy when people recognize you as the amazing person that you are.”
“I’m a secret agent,” Alex says, putting on a pretend stern face. “I’m not supposed to be getting recognition.”
“Well I don’t care,” Kara retorts. “I think you’re amazing.”
And oh, what an idea. I’ve been craving a real good sister battle since Season 1. This got me sopumped. I’ll put it on my list 📝
I was kinda sorta bummed I didn’t draw them in a more dynamic pose… but I still loved how this turned out. Alex’s blank stare and all.Hope you like it too!
Time: IIIIIIIIII didn’t keep track. It was less than five hours.
Keep those drawing prompts coming! 🙂 Winter break is coming soon and I plan to keep busy!
At first Kara seems unaffected by her pregnancy. No nausea,
no aches or pains or inconvenient mood swings. Of course she credits it all to
her superior kyptonian genetics. No way she is going to be effected by
something as trivial as reproductive biology. Everyone nods sagely and agrees,
because they’ve all heard Alex bitching about how unfair it is that Kara was
genetically engineered for perfection, so it all makes sense.
Except for Alex. She doesn’t believe a word of it. She knows
Kara, she listened to Kara’s stories about growing up on Krypton and about
codex and the birthing chambers. She knows Kal-El was the first natural birth
in millennia, she knows how scandalous it was and she remembers Kara’s stories
about how Laura suffered through her pregnancy. She also knows what Kara looks
like when she is in denial and she can see her kryptonian is swimming in it.
When Alex tries to warn the others they don’t believe her,
because clearly Kara knows better, she is the kryptonian after all. Her ‘wanna
bet?’ becomes lots of bets, lots and lots of bets, at the DEO, CatCo, the alien
bar, everywhere. And Kara is so calm and unfazed that no one can believe that
she’ll end up hormonal, so they take the bets. But Alex knows Kara, and she
knows it’s only a matter of time, so she racks up the bets. Vasquez is the only
one who wont touch the bet, she knows better than to discount Alex when it
comes to Kara, she makes a few modest bets herself and uses her winnings for a
great baby present. Alex almost ashamed by how much money she is going to make,
but with a half kryptonian bun in Kara’s oven she knows their food bills are
going to go through the roof and her winnings are going to make a good start.
And then it happens, Kara wakes in the middle of the night
and she can hear a noise. A soft, soothing, rhythmic noise. It takes an
embarrassingly long time for her to realise it’s her baby’s heart beat, but
when she does, the wall crumbles and she is hit by the feels. All of the feels!
Alex is woken by the subsequent scream of “Holy Rao, I’m pregnant!” and spends
the rest of the night comforting Kara through the waves of tears, joy and panic
as reality sets in.
The next day the morning sickness hits with a vengeance,
quickly followed by mood swings and cravings and all the other stereotypical
symptoms. Kara is mortified at being a slave to her biology after all, but
people learn pretty quickly not to bring it up because, oh my god kryptonian
mood swings are scary. ‘Do not piss off the pregnant alien with heat vision’
becomes the new, unofficial, super-friends & DEO mantra.
Kara spends a lot of time painting and drawing, mainly scenes of krypton & her family. She has never been able to paint her family before, but now she finds it helps her feel closer to those she lost, and having their pictures on the wall makes it feel like they are somehow involved in the pregnancy. She also designs some kryptonian styled baby clothes which Winn makes for her. Clark gets the designs for traditional baby furniture from Kelex & the Jor-El A.I. and uses his farm boy skills to make them.
The clash when J’onn & Alex benched Supergirl has become
a DEO legend, but all known CCTV & sound recordings have been destroyed. No
one mentions it anywhere near the three of them, and they have learned the hard
way not to talk about it when Supergirl in on base (yes, her hearing really is
that good – see note about not pissing off the pregnant alien with heat vision).
Things calm down by the third trimester and the last few
months are relatively smooth sailing again, though she does burst into tears
every time she hears about a cat caught in a tree & they won’t let her go
save it because Supergirl has been benched. Luckily J’onn is completely wrapped
around her fingers by this stage and he becomes very good at saving wayward
animals on her behalf. (The teary relieved look and the hug he gets when he returns
makes it all worth it.)
Kara is inconsolable when her pregnancy makes the taste of
pot stickers change. At first she is sure that the shop changed the recipe and
Supergirl makes a personal appearance at the store to make them change it back.
They swear black & blue they haven’t changed a thing, & all the super
friends agree they still taste the same to them. There is a bit of muttering
about inferior human tastebuds, but she can tell the cook is telling the truth.
She is still half convinced that she is being pranked until Alex orders
potstickers from every store in National City and she realises they all taste
equally weird and has to admit she is the one that has changed.
Lena & Cat try to cheer her up by taking her on tours of
the city’s food outlets, ordering one of everything on the menu so she can find
some new favourites. Kara knows they are really just trying to get some veggies
& other healthy food into her, but the baby is making her hungry enough to
go along with it. She’s ends up horrified when her new favourite turns out to
be a vegetarian dish… With tofu! ‘Oh my Rao Alex, I’m eating tofu, this kid has
destroyed my tastebuds, please kill me now!’ Alex thinks it is hilarious and mocks
her about it at any opportunity. It’s also a great chance to resurrect her
childhood tease about Kara being part sun loving plant and calls her a cannibal
for eating her photosynthesis brethren. Alex gets very good at dodging pillows, and spends a lot of money on apology ice cream. At least pizza still tastes good.
One of the first things Alex did after learning Kara was
pregnant was enrolling in a massage class. By the time the muscle aches and
pains kick in Alex is a master and her magic massages have saved her from a melted face more than once. That, plus the line of kyrptonian proof toys and baby
products she (and Winn) have been making mean that she can get away with a lot
more than anyone else. Alex likes to think that her lifetime’s experience with
Kara’s puppy dog eyes has given her some level of resistance, but Kara knows a
little bit of bottom lip wobble, combined with a ‘for the baby’ will get her
just about anything she wants.
Question of Smoke 