“How are you feeling?” Cat asks, squinting through her hangover at the copious sunlight that floods Kara’s loft. “Can you get hangovers when your powers are out?”
“Uh, Cat… when I said ‘show me how to get drunk’ did you pick that fancy bar right by the courthouse by any chance?”
“It’s not that fancy, but they put the dirty in a dirty martini, yes,” Cat forces herself to remember; she needs coffee more than oxygen in that moment. “Why?”
Kara takes her hand, clinking the bands together pointedly. “I mean, I’m impressed that you’re not freaking out over the whole naked in bed thing, but I think we have a whole other problem.”
“This is Diane’s fault,” Cat recalls in sudden, vivid detail. “I was congratulating her on becoming a judge… did I really ask her for a waiver?”
“It would explain how we got, um, you know, without the 24 hours’ notice on the license,” Kara suggests. “This is the weirdest thing that has ever happened to me, and I came to this planet only to find out I can fly.”
“Do you want an annulment?” Cat whispers, but Kara is still holding her hand and looking at her with something like wonder.
“I’m pretty sure we broke the consummation rule,” Kara nods to where the sheet is barely covering any of Cat at all. “Is it weird that I don’t? I feel like I’ve been waiting so long to tell you how I feel that now I have you I just…”
“Don’t want to let you go that easily?” Cat finishes for her. “Well, if you can point me to a shower and hustle up some breakfast, I’d be willing to give married life at least the rest of the morning.”
“Seems fair,” Kara leans across the tiny amount of space between them and kisses Cat like doing so might just unlock the mysteries of the universe. Cat feels her body react with the same magnetic force it always does to Kara’s attention, only now she finally has an outlet for it, the feelings don’t have to hide behind designer clothes and uninviting posture.
“Shower,” Cat reminds her when they part, slightly breathless. “Caffeine.”
“You’re a very demanding wife,” Kara grumbles, but she steps out of bed in all her naked glory to lead Cat down the hall to the bathroom.
At the beginning of this season we see Kara obviously still mourning the loss of Mon-el, the whole episode in fact is a reiteration of the idea that Kara just *won’t get over him*, that Kara Danvers is weak, useless, broken by grief, and the only thing left to do is is to be Supergirl, the girl of steel, someone who will survive the loss of a loved one because she’s more-than-human.
But the thing is, Kara’s never had the chance to experience what it feels to really be Mon-el’s girlfriend without haste, drama, or the outside pressure!
She was initially attracted to him because he was a fellow alien, a boy with powers, someone other than Kal-el with whom to share memories of Krypton and other worlds far away.
She took him under her wing and trained him, tried to teach him how to be a hero, how to blend in with humans, how to try to have a normal life on Earth.
She was badgered into a relationship with him at his insistence, and at the hand of everybody around Kara slowly taking a step back and leaving her alone, with no other options but to give in.
And in the end she was betrayed by the revelation he was in fact the prince of Daxam, once his parents showed up to bring him back.
Before she had a chance to live out her boring happy relationship with him, he was poisoned and gone, banished to the phantom zone, Kara on Earth was left to wonder and daydream.
In the very first scene we see her roaming green fields of wheat, some Kryptonian version of the Elysian Fields, Mon-el is there and they’re happy. We find out right away that this is a fantasy, this is what Kara’s been obsessing about since he’s been gone.
It’s clear at this point that Kara is mourning an idealised version of him: the Mon-el we see in that vision is no longer him but “the love that could’ve been” (if only he hadn’t been selfish, utterly uninterested in using his powers for good, if only he hadn’t lied about being the prince of Daxam, if only he hadn’t been poisoned in an effort to rid the world of the Daxamite invaders, etc)
In the meantime Cat is gone too. She came back from a year of hanging out in internet-connected yurts only to put all of her shares of CatCo in a blind trust fund and go follow Olivia in Washington.
In a moment where Kara’s life is in shambles, where she needs to seek refuge in normality and routine to overcome her grief, Cat leaves her once again.
We see Kara smile when she sees her on tv, but we also see Kara quit her job at CatCo on a whim: she doesn’t seem to care about being a reporter anymore, and why should she, now that the person who used to read all of her articles isn’t even the owner of CatCo anymore?
In one of my favourite scenes of the episode Alex challenges her decision to leave her job,
Alex: Since when do you quit?
Kara: CatCo isn’t the point for me anymore.
Alex: You spent years working your way up to be a reporter.
Kara: And it was a waste of time.
Alex: I would love to see you tell Cat Grant that.
Kara: Cat moved on. Why can’t I?
This tells us two things:
1. Kara’s bitter as hell about Cat leaving CatCo, this is no longer a leave of absence, this is giving up the project of her lifetime: in Kara’s eyes, Cat has “moved on”.
2. If Cat’s no longer the boss to impress, a mentor to look up to, then there is literally nothing keeping Kara tied to CatCo as a business, and perhaps even journalism as a profession.
“Kara Danvers sucks” she yells at Alex, and indeed Kara Danvers’s life does suck, her boyfriend is gone and when she needed her the most Cat has left her alone.
Kara’s bitterness and brooding tells us that she’s lost, looking for an anchor. Cat used to be her anchor, last season that anchor was the boy from Daxam, and with him gone, Kara’s only option is to retreat into what she knows best: Supergirl.
Which brings us to my main point: Kara’s grief is not about Mon-el, to an extent it isn’t even about Cat specifically. Kara’s grief is first and foremost about Krypton, about the life she was supposed to have, about getting stuck on the way to Earth and not being able to help Kal-el grow up, about the universe always incessantly throwing a spanner in the works.
It’s about loss, abandonment, it’s about the life that could’ve been, all the chances that she was denied. It’s the kind of frustration that even the strongest hero on earth can’t do anything about.
Someone: Why do you love Cat Grant so much? Me: Oh boy do I have reasons for you. *Takes deep breath*…
She’s smart
She’s a feminist
She’s wise
She’s a wonderful mentor to Kara
She’s brave
She believes that hope is stronger than fear
She inspired Supergirl
She is the most powerful person in National City
She doesn’t give a shit (she does though)
She became a wonderful human being despite that fuckass waste of space of a mother
She totally knows Kara is Supergirl
Looks like she could kill you but is actually a cinnamon roll
When she wears two pair of glasses reblog if you agree
She slays at Settlers of Catan
She’s a loving, caring, sensitive mother to Carter (plays Settlers of Catan with him, tells him it’s OK to be a nerd, gives him the best hugs, when the world almost ended she went home to hug him and cook him a chicken)
When she was kidnapped she begged to be spared for her kids
One time she broke up with Kara because she broke her son’s heart
She is a bigger nerd than you ( she called her first Supergirl piece “Millennial Falcon” ffs)
Supergirl thinks she’s Supergirl
She really cares about Kara
Like, REALLY cares
One time she almost died to protect Kara against Livewire
One time Kara yelled at her and she brought her out on a date
She told her mother it’s OK to denigrate her but not to fucking talk shit about her assistant
She wishes she could fire Siobhan twice, with feeling, because she fucked with her assistant and she didn’t believe it for a second
One time she ordered an amber alert for Kara because she disappeared for like 5 seconds and she was worried sick
“Boys, be gone. Girl, stay.“
She’s Supergirl’s n.1 fan
One time Supergirl threw her off a balcony and she forgave her two seconds later
Her wit and sarcasm are the stuff of legends
One time Harrison Ford asked her out on a date and she said no
She keeps a stash of M&Ms in a wine cooler and eats them from a bourbon glass when she’s stressed and it’s hot
One time she invested in Jekyll and Hyde the musical (what a fucking nerd)
Her face, her hair, her voice, her eyes, her lips, her legs, her body
Her hair is so soft. I mean, look at it. So so soft.
Her sense of fashion
Knows how to makes an entrance
She’s not here for your white male privilege bullshit
She’s literally the only person Supergirl listens to
She really likes balconies.
She’s the ultimate Head Bitch In Charge
She really loves herself
She describes herself as powerful, rich, hot and smart
Loves cheeseburgers, rare, on a salad. Go.
The way she dismisses people with just a flicker of her hand
She feels the burden of power
she’s smol but fierce
She’s good at maths
She’s not used to be second best.
Doesn’t deal well with feelings and covers them up with sarcasm
Says has issues with personal space. Hugs Supergirl so tight as if her life depended on it.
“So, I assume none of this is your idea of a good time?”
Cat gestures to the swarm of people flooding the Las Vegas streets. She hasn’t seen this much glitter in one concentrated area since Carter had spilled three bottles while trying to make her mother’s day present. She supposes this area is known for providing a good time, and that only escalates on holidays like Halloween.
Kara shrugs. While she doesn’t necessarily appreciate how crowded everything is, she enjoys the time she gets to spend with Cat, and being allowed to come to this conference is pretty much a big deal. She says, “Well, I don’t mind. You look like you’re enjoying yourself.”
“There’s no high quite like being the keynote speaker at the largest journalism conference in the world,” Cat replies, a smirk sitting smugly and permanently on her lips. “So, of course I’m enjoying myself.”
“I bet.” Without thinking, Kara takes her hand and holds it.
Cat doesn’t shrug free of the casually intimate grip. “As I will enjoy just about anything for the next six hours, we might as well do what you’d like.”
“Well…”
Cat should have known better than to give Kara carte blanche control of their schedule like that, but she hadn’t thought to restrict plans from possible heart attacks. That’s how they end up at the Heart Attack Grill, with Kara three-quarters of the way through the Quadruple Bypass.
“Are you doin’ okay, hun?” The waitress looks as concerned as Cat feels.
“Could I get another order of fries?”
Cat’s eyes bulge, and the waitress staggers back. She jots the order down and stumbles back toward the kitchen. Cat leans forward.
“Kara, I don’t know if you’re aware, but normal people who look like you can’t humanly eat all that.” She stresses the word humanly and waits for Kara to understand.
Kara slows down and pats her stomach. “On second thought, maybe I should quit while I’m ahead….”
i love Supercat so much they had such a beautiful dynamic and i think about how much potential they had and how amazing and revolutionary they would’ve been as a canon couple every single day and i just
Cat can hear the joyous whooping where Kara has left the skylight open. There’s water pooling on the floor, so she throws a towel and pulls the glass shut. By the time she strips off her coat and kicks off her heels, Kara’s revelry has descended to the balcony outside the bedroom; apparently she took the closing window as the intended hint.
“Sorry,” Kara yells through the lashing rain as Cat slides the door open, drink in hand. “But it never rained on Krypton. Not like this.”
“It doesn’t rain like this in California,” Cat remarks, sipping at her Scotch. “We should probably do something about this global warming.”
This is for the beautiful and wonderful and kind and gloriously assed (confirmed) @thequeenofnationalcity who was all “soulmate aus!!!” about 400 years ago and I went all “ermagerd, same!!!!” and then this happened and I forgot about it on my google drive, but lo and behold! I fuckin found it.
Tis v short and if you’d rather read it on AO3, Here is the link.
The first thing she sees on Earth is color. Green, to be specific. It’s everywhere, the world is awash in this gorgeous, gorgeous green.
Krypton had nothing like it. Krypton was grey and dying, but Earth is green, green, green.
Alex checks to make sure she blinks every now and then those first few weeks. “That’s the color of your soulmate’s eyes. There really wasn’t any green on Krypton?”
She doesn’t know. She shouldn’t have been color blind; she came out of a machine and no one else in her family ever was. Except for Kal, but she didn’t know that then.
Question of Smoke 