Chapter 4Notes:Sup!
Chapter TextWinn Schott stared, mouth slightly open as Kara greeted the opposite of her person. Because the woman who'd just walked in was not the sort of person Kara usually interacted with. Alex, sure, but Kara? The woman was unabashedly cool in an effortless way that made every insecurity in his soul tingle in alarm. She was all dark eyeliner, leather jacket and jeans and what were boots of some kind under those jeans, silver rings, and chain-like necklace. Grown-up rock band bass guitar player aura for days. And there was something…dangerous about her, in how she moved that made Winn think of Alex or the DEO.
He got up from his desk to approach and see if Kara needed help? Sure she looked happy, but Kara didn't really have friends outside of him and James. And Kara hadn't mentioned anyone new, she would mention someone new, right? With that in mind, he cautiously approached.
Just as he was reaching them he heard the woman's words, they were laced with teasing, but it felt like the nice kind. "Do I get a sticker for this?"
A question that made Kara flush out of sheer awkwardness as she was clearly unsure of whether she should have a sticker for the woman or not. And also barely keeping from setting upon the bag of food like a deranged raccoon.
"Hey Kara, who is this?" He cleared his throat, it was hard not to shove his hands into his pockets.
Kara essentially bounced, a brilliant sunshine smile in place that eased any worries the woman was bad news. "Winn! Yes, this is Daisy, she's---my new neighbor!" Her voice pitched up at the end almost like a question.
He blinked, that was, it sounded weird. "You have a new neighbor?"
"Just arrived in town." The woman cut in neatly holding out her hand. "Daisy Johnson, Kara here has been advising me on the best places to eat in the city and what company to get internet from."
Which sounded like Kara. Winn smiled, shaking her hand. "Oh, welcome to National City, I'm Winn Schott, and I do tech support. Are you new to the West Coast or just the city?"
She smiled, her grip firm. "Yeah, grew up on the east coast around Metropolis, figured I could use a change of pace and you guys get a lot of sun."
"She brought tacos!" Kara gleefully informed them as she started pulling out food from the bag like the ravenous alien she was. She beamed as she shoved the first one in her mouth.
Daisy's eyes softened as they rested on Kara, which was the expected reaction from most people before her attention turned back to him. "So, are you a disciple at the altar of potstickers like Kara here?"
"No," Winn laughed, a smile growing on his face. "I don't think anyone likes potstickers as much as Kara."
Kara made a sound of disagreement, but the third taco she'd just started chewing on meant she didn't actually manage to say anything.
"It's nice to be able to eat things that aren't field rations." Daisy gave a theatrical shiver. "MREs have nothing on potstickers. I think I almost entered a chopstick fight to the death with Kara over the last potsticker the other night."
Winn's head tilted slightly. "You're army?"
"Air Force, just got out, hence moving to a new city and all that. I don't have any kitchen anything yet so Kara's been letting me use hers." Daisy shrugged. "I've only ruined one pot so far. I think Kara's generosity with pots and pans is mostly self-interest in the apology takeout."
He nodded along, which made the faint whisper of danger about the woman make sense. That made a lot of sense, of course, Kara would help out a new neighbor. She shouldn't be letting the woman into her apartment that much though. "Are you liking the city?"
"I am, the vibe's low-key, so I'm enjoying that." She agreed easily, but her eyes narrowed faintly as her attention was pulled to the dozens of screens showing various programs, most of them discussing Supergirl's latest failures. "There has got to be something else to report on?"
Kara did manage to speak up then. "Supergirl terrorized the city, it was a really big deal." She absolutely sounded miserable about it.
"Yeah, that's some bullshit," Daisy said with utter certainty, eyes still trained on the screen. "I'd get it if it was just one channel, but all of them? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize something was really wrong with Supergirl."
Winn shot Kara an excited look, cause holy hand-grenade this was an actual person not in the know being supportive of Supergirl! "Right? I think the internet theory she was drugged is onto something."
"Probably, too sporadic for mind control to be likely." Daisy replied easily, before looking at him with an evaluative look. "But really, do all the screens have to be tuned into this?"
He shrunk slightly, "Ms. Grant wants all the news on 'her' hero to be up to the minute."
"Because daytime talk shows blathering about 'Terror in the Streets' because civilians can be dumb is up to the minute news?" The sarcasm was thick, and holy shit, Kara's new neighbor was just short of outright criticizing Cat Grant's media strategy in the middle of her office. Sure, Ms. Grant wasn't in at this exact moment but that was crazy.
Winn was so steering them to safer waters. "It'll blow over, everyone has jobs and something else will happen…eventually."
"Speaking of jobs," Daisy looked to Kara, seeming to shake herself out of her dislike of the news, "I should probably head out. I have a couple of job opening leads to hunt down, and paperwork to fill out. And apparently, I need to talk to our landlord."
Kara managed to swallow before stepping right into the other woman and hugging her. It was kind of funny actually. Right before Kara got a hold of her, Daisy's eyes widened ever so slightly, looking slightly tense for a moment before she hugged Kara back, expression fond. Kara seemed oblivious, it was definitely on purpose, to the fact the woman hadn't been expecting a bear hug. "Thank you!"
"It's fine, I probably owed you for bringing up depressing stuff before you'd had coffee. I'm sorry about that, it's new, having a civilian friend." Daisy actually looked the faintest bit uncomfortable then.
Kara released the woman from her bear hug, which Winn knew from experience was just a bit too tight. "You don't have to apologize, thank you for the tacos though. I'll never say 'no' to food."
"I'll keep that in mind." Daisy smiled, taking a step backward. She raised a hand. "Nice to meet you, Winn."
Winn waved awkwardly as the woman turned and headed back for the elevators. He waited till the elevator door closed before turning on Kara. "New neighbor? Scratch that, she was in your apartment before coffee? Alex is going to kill you, and then me, and then me again."
"Daisy's nice, and Alex won't kill us, probably." Kara defended, it sounded weak to both of them.
Winn was going to argue the point when he heard the ding of Cat's personal elevator. And well, if he was going to be alive long enough for Alex to kill him, he had to survive Cat. He mouthed 'talk later' at Kara as he quickly retreated back to his desk.
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Kara started babbling the second she was through the door and into her apartment. "I'm so sorry for saying you were my neighbor! I didn't even think, it just came out. And you were being so nice and I just said that and now…I don't know, did I mess everything up for you?"
"You're fine," Daisy laughed from where she was looking up over the top of her laptop. "And more important than that, I successfully made lasagna. Side note, did you know your landlord is Italian? Also, using Airbnb for like half the rooms in the building."
She breathed in, and oh, yeah she could smell that. And it felt like just relief breathing out. It was nice, to not be alone. "That smells amazing?"
"Wow, if I didn't know how not great at cooking I was I'd be hurt by the shock." Daisy closed her laptop, setting it aside. "But yeah, got some cooking tips from your landlord's mom."
Kara set her purse down, pulling her glasses off. "You met Drew's mom?"
"I did, also he thinks I'm into something illegal, but retroactively you were not lying. I'm your new downstairs neighbor." Daisy slid to her feet and headed for the kitchen. "I'm not above bribery for you helping me with furniture this weekend." Daisy stilled. "Where do you buy furniture?"
Kara lit up as she realized what Daisy had just said. "You got an apartment?!" She bounced, hands raised in a cheer. "That's amazing!"
"Yeah, it's pretty awesome." Daisy's eyes were soft as she smiled. It mattered to her. "I got conned into agreeing to repaint it, change the counters, and replace the locks on the door. The last tenant trashed the place and Drew is only like halfway through fixing it."
"A lot of stores sell furniture, we can go to Ikea and Target on Saturday if you don't mind the couch for another night?" Kara pulled out her planner. "And we'll need to go to the hardware store for the supplies for fixing the counter and paint." This would be great! She was really good at this stuff too.
Daisy set the lasagna down from where she'd pulled it out of the oven and leaned against the counter looking at her. "You know you don't actually have to help me, right?"
She looked up at the woman, a niggling doubt sprouting in her head. "Friends help friends, and we are friends, right?"
"Yeah, we're friends." Daisy smiled like she thought Kara had missed something that was funny. "And as my friend, you're helping me eat this so we can decide if I actually managed something that didn't come out of a box."
Kara beamed and used just a little superspeed to set the table. If Daisy had managed to cook something nice it deserved to be eaten at the table and not on the couch. She paused as she held the bottle of wine from game nights. "Do you like wine?"
"I…don't know actually." Daisy had paused where she was halfway to the table, holding the lasagna with oven mitts, a slightly confused look on her face. "I like champagne, cocktails, and beer? I don't think I've ever actually had wine."
Kara zipped the cupboards pulling out two glasses. "You can try some and if you don't like it I still have some of Alex's beer in the fridge."
"Thanks, wine always seemed kinda fancy?" Daisy said as she set the lasagna down. "And fancy parties I was in for spy work usually had champagne."
Kara didn't exactly forget that Daisy was more James Bond than Super, but it was funny to think of her as a spy. "There were so many wine jokes at the office I thought I was supposed to drink it. It tastes nice sometimes, though some of the reds are really bitter." Her nose scrunched at the thought of some table reds she'd tried. The sweet wines were better.
"How old were you when you got to Earth?" Daisy asked curiously while cutting the lasagna into thirds.
Her voice was a bit quieter, more hesitant as she answered that. People didn't usually ask about her alienness that often. "I was thirteen when I landed."
"How'd you end up with the Danvers?" Daisy served for both of them, a larger slice on Kara's plate, which was nice of her.
Kara passed her a glass of wine. "My cousin, Kal-el or Superman found me. But he was just starting at being a hero and had enemies so he brought me to the Danvers."
"The new home thing is never easy, did you even speak English?" Daisy looked at her with a painful amount of just understanding.
She shook her head. "It took me two weeks to learn."
"Two weeks?" Daisy huffed, raising a brow. "You're a crazy alien super-genius aren't you?"
Kara felt a warm bubble in her chest, so she dared, Daisy was alien too. "I was the youngest initiate into the science guild in Krypton's history." It was a thing she hadn't been allowed to be proud of for long, and then...she hadn't been allowed to like science here.
"Wait, on your whole planet?" Daisy stilled looking at her in surprise. "Holy shit, how old were most people admitted into your science guild?"
She flushed at the praise. "Twenty."
"So like super genius wasn't underselling you at all. What are you doing working for Catco and not revolutionizing science somewhere?" Daisy was clearly listening and interested in the answer.
The familiar lump at the reminder of what she'd not been permitted. "Krypton was too advanced, I would have made people notice me, it wasn't safe."
"That's…did you just give it up?" Daisy was biting something back.
Kara nodded and shoved a forkful of lasagna into her mouth. It was delicious. She didn't get a chance to tell Daisy before Daisy kept talking.
"That's terrible, science had to be really important for you to be that good at it that young." Daisy was looking at her with just…kindness.
Kara watched Daisy cautiously as she replied. "I was born for the science guild, we didn't choose our professions as humans do."
"So like, baby you was really interested in the magnifying glass and bugs as a kid and you got slated for science?" Daisy took a bite of her own dinner, curiosity lighting up her eyes.
Kara shook her head, a slight smile starting on her lips. "No, we were designed for our assigned roles as embryos. I was designed to follow in the footsteps of my father and his House, the House of El."
"So what, traits that make good scientists just got bio-engineered into you?" Daisy asked.
She nodded, "Yes, and from childhood we were then trained and educated for our future guild."
"Does that mean families or government or something else picked people's roles for them?"
Kara straightened at the questions, the lack of panic about pre-determining kids. "The matrix selected roles for children, but the priority was given to allowing trades and guilds to run within certain bloodlines. It allowed everyone to have a place and a purpose. Whatever guild you were in was because our people needed you to be in that role."
"Did people ever change roles? Or was it a one-and-done thing?"
Kara was on her third glass of wine, had finished off two-thirds of the lasagna, and was cozily curled into one corner of the couch by the time she'd managed to explain the entire guild system of Krypton to Daisy. She hadn't talked about Krypton for this long…maybe ever. "Not that Krypton was perfect, we destroyed our own planet, but our society was beautiful in some ways too."
"I get that." Daisy nodded. "I mean, I really wouldn't have done well on Krypton, but I can see why it'd be nice not to have to worry about finding the right job, the right everything." She waved a hand absently. "But do you really not do any science? Like even just as a hobby? I mean you could have a robot monkey or something."
Kara sipped at her wine trying to put it into words. "It wouldn't be safe, if anyone finds out about me they find the Danvers, Winn, James, Cat, anyone who has helped me but doesn't have invulnerable skin. I wouldn't be able to have a home or friends here. I couldn't just go to a store and buy a coffee. I'd just be Supergirl."
"And nobody can just be a symbol." Daisy hummed, turning her empty beer bottle around between her fingers. "You know the Inhumans believed that whatever power you got was because it was what our people needed to survive. I'm not sure I believe in that, sometimes our gifts just got us killed. I mean if I'd had a less terrifying power would SHIELD and Afterlife have ended up at war? Or would there have been more time to find just…any other path? But sometimes it's…nice to think what I've done did help even if I'm not really sure I did."
Kara reached out and touched Daisy's foot since that was all she could reach of her. "What did happen? Between your people and SHIELD?"
"That's…complicated." Daisy blew out a breath. "You have to understand Inhumans, we were designed to destroy. We're people, but we're biologically meant to be slave soldiers. Our powers reflect that they're almost exclusively meant for violence. There are exceptions, but they're few. And up until an Inhuman is exposed to terrigan, we're just people. I was just a person and then suddenly it was like I had hundreds of bees under my skin and I couldn't control it. I almost brought a military base down because I was scared."
Kara listened quietly, her horror at what the Kree had done wasn't important.
"One minute I was just an agent, and then Tripp my field partner was dead, two other agents were murdered by Raina, Mack had been mind controlled, the whole temple was shattered, Coulson was injured, and just me, in the center of the wreckage. I understand why they were scared, that they didn't understand. It didn't help SHIELD was still piecing itself back together after we'd found out we were infiltrated to the gills by Nazis. So it just happened at a terrible time, and I was dangerous. To myself, and anyone around me. And government agencies that believe in bagging, tagging, and keeping track of anyone with powers and have a history of murdering powered people? Afterlife and my mom weren't wrong to see SHIELD as a threat. It all happened so fast, everyone was scared and doing things that were making it worse and then my mom led our people towards attempting genocide of the human population."
Kara choked on her wine.
"I know." Daisy's face tightened. "So I picked a side and, obviously genocide is never the answer, but it destroyed our community, our ability to be safe." She tipped her head. "And preventing the terrigan being turned airborne meant it got into the food supply, no dead humans, but suddenly Inhumans were just popping up everywhere and it was a mess. Then it wasn't the humans everyone was talking about genocide for. I just…I can't see how that could be what our people needed."
The thing was Kara could hear how this mattered, and it did, deeply to Daisy. "Why did you leave?"
Daisy blinked, but then set her bottle aside, before sweeping her hair back and tipping her head showing the sizable scar left on the side of her neck. Her gaze was distinctly on the wall. "The Kree put in a slave chip, we escaped, but I couldn't risk it, that I'd become what they thought I was, The Destroyer of Worlds. I kept it in, no powers, but I was still an agent. It should have been enough. My best friend cut it out of my neck so I could solve our problems with my powers, no matter the risk."
"Daisy-" Kara started not even sure what to say to that.
"I screamed." Daisy straightened her neck, the scar still there, but no longer brandished towards her. "I screamed, I bled, and no one cared. I don't…I don't know when but they were my family and I was alone. I wasn't useful to them if I didn't have powers. Not enough to matter anyway, it was the end of the world and I was just laying in a crater, I saved us, and I was just there…alone. So I tried to leave, but I wasn't allowed to. So different universe was kind of the only way out. I wasn't going to survive being told to go and win or die for them. No one survives every time." Her expression was bitter.
Kara didn't care that it was awkward, she just leaned over and hugged Daisy. Because that was wrong. It shouldn't happen, but it had and she couldn't make it better.
Daisy stiffened for a second before returning the gesture. "All things that aren't really important in this reality."
"It still happened, that makes it important." Kara protested though she did pull back.
Daisy's head tilted slightly. "You do know that if I was going to hurt you, then spilling the sob story on you would be exactly what I'd do right?"
"You don't have to keep saying that." Kara huffed in exasperation at the recently often-repeated statement.
Daisy just sighed. "I know I'm not going to hurt you, but you really should know how to spot a con."
"I can spot a con." Kara ignored the dubious look on Daisy's face. "I'm good at telling what kind of a person someone is. And you are a good person."
Daisy's lips pulled up. "See, you say that, but as your new downstairs neighbor I'm just going to have to stick around to make sure that's true."
"Good." Kara re-settled on her end of the couch. "You could come and do heroing with me? You're probably better at it than me."
"Uh, better at shooting people, and my powers are designed to be destructive. You're definitely a better hero than me." She shifted, her brow raising. "Was a plane really the thing you started with?"
Chapter 5Chapter TextDaisy felt lighter after last night. The therapist would probably be delighted she'd talked to someone about any of it. Also, it was fascinating to hear about different planets. She still had so many questions. But, she had work to do before figuring out how to make homemade meatballs for spaghetti, landlord Drew's mom was a doll. But she had a military base to infiltrate.
It was depressingly easy considering the face veil, pickpocketing skills, and idiots who wrote codes down and left that folded in their wallets. The fact it only took three hours to get in, have a drive plugged into the server, and be out after collecting a garment bag with her 'new' dress uniform. She'd broken into too many military bases for it to be hard, but this was stupidly easy.
Daisy clicked through the military servers on her phone. Hardwiring a backdoor in was effective. So much of hacking frankly was tricking people into giving you their login information or hard-wiring a connection. She'd need a few other hard-wired backdoors before she'd feel comfortable, but it was a good start. Complicated coding was only 50% of hacking, the other 50% was being smart at exploiting stupidity. Hence, written down passwords, inability to avoid being pickpocketed, fifteen minutes recon on the role of the victim of said pickpocketing, and confident bluffing being all that was needed to get into a military base.
Which left time for picking up some things, she had an apartment to fix up. Hadn't expected to have one this quickly, but covering for Kara's slip of the tongue wasn't a road bump she minded. The apartment complex was far nicer than she'd have gone for, but she'd talked the landlord into giving up the one closest to the stairwell on the bottom floor. She was technically two floors below Kara. But it was a good location to be able to keep an eye on anyone using the stairwell.
Daisy pulled the keys out of the Charger, she'd been careful to park it so that it had room to not get scratched. Self-healing it might be, but she didn't want to test that without Robbie there to actually be magic. Chances of the car not being magical at all without Robbie there were probably at 90%. So care had to be taken. He could get his demonic ass here if he wanted it back. She was paying for his brother's college, he'd live at her borrowing the car from storage.
Locking the door she walked towards the Home Depot. This was going to be an experience. Coulson had never sent her to do hardware store runs. Daisy pulled up the list Kara had made for her on her cellphone. She could totally do this. This was ridiculous, she was more stressed about buying paint and some new locks than she'd been about breaking into a military base.
Daisy grabbed a cart, she needed a cart. Paint…she could do paint. At least the plaid shirt meant she blended in. Though she was probably going to have to hunt down some poor minimum-wage person in an orange apron for help. She could find the paint section by herself though. It only took ten minutes to find it. Ten minutes of trying not to show how odd it smelled. The wood and metal and clean dust if that made sense? It probably didn't.
The half aisle of paint cards was horrifying, however. Right…she could pick a color. If Drew didn't like it she had swastika-imprinted gold bars to get rid of, paint couldn't be that expensive. She stared at the paint cards or swatches? How did you pick a color? Google. She could google it. Flipping to a new tab on her cell phone she pulled up the first result.
'Select three colors from an existing object in your home.'
'Don't choose paint first! Use an inspiration piece.'
'Understand undertones.'
'Choose three paint colors.'
'Choose a fourth color that can be used as an accent.'
'Use artwork to make connections between spaces.'
That was utterly unhelpful. Throw pillows and artwork to create color themes? She didn't have that. She had two duffle bags, a combat suit, a laptop, and a reasonable amount of weapons. She might be new to this, but even she knew matching colors to her sniper rifle was weird and dumb. It was ridiculous, she was an adult, she'd lived in over a dozen different people's homes, and it wasn't that important. Except…she wanted to like it. Not just grab some white paint and call it a day.
"Do you need some help?" A man in an orange apron asked.
Daisy's eyes flicked to him. The dad of a toddler was written on him, the dried cheerio he hadn't noticed on one cuff, the four days of unshaved scruff, and clothing that hadn't been folded in months were telling. Also, she was pretty sure he'd just run his fingers through his hair and called it good. But he was showered so hadn't given up in an exhausted haze. He wouldn't have been a threat when she'd been a teenager living in a van. But, yay, name tag. She shifted towards the man. "That obvious?"
"You haven't moved in ten minutes or looked up from your phone much." He said, and yeah, he was definitely exhausted.
She couldn't help a flicker of humor at the lack of customer service positivity. "Ouch, but yeah. I haven't painted an apartment before and have no idea where to start."
"Do you know what type of paint finish you need?" Jeff as his name-tag declared him asked.
Daisy really should have spent an entire afternoon researching paints, shouldn't she? "Type?"
"Paint has different finishes, high gloss, semi-gloss, satin, eggshell, and matte. Gloss finishes are more popular in kitchens while matte's are more common for bedrooms. The finish is going to determine-"
Did it take an hour and a half? Yes. Did she now have white paint, dark purple paint, and a light purple paint? Yes. Apparently, she was going with purple tones. It was nice, it wasn't bright and cheery like Kara would have chosen, but it wasn't greyscale so it was probably going to be homey…ish. She would be hopeful about it if the paint hadn't been the single easiest thing on the list. She looked at Jeff. "Please say you get commission?"
"I mean, a percentage of the sale on some items?" Jeff looked at her from where he was adding the last bucket of purple semi-gloss for the kitchen into the cart.
Daisy was going to have to reverse pickpocket some cash into the man's pockets. "Right, any chance countertops are one of those items?" She winced, "Also painting supplies and door handles?"
Daisy was exhausted and felt worse than she did coming out of most fights honestly, but she had chosen, paid for, and generally acquired everything she needed. The countertops would be delivered next Wednesday, but the rest was packed into the car. Leaning against the black side of the car she groaned. She was never doing this again. Kara better be prepared for them being neighbors for life because dear god. Who thought this was fun? Also, why were countertops a hundred dollars a square foot!? That was insane.
She squinted at the sporting goods store on the other side of the parking lot. Kara was totally going to drag her out heroing at some point or run into an asshole who could actually hurt her, and Daisy was absolutely not running around with her actual face out. Or glasses? Fake glasses were not happening for her. Or cardigans. Adorable on the blonde, she was not dressing in rich preschool teacher-inspired clothing. Which meant a mask. Sport masks had to be decent at sticking on the face during movement…but fuck she just wanted to lay out on a floor and not move for a few hours.
With a groan, she pushed off the car and started walking toward the sporting goods store. There had to be a sport that had masks that would work. Hell, she'd deal with a bandanna that wouldn't slip if she had to. But facial recognition software was not going to be why she got carted off to alien jail here.
The store smelled radically different than the hardware store had, also it was warmer. Probably warmer because there was carpet instead of straight concrete. And, thanks to foster siblings who'd done sports, she'd actually been in one of these before. It took her five minutes to spot the ski masks.
Stopping in front of the wrack her head tilted slightly as she looked at the huge upper face-covering ski and snowboarding goggles. Shiny, wouldn't show the human eyes behind the hard plastic lens, and would totally stay on. Daisy's eyes flicked to the lower face shields to protect from windburn. Her suit was black, if she wore those she'd look like a supervillain. She picked up the goggles with a golden-looking gleam to the lens. Well, the cheerful 'good' hero vibe wasn't going to work for her. But this? She could make this work.
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Kara's smile faded as she realized Daisy wasn't in the apartment as she walked in. It was…the first time in a week there hadn't been the smell of something to eat and the quiet sounds of another person in her space. It was jarring. But…Daisy would have said something if she was leaving right? And that was Daisy's duffle bag neatly set on the chair in one corner. Kara shook off the feeling and raised her glasses, looking through the floor.
She smiled, before zipping down the stairs and knocking on Daisy's door.
Daisy's voice wouldn't have been loud enough if she'd been human, but it perfectly understandable for her. "Door's unlocked."
Kara breezed in and couldn't help giggling at the way Daisy was laid on a paint drop cloth on the floor. "Are you ok down there? Cause you look a bit like a noodle."
"A noodle?" Daisy cracked an eye open, looking up at her. "Rude."
She nodded biting her cheek to keep from giggling. "Very noodly."
Daisy rolled her eyes but did not move from the floor. "Why did I spend less time breaking into a military base this morning than I spent picking out paint?"
"Military base?" Kara squeaked, oh Rao, that'd be General Lane's base, wouldn't it?
Ignoring the panic at the possible treason, Daisy pointed at the kitchen. "And did you know there are different types of paint for different rooms? It matters apparently. Why is paint that complicated? It's sadistic, give me a gun any day."
"You broke into a military base?" Kara cut in, "Did anyone see you? Oh gosh, are you alright? Did you get hurt?"
Daisy huffed as she floated up to her feet, the display of power made something in Kara feel soothed. "Please, they don't know I was even there." She shot her an amused look while wiggling her fingers. "Spy, I'm good at it."
"Rao, ok, but why did you break into a military base?" Kara couldn't help how her voice squeaked a bit at the end.
Daisy laughed while walking to the counterless kitchen and swiping her cell phone up. "To get a hardline into their servers for ensuring the paperwork for my cover is all in place. Also, because you implied Cadmus has connections to the military. If I ever need to hunt Cadmus down, I'd rather already have the access to get to hunting fast. Do you have Greek food? I think if I order us Chinese again our arteries are going to explode out of protest even if they can't get clogged."
"Hunt Cadmus?!" Kara definitely squeaked.
Daisy looked up at her. "You haven't said a lot about them, but alien chop shop, why your sister is on the run, they're an active threat. And government agencies like that don't stop just because you ask nicely. Or because you point out how they're in the objective wrong. When they come for you, or if they come for me I'd prefer to be prepared. Anyways, Greek? Or we could try Thai maybe? Something with actual vegetables mixed in but not a salad."
"There's a Thai place down the block, wait, you're preparing to hunt a government agency?" Kara felt something that might be a cold sweat on a human. Cadmus was dangerous. Horrifyingly so. They weren't something you just…went after.
Daisy set her phone down. "What's wrong?"
"Cadmus is dangerous," Kara said slowly.
"So am I." Daisy looked at her for a long moment. "Do you want me to back off of them? If me touching them is going to risk something I don't know about I can leave it alone."
She hated the fear she felt. "I-"
Daisy stepped forward grabbing Kara's hands, her touch warm, a pleasant roughness from callouses. "Whoa, ok, hey. We can talk about it later, it can wait. We can just order food, you can tell me I got way too much purple paint, I won't go hunting down your evil government bad guys without talking to you about it, ok?"
Kara nodded, squeezing Daisy's hands, Daisy squeezing back, harder than a human could. It was…she could really feel her. Not as strong as her or Kal, but she could really feel it. "Thai sounds nice."
"Then Thai it is." Daisy smiled, "I'm going to order enough for even us to have leftovers." She gave a final squeeze before pulling back and going for her phone again. "And unless I find an easy way to sell the evil gold without ending up on a watch list, I'm going to have to pick up some hacking gigs. Between takeout and the horrifying price of modern home improvement shit, I'm draining my funds fast."
Kara wiped at her face. "I can pay for takeout?"
"You're a personal assistant," Daisy raised a brow, a slight smug smirk on her face. "I'm more of the Robin Hood code of ethics. Replacing funds for me is a whole lot less work. Hacking can be lucrative, even when you've got morals about it."
She pouted, she was going to have to pre-emptively order food before Daisy managed next time. And…it helped, listening to Daisy. "So you got the paint and counters then?"
"And a new door handle with a separate extra safety lock. But seriously, the counters were wild. I got these kinda white quartz countertops for the majority of the kitchen, and yes, I showed them the measurements and photos you insisted I have. Here I'll show you, they called it something ridiculous like Rococo, why the patterns all had weird names I don't know. But for the island, I actually got what is called butcher block? Which is just wood but apparently is great for cooking prep, ended up getting the birch for the butcher block sections. I think it'll look nice? But trusting me to pick out colors was-"
Kara let the words wash over her, it was safe, it felt safe. Her tension drained from her shoulders as she smiled. This was good, it was nice…really nice.
Kara was comfortably full and poking at the box of Drunk Noodles, listening to Daisy talk about primer and wondering if her powers would be able to help dry things faster, the warm bubble in her chest growing, and suddenly she couldn't not tell her. "The alien prisoners from Fort Rozz, the ones who keep attacking, they were being led by my Aunt Astra."
Daisy's words died, her face soft and quiet. "Were?"
"She died." Kara looked at Daisy and the words started pouring out. How Astra had wanted to save Krypton, might have been able to do it, but her mother had used her to capture Astra. Finding out her aunt was alive, to find out she was alive but hurting people. About General Lane torturing Astra when she'd been in custody, how she'd thought Astra might come around. About Non, about just all of it. "Astra was attacking them, and Alex killed her. I know she was defending herself, but she lied, they told me J'onn killed her and I was just…so angry."
"She was your family, disagreeing doesn't mean you loved her any less." Daisy didn't seem repulsed or upset about Astra. But then oh, she'd said her mother intended genocide last night, hadn't she? It felt a bit like a punch in the gut, the understanding.
Kara's shoulders shook slightly, her eyes going down to the white drop cloth they were sitting on. "I was so angry, but it was J'onn and then Alex. So when the red kryptonite was in my brain…it made all of the worst parts of me come out, I couldn't stop it and I attacked them. For hurting me, for hurting Astra, I ruined everything."
"Hey, I don't entirely know what happened with the red kryptonite? But that's what made you lose it, yeah?" Daisy waited for her to nod. "Whatever you did while it was making you like that wasn't your fault. And you didn't kill them, Alex and J'onn are still alive right?"
Kara wiped at her face, frustrated she was crying. "But everyone found out that J'onn was a Martian, that Alex and I knew he was. It's why Cadmus was able to take them, and they're on the run. I can't even talk to them, or know if they're safe, I can't doanything to help. And J'onn saw it in one of the Cadmus soldiers' heads, they have Jerimiah, we thought he was dead but they have him!"
"Who's Jerimiah?" Daisy asked gently.
Her eyes burned from tears she couldn't keep back. "My foster father, Alex's dad. They took him when I was fourteen because they caught me flying. The DEO came for me, and he traded himself so I could be safe. But then he died on a mission but he didn't, Cadmus took him. We didn't know, I didn't know."
"That's super fucked up." Daisy moved over till she was sitting next to her, cautiously wrapping her arm around Kara's shoulders.
Kara couldn't help turning and burying her face in Daisy's shoulder and crying. It was horrible, wet ugly sobs she'd be mortified about later. But Daisy just was there, solid and quietly understanding. Which made the sobbing worse, somehow.
However much time passed, and Kara wasn't sure before her sobs died down. She didn't pull away, mostly because then she'd have to actually face Daisy. It was funny, she could feel it like this, the way a faint fluttery vibration that affected even her seemed to fill Daisy. A silent reminder that Kara didn't have to hide what she was, who she was.
"I have a suggestion if you want to hear it." Daisy's thumb rubbed comfortingly against Kara's shoulder where her hand was resting.
Kara pulled back, and wiped her face, before looking at her friend. "Suggestion?"
"Look, I'm not from your world, and I'm a spy. It means I'm going to prioritize gathering information. But I think you've been doing a lot of flying around without really knowing the stakes of what's going on around you. You're fighting people without knowing why they are attacking you, without knowing what resources they have. And sometimes that's how you have to fight. But right now, maybe you don't?"
Kara's fingers poked at her tan slacks. "You mean research Cadmus?"
"Yes, but also the DEO probably. I know you trust them, at least to a degree. But as someone who worked for an organization with a lot of similarities? I really don't. Not just them though, someone has to know something about what your dick of an uncle is up to. Even if they don't, it's worth looking into. You can't help your sister if you don't know how to." Daisy shifted ever so slightly. "I get it, if you don't want or trust me anywhere near that information, but you need to be finding information, even if it's on your own."
She shook off the shiver of unease at the mention of not trusting the DEO. Kara loved Lucy, J'onn, her sister, but she wasn't sure she disagreed as much as she should. She poked Daisy's shoulder. "I trust you."
"Uh…you really shouldn't." Daisy shook her head, face fond though. "But ridiculous decision to just trust me or not, the suggestion stands."
Kara held Daisy's eyes. "Where would we even start?"
"First, by knowing who, where, and how." Daisy brushed some of her brown hair behind one ear. "I'm a hacker, my first step would be getting access to the systems of anyone with any link to Cadmus and following the money and who is giving orders. You know this country, especially this city. So, who are the movers and shakers? And where do they not want you to look?"
Kara bit at her lower lip, Daisy wasn't wrong, she did know that, or could find out. "You make it sound so easy."
"It's not, it's a lot of very boring looking into things and going over utterly pointless stuff. But information is powerful." She picked up her laptop, opened it, and pulled up a google page. She ignored Kara's curious look, just entering in a search for 'top twenty richest people in National City'. Daisy grinned, looking at her. "Think it's a reasonable place to start?"
She pulled out her planner. "I have contact information for all of those people's secretaries."
Daisy whistled, "See, totally doable." She pointed at Kara. "Please remember people live and die to protect information. Being cautious and slow is good, even if it's frustrating."
Kara did roll her eyes at that, she knew that. "Why do the richest people in National City help us find Cadmus though?"
"They might, they might not. But most anyone who can afford to threaten 'Supergirl', is going to have money and power. That or be deep in some illegal stuff."
Kara's face darkened. "Maxwell Lord, he hates aliens and is willing to do whatever he can to stop me." She swallowed, "And he knows who I am."
"What do we know about him?" Daisy asked, and there was a faint feeling in the air, a hum of her powers. It felt like a threat, but not to Kara.
And Kara…Kara could never forget the feeling of Bizzaro's hand under her's, trapped in a coma she would probably never wake from. "He's the CEO of-"
Chapter 6Notes:I have been reminded I should link this more, but there's a discord server. https://discord.gg/mAbTrwbQ
Chapter TextCat Grant was bored by the latest news—nothing gripping, nothing that sparked, thus nothing that would sell. Nobody cared about Supergirl's continued PR campaign of minor nothings of heroics. A villain, a real dramatic bad guy for her to be victorious over was needed for her girl in the cape to start winning back people's support. Well, at least there was the ongoing scandal of Oliver Queen sleeping with yet another actress. Her attention was caught by a possibly more interesting happening of someone she didn't know, walking off the elevator and onto the top floor of Catco like she belonged there.
That was interesting. The plebian was a bit of a reformed goth or emo or whatever those gloomy, hormone-ridden, teenagers called themselves. But shockingly the woman was proof sometimes they grew up and learned what a well-cut pair of jeans was, moderation with eyeliner as a concept, and ungreasy hair was preferable. It still didn't explain the woman's presence. The bag of Big Belly Burger and confident beeline for Kiera's desk did.
Ah, yet another contender for Kiera's heart. That girl drew the loveless population like bees to honey. Not that the girl seemed fully aware of that.
Cat didn't do anything as gauche as to stare, but it was certainly something.
Interesting how Kiera lit up. Well, points for the new challenger.
There was a dry sort of amusement as an alerted James Olsen approached, all puffed up shoulders and face painted with concern at someone else entering 'his' territory. So pedantic. And Kiera was either living in denial or actually that dense. Cat was a bit irritated she wasn't sure which. Possibly a bit of both.
Oh, James was all gentle masculinity still, no doubt his voice just the same timber as usual. But his smile was forced, very, just drank pure vinegar as he tried to place himself ever so slightly between Kiera behind her desk and the new competitor.
The new girl had confidence, she didn't so much as take the faintest step back to establish a more normal amount of personal space at James' slight encroachment. Rather, her slightly sarcastic but fond expression had turned to look like a predator sizing up its prey.
Cat felt an eyebrow raise as Kiera either ignored the veiled hostility or did not register it as she got up and went around her desk before happily hugging the newbie.
The new contender easily allowed the contact, her entire attention sliding fully onto Kiera. Not that it wasn't clear the woman was still very aware of James Olsen. It was nothing so gauche as maintaining eye contact with him while hugging Kiera, perhaps more devastatingly it was utterly ignoring him outwardly while neatly adjusting her and Kiera so that the three of them were in a triangle when Kiera let go. The hand on Kiera's waist also lingered in a deliberate way for a half second too long.
James breathed in through his nose, a distinctly unhappy set to his jaw. And he had certainly noticed that Kiera's hand had fallen to the new woman's elbow with casual ease.
Amusing as all this was, Cat did not feel like allowing a tela-novela to play out in front of her office, it would suck the efficiency of the entire floor. And, entertaining as it was, she was irked by the unearned confidence of the stranger behaving as if the office was perfectly open to her person without question.
Well, she had some fools at the Tribune to lambast for the layouts she'd had delivered to her earlier. Their front-page story was not going to be Oliver Queen's flavor of the week. Front page of the society section obviously, but there had to be something more interesting for the actual front page. If there wasn't maybe they could kick the Troglodyte who'd thought to put Oliver Queen's dating life on the front page of the paper off the building. At least when Supergirl swooped in they could get a money shot for the cover.
With that in mind, Cat rose to her feet with all the dignity of the Queen she was, grabbed the layouts, and walked out of her office. "Kiera!" She took a smug thrill at the blanch as everyone who'd been caught up in the tela-novella playing out before them snapped to attention. She shoved the layouts into Kiera's spluttering arms. "I have people to fire, fires to light." Cat let her eyes pointedly fall on the newbie and James.
James had the decency to look chagrined. "Ms. Grant."
"Olsen." Her eyes cut fully to the newbie. The girl didn't shrink or fold at the attention, she was all dark eyes twinkling with amusement and the unearned confidence of a millennial. "And why, Kiera, is there a member of the unwashed masses in my bullpen?"
The woman replied before Kiera could stumble through an excuse. "Just dropping off your assistant's lunch, Ms. Grant. And I may be part of the masses, but I do shower. Even use soap."
"Oh, you think you're clever then, and I should tolerate your existence why? All you millennials and thinking just by existing you're worth something, have achieved anything at all." She scoffed, ready to move on.
The woman's face split into an actual grin. "Wild opinion to have, but I think the military medals I've got collecting dust count as some kind of accomplishment according to most standards." Her eyes flicked back to Kiera. "I'll see you after work. I'm making spaghetti, if I burn another one of your pans I'll order Greek." She took a step back. "Nice meeting you, James. Seeing myself out, Ms. Grant."
Cat looked at Kiera as the woman walked away. "Cavorting with war heroes?"
"Daisy's my new neighbor?" Kiera risked.
Cat hummed, interesting. Not the type she'd have thought Kiera would be interested in, but she could see the appeal. "She'll do, I suppose." She started walking toward her private elevator ignoring the stumbling assistant following in her wake. "Schedule an appointment with my therapist tomorrow morning, and I've changed my mind about lunch, no salad, I want sushi. You know my order, I want it on my desk when I get back from reminding the Tribune what a front-page story is."
////
Daisy had tripled the recipe she'd convinced Mrs. Rizzo to write down on cardstock for her. Between her serum-enhanced appetite and Kara's pure alien one, it was a lot of food. Also, cooking was turning out to be kinda fun. At least when she didn't burn it. The large metal mixing bowls were out, and she was pretty sure she'd organized everything she needed to do this though.
She spun the knife absently between her fingers as she stared at the onion. Thanks to a youtube instructional video she did know how to cut one now. The inevitable crying was not a thing she was looking forward to. Needs must though. It didn't take long, she'd sharpened Kara's knives on day two. It was tragic how dull they'd been. Had she possibly sharpened them to a point that was beyond what was needed for civilian cooking? Probably. But better too nice than not nice enough.
Once chopped she dumped it into the bowl with the sausage, and ground beef. Grabbing the nifty little doodad for crushing garlic she crushed a whole eight cloves of it before dumping it in. Mrs. Rizzo had been very clear. Fresh real garlic and onion, not just the powdered version in the bread crumb and seasoning mix. That done she cracked the eggs into the smaller bowl of dry seasonings and bread crumbs before using her fingers to mix it.
So slimy, but Daisy couldn't help smiling as she did it. This was…fun. It was fun, and it didn't really matter if she fucked up, and there was just something…satisfying about making something with her hands and it being good. The SHIELD hack of a therapist had been wild suggesting art therapy, but Daisy was pretty sure she was getting the point of why that'd been a suggestion.
As she dumped the egg and spices mix into the meat and started kneading it, she was kinda delighted by the weird way it squished between her fingers. It was really satisfying. Felt a bit like when she'd been a kid at St. Agnus happily making mud pies, well before they got punished for ruining their clothes and never did it again. But she could do it now.
Daisy might have spent longer mixing the thing than was necessary.
As she carefully rolled the mixture into balls and laid them out on the parchment-covered cookie sheets as instructed she felt kinda smug about remembering to actually pre-heat the oven this time. It'd been a bit awkward to have the lasagna put together and realize the oven should have been warm already. But she'd remembered. No awkward scrolling on her phone while waiting, fully constructed dinner just sitting on the counter.
It was definitely an unreasonable amount of round meatballs. She'd literally made 96 of the things. So she'd be doing a few different rounds in the oven. Whatever, at least neither of them would still be hungry. There might even be leftovers. Maybe. Daisy didn't mind, just sticking the two trays ready to go into the oven and setting the timer, remembering to set the timer was key.
With a quiet thrum of satisfaction, she walked over to the couch and grabbed her laptop. The new part-time job at RadioShack started soon, but until then, she had plenty of time to start laying out who the power players were in National City, and more broadly the country. Once she had that done, she'd break down known risks and start building a map of who in power was connected to what when it came to anti-alien agendas. Because this earth, this earth was kinda more and less fucked on the topic from what Daisy could tell.
More alien refugees, higher levels of associated crime from just the elevated numbers alone, and just existed in a way that was generating a more widespread response. The fact of the matter was those with power were aliens, enhanced humans being nearly non-existent meant there was no concept of humans able to stand up to and fight aliens. They were seen as too separate, too non-human. Made sympathy for aliens a harder sell.
Daisy could see it, the fear, on message boards, in the news, in the money being poured into defense. They didn't have a Tony Stark building weapons and suits that let him stand beside gods, they didn't have Captain America or a Hulk or any of the very human protectors that Daisy's Earth had. And it showed. The closest they seemed to have was Batman in Gotham. She'd only found out about him while charting out Bruce Wayne on the Excel sheet of the richest people in the country. Gotham was wild and Daisy wasn't touching that with a ten-foot pole for a while. But for crime rates like that there had to be something in the water…hopefully.
Well, they also had Lex Luthor. Lex had made a suit and weapons that frankly would have been stiff competition if not have ripped Tony Stark's apart. He was living proof humans could fight aliens and survive. And he was a monster and one the biggest influences on anti-alien hate groups not to mention just sentiment in general, on the planet. Instead of helping the lunatic made everything worse. And Daisy would bet a whole hell of a lot that Lex Luthor was tied to Cadmus.
She was mostly sorting the rich and the powerful into categories of priority. Max Lord might be the highest priority to look into, but Lex Luthor wasn't far behind. Even if the psychopath was in prison already. People that rich didn't get hampered much by prison. SHIELD would have dumped him into a black site isolation cell and had his only interactions being scientific theory that would get passed on and chewed apart by scientists at the Academy. That, or they'd have just put a round between his eyes. Fury would have used him, Coulson would have had him put down. Daisy agreed with Coulson.
Still, not the most pressing issue and one she'd deal with later. Priority was skimming articles on Maxwell Lord. To the dipshit's credit, he didn't seem to be in deep with the military. So still likely semi-independent in his evil. The result of narcissism most likely. Give him a few more failures and a system would scoop him up though. But, arrogant narcissist was a thing she could work with. She wanted the DEO files on him, but first, she wanted into hissystems.
Daisy tapped at her laptop. So, time to get a lock on someone low on the ladder in his corporation, getting their login credentials, then she could just walk in, log in, and install her own backdoor. She cracked her knuckles, time to go fishing and find someone who hadn't paid attention to internet safety lectures or training.
Daisy was amused and a bit baffled by how easy it was to scoop up marks digitally. It'd taken her an hour, but the meatballs were stewing in the red sauce on the oven, yes it had taken three pots to fit all of them, and she was down to a short list of twenty idiots at Lord Tech. So many people were willing to sign up for online coupon offers. Which left her to troll through social media with the new emails, usernames, and passwords she'd just hooked and see who was a naughty fucker who used the same credentials for everything.
And wow, an idiot by the name of Jeff Williams was a winner. To be fair, so were most of her fish she'd hooked. But Jeff was depressingly perfect because he was a lead for technical support according to his Facebook page. Sometimes she thought she'd seen the dumbest things, actual leadership for a multi-billion dollar technical company's computer support department being this dumb was…not as surprising as it should be. Miles's old joke 'hackers don't break in, they log in', was hilariously accurate.
Daisy was reading Jeff's Facebook page absently as she got the water boiling to actually make pasta. She eyed the amount of pasta. She may, possibly, be making too much food. Like more than one meal's worth of leftovers. Huh…well given time she'd get the hang of portion sizes? Probably? Wasn't like even if there were too many leftovers they'd last long.
She was stirring pasta when Kara came skidding in from where she'd just flown through the window. Daisy snorted at the expression on Kara's face. "I didn't mess anything up for you at Catco, right?"
"I think…Cat likes you?" Kara sounded absolutely baffled.
Daisy laughed. "She also thinks we're involved, or at least I'm trying to seduce you."
Kara's face went red, "What, no, that…what?"
"Probably my fault, also is James your ex trying to get back together with you, or am I throwing a wrench in your personal life there?" Daisy might have been overly hostile to James. If Kara actually wanted to date or was just starting to date the guy she could undo the shitty first impression.
Kara opened and then shut her mouth before dropping onto a stool by the kitchen island like a sack of putty, with an audible groan. "James is…complicated." She looked up at Daisy with a forlorn expression. "I ruined it."
Both of Daisy's brows went up, well that sounded like a story. And, just because James rubbed her the wrong way, didn't mean she wasn't aware that was her abandonment issues. Fuck therapy being useful. Cause he had the whole warm voice, was objectively attractive as hell, and clearly was successful, all things that were working for him. Very crush-worthy, honestly. "Well, I'm almost done with dinner, and I wouldn't mind listening?"
////
Kara felt embarrassed with herself as she shared the whole James saga over spaghetti and meatballs, which were delicious. It all sounded so stupid and ridiculously unimportant. She'd cringed at admitting she'd pined after him even when he'd had a girlfriend, that she'd hurt him while under RedK.
"Wait, you bruised his wrist and said something bitchy to him and you're counting that as malicious harm?" Daisy's fork lowered as she stared at her in disbelief. "Like you didn't even murder anyone while drugged out of your mind."
Kara blanched. "No, I hurt people and-"
"Ok, perspective here." Daisy waved her fork. "I got nabbed by another inhuman that had mind control. The whole thing was…terrible and not important right now. I can tell you another time. But I killed people, I helped build a supervillain planet-wide mind-control system by giving him my blood. My field partner? I shattered his ribs and beat him to a bloody pulp, I choked out my best friend, I set my boyfriend up to take the fall for my crimes. When he pleaded with me to stop I called people dying beautiful. And I was under that control a lot longer than your two days."
The air in her lungs froze, a faint layer of ice spreading across her lips as the horror of that registered.
"It was different than your RedK that brought your darkest, worst impulses, it didn't change who I was like that, it just made me love him. His happiness, his wants, his everything was the most important thing in the world. All the grief and pain, everything that hurt in my head just was gone. I was perfectly happy. I went through withdrawal after Andrew died freeing me from Hive. But Lincoln, after I'd hurt our friends, hurt him, betrayed him in every way, he still loved me."
Daisy held her gaze, the weight left Kara speechless. "Lincoln died to protect me from what had happened, he shouldn't have, it should have been me, but he didn't care. And I don't know a lot about your life, but from what you've said, that's how your sister loves you. Probably how your J'onn loves you. If the cute photo dude has an ego that is taking you being less mean to him than most drunks at last call, he's not in love with you enough to be worth being this upset over. And like sure, maybe someday he could be, but he's not now. And if you want to date him, date him. Bruised ego or not he's into you, and I get it, he's hot. But don't twist yourself up in knots over nothing."
Kara couldn't help it, she reached out catching Daisy's free hand. "I'm sorry."
"It was two and a half years ago." Daisy turned her hand over, squeezing Kara's hand back. "What I'm trying to say, probably badly, is you're way too upset about something that isn't even your fault. And if he can't see that, it's his problem." She shrugged and pulled her hand back with a soft expression. "But I'm down for wingmanning if you want? He definitely cared about my existence."
She bit at her lip looking down into her half-empty bowl of dinner. "So much is happening and I don't…know?"
"Let me know if you change your mind." Daisy agreed easily. She smiled at her playfully. "But hot photojournalist is your type?"
"That's…I…maybe? I just felt all fluttery when I met him and he was so nice." Kara's shoulders slumped. "But then it's just been hard, and I feel stupid. Every time I try and do anything about it it goes wrong. Alex kept saying I just needed to take initiative but when I tried it just went terribly."
Daisy refilled Kara's glass of wine. "And being a superhero doesn't help. I managed one actual relationship in seven years of working as an agent. And it was a year of flirting before us being together for less than a month and then Hive." She paused, shifting slightly. "Dating with all the hero shit going on is like expert mode from hell."
That wasn't as long as Kal had been doing it, but the difference in length of time was only a few years. And Kara hurt at the reminder of the grief that came with being a hero. Grief had been Kara's companion since she was thirteen. "I wouldn't give up my ability to help people for anything. I love what I do, it matters. Even if they hate me, and I get hurt, that I bleed, it's worth it."
"You talk down so many bad guys, don't you?" Daisy was smiling at her.
Kara felt proud at that. It was stupid, but she felt proud cause she had, hadn't she? "Sometimes."
"The cape is very cool too, we weren't as big into capes in my world." Daisy tilted her head slightly. "We're depressing…just way too much. Come on, there has to be a rom-com and ice cream or something?"
Kara half snorted half giggled, she wasn't wrong. "Does your world have Disney?"
"Yup, Mulan, Fox and the Hound, Aladdin, and Robin Hood for life." Daisy grinned, "You?"
"I love all of them! But Snow White is my favorite!" Kara polished off her bowl of dinner. "Do you have the Lion King?"
Daisy nodded, "I cried when Mufasa died when we watched it on movie nights as a kid."
"So did I, I cried during a lot of Disney movies," Kara admitted.
Both of Daisy's hands rested on top of the table. "Pixar, I gross sobbed over Wall-E."
"Yes! It's just so sad, and his little robot hands!" Kara gestured to emphasize her point.
Daisy nodded, "And he's cleaning up garbage by himself and the loneliness. I started sniffling five minutes in and it didn't get better till the human characters showed up."
"I cry in the Notebook every time. It probably makes me a bad feminist but the end!" Kara had feelings about the end of the Notebook.
Daisy didn't seem exasperated like Alex over the romance film passion. "No, I get it. Not my favorite genre, but I get it. Sometimes the toxic mess is sogood."
"Human relationships are so different and I was fascinated by it and now I just love it." Kara explained. "Also the harmony for the traffic light song? I could listen to it all day."
Daisy blinked, and then her face lit up. "Oh my god, your Notebook is a musical?! Please say you own it. That's amazing, do you know how many times I've had to watch that movie and your version involves singing? Wait, what other movies are musicals? Is The Devil Wears Prada a musical?"
Kara laughed, "I own it, and no, The Devil Wears Prada isn't a musical."
"Titanic?" Daisy eagerly asked as she slid to her feet, grabbing dishes. "What about The Godfather?"
"What's Titanic? And the Godfather isn't a musical, it's one of Alex's depressing movies." Kara pouted, rats, of course, her new friend would like Alex's movies.
Daisy blinked, "You didn't have a Titanic?"
"What's a Titanic?"
"TERMINATOR IS A MUSICAL!?"