Chapter Text
It was something so simple, something she hadn’t even realized. And now it was all over the news! HOW had she not noticed?
“Everything ok?”
Kara looked up from where she was standing in the middle of her living room, her arms crossed with a fist resting under her chin, the remote control for the TV clutched in her other hand. Her glasses were on her nose as she tilted her head to the side to watch the latest news footage. Her hair was pulled back into a tight bun, slightly damp from the shower she’d just had.
Mon-El was making his way towards her, in a pair of dark jeans and a black shirt. There was a white towel casually placed over his shoulders and bunched up, his hair as soaked, having showered after her. He was looking at her with concern shining in his eyes, eyes which were flickering up to her forehead where she could already feel the scrunch and crinkle forming.
She sighed a deep breath and lowered her arms, slumping slightly, “Well, everything’s not BAD.”
Mon-El chuckled at that and moved over to the couch, reaching out to tug her gently down beside him. He took the remote from her and increased the volume, his superhearing not quite as attuned as Kara’s was just yet.
“…speculation on what it could mean,” a male news caster was stating.
His female co-anchor seemed to just barely refrain from rolling her eyes at him, “I think it’s pretty clear what it means, Ron. Supergirl’s got a Super-Bae.”
Mon-El’s eyes widened as the footage cut to the same clip that was playing on a loop in the corner. It was a fire that had happened just a few hours ago, the reason he and Kara had needed to shower in the first place. The soot and ash and smell of smoke clinging to them had done horrors to their sense of smell. They had rushed to the scene of the inferno and been able to help get all the civilians out alive. He had even saved a little girl’s precious “Fluffy!” even if he was sure that cat was the spawn of some sort of monster for how often it tried to claw his eyes out while he was getting it out safely. Kara had been proud of him for helping, for taking direction and doing what was needed to help the humans, J’onn had been proud of him, even Alex had given him a small smile. But, what’s more, HE was proud of him. He’d run into a burning building despite how scared he’d been, and been able to do something to help.
He wasn’t as used to the idea of being mostly-invulnerable as Kara was. He still flinched when loud noises went off during a battle, he still would rather duck an object flying at him than let it bounce off. But Kara had had years to get used to it, he’d only had barely a year. He still didn’t think of himself as invulnerable, so he still felt that human fear of putting himself in danger all the time. He was working on pushing past it though.
But that wasn’t what was drawing his attention to the footage. It wasn’t the fire but the aftermath of it.
There he was, standing beside Kara in her Supergirl uniform, him in DEO black with colored shades on. It would have been normal. They were giving a report to a fire chief, reassuring him the building was sound enough for them to enter and determine where the fire came from. Nothing out of the ordinary…
Until the footage continued after the chief had walked away. It zoomed in on the two of them as he reached out and took Supergirl’s hand. Even from a distance, the camera had managed to pick up on the genuine smile she’d given him, his returning grin, and the fact that she hadn’t let go of his hand but, instead, interlaced their fingers before they turned and sped off. The camera slowed down the motion to show that, just before they left, he’d scooped a startled , but laughing, Supergirl into his arms to carry her away.
He still couldn’t fly and he always protested Kara carrying him everywhere. It wasn’t his sense of male-pride, but that Kara exerted enough energy just fighting bad guys or saving people all day, he didn’t want to add to that strain by needing her to lift him. So he would always try to whisk her off in his arms, it always earned him a laugh and a smile when he managed to catch her off guard enough to do it too.
Mon-El frowned a moment later and turned to Kara.
Her eyes widened, “Oh, no!” She shook her head quickly. “No, I wasn’t upset or anything. Not about them catching us holding hands. I’m definitely not upset that they think we’re together. We are, and that’s that. And it’s adorable, really. I like holding your hand.” She squeezed the one still holding her own. “Whether it’s as Supergirl or Kara. It’s sweet and it makes me happy. I mean,” she huffed out a laugh, “I can’t really just ‘hold someone’s hand’ whenever I like, however I like. Once, when I was a kid, I tried to hold Jeremiah’s hand and I broke it. So it’s really nice to hold yours as tight as I want and not have to worry about…”
Mon-El let out a small chuckle at that. “You’re rambling.”
“Sorry.” She flushed.
He leaned in and pressed a quick kiss to her lips. “It’s cute.”
“Yeah?” She beamed at him in a shy manner.
“Yeah.” He nodded. “I wasn’t actually worried about the hand holding though.”
“You weren’t?” She blinked.
“If you didn’t want me to hold your hand then, you would have pulled away, or yelled at me, but you didn’t, you squeezed back. So I knew you weren’t upset about that.”
“Then what…”
“Why are they calling me an ocean?”
Kara snorted at that. “What?”
“A bay,” he repeated. “That’s where the ocean meets land right?”
Kara gave him an amused look for that, but one that was filled with fondness for how much he still needed to learn about Earth, but how hard he was trying to soak it all in. “Yeah, a bay connects to the ocean. But that’s bay, as in B-A-Y.”
“…and that’s not what they meant?” he surmised.
“No.” Kara giggled. “They were talking about bae, B-A-E. It’s a term of endearment on Earth, it’s like calling someone babe or baby, but shortened. Some people even say it’s an acronym for ‘before anyone else.’”
“So it’s a good thing, then?”
“It depends.” Kara shifted slightly beside him, looking down at their hands, playing with his fingers, in a bout of shyness. “If you don’t like being called that, I can…”
“Would you be MY Bae too?” He interrupted gently, resting a hand on her knee after dropping the remote beside him.
Kara blushed as she looked at him under her lashes. “I’d like that.”
“Then I do, too.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
Kara’s grin widened. “Super-Bae.” She giggled under her breath. “A lot of hearts are gonna be broken when news spreads that Supergirl’s taken,” she teased.
“So long as it’s not your heart.” Mon-El leaned in and kissed her, Kara’s hands coming up to rest on his cheeks before she leaned back onto the couch, taking Mon-El with her.