Chapter Text
Kara knew she was late; the ferry-rescue by the National City harbor took longer than she thought, and now she was finally on her way to the Chalmun’s Cantina, or more commonly known as the alien dive bar. Alex, Winn, J’onn and Mon-el were already there as indicated by Alex’s texts all of which were begging her to come soon so that she could finally hand Mon-el over to Kara. She clearly had had enough of the Daxamite and his shenanigans for one day. Mon-el had fallen to earth in a Kryptonian pod just weeks ago, and was still learning the ways of the ‘human’ world. He was quite a handful but Kara saw great potential in him, to become something more than just a spoiled brat from Daxam. They had started off on the wrong foot, which made sense given the history between their home-worlds, but Kara had now decided to take him under her wings and mentor him to navigate this new world, and hopefully in the future, fighting alongside her against the constant threats National City was usually under.
When Kara finally entered the bar, she could see it was already pretty packed, which was not surprising at all, especially since it was a Friday, probably the busiest night of the week for the bar. Kara quickly spotted her friends at the far right corner of the bar sitting around a table, already making themselves comfortable with drinks and some Ewoska, which Winn thought were chicken wings. Kara had tried to tell him the truth that it was actually an alien bird from the planet, Naboo, but she didn’t think Winn understood her or at least pretended not to.
Kara reached their table, and quickly greeted her friends, simultaneously going on a tiny rant about why she was late. Alex told her to breathe, to which Kara responded by nodding her head while removing her jacket before finally taking a seat.
Alex already had a beer for her on the table which Kara gladly grabbed and took a long sip of, almost chugging it down completely. She then put the almost empty bottle down on the table and finally flashed a huge smile on her face, “So, how was everyone’s day?”
The gang spent about an hour discussing the events of their day, drinking, arguing and laughing, which was how things went every time they all got together. While her friends were busy discussing which Lord of the Rings movie was the best one, Kara took a look around the bar absent-mindedly, and that’s when she spotted a woman at the pool table destroying a couple of men in a game of 8-ball.
She probably stared a second too long because when Kara came to herself, she noticed the woman with her arms folded and brows arched with a sly smile on her face.
A flush of red spread over Kara’s cheeks when she realized she had been caught. She quickly looked away, pretending to look at Alex, but when she noticed the woman was still looking at her from the corner of her eyes, she freaked and stared down at the floor to distract herself almost triggering her heat vision. She adjusted her glasses and smoothed out the already-smoothed out collar of her shirt. She then tried getting into the conversation the others were having, something about a lot of missing person cases around National City. She only managed to catch pieces of the conversation because she was still trying to relax and calm her nerves. After a while, she gathered enough courage to look towards the direction where the woman previously stood only to find nobody there. She took a sigh of relief with a hint of, was it disappointment? She shook her head at the absurd thought and continued listening to her friends. Winn noticed right then that they had just finished their second round of drinks.
“Ok, you know I love you guys, but I didn’t bring enough cash to buy you all a third round of drinks”, Winn said with a frown. Kara jolted out of her stupor and sprung to her feet as soon as Winn finished the sentence and gave him a reassuring pat in the back. “It’s ok Winn, I got this one. The same for everyone I guess?” everyone nodded, while a semi-drunk mon-el over-enthusiastically belted “YES, one more round of the Zakkarian Ale, would be great. You’re welcome!” Kara threw her head down almost in defeat before correcting Mon-el, “it’s ‘Thank You’, mon-el, not ‘you’re welcome’. We literally went over this just yesterday.” Mon-el just gave her a shrug and a cocky smile that only added to Kara’s suspicions about mon-el making these mistakes intentionally just to be the class clown. To be honest, she didn’t mind it.
Kara moved towards the bar slowly lost in her thoughts about how she should probably start talking to mon-el about his future, specifically regarding his potential superhero career and before she reached the bar, she made a mental note to have ‘the’ talk, the next day. She was only two feet away from reaching the counter when she immediately stopped on her tracks and froze for what seemed like an eternity, turning right around to quickly make her way back to the table, and that was when she heard her voice. “hey!” she could hear it loud and clear; it was a strong commanding voice almost as if this woman was scolding her but yet had a soft ring to it.
Kara’s mind started to race, contemplating her next move; should she just bolt towards her table?
*Don’t be silly*, Kara said to herself almost audibly, *Just turn around, and pretend to be cool. You didn’t do anything wrong.* Kara continued consoling herself in her head that the woman probably didn’t even notice her staring at her earlier and it was just Kara’s nerves getting the better of her making her think the woman was quietly judging her for staring. So she put up a brave face and turned around to face the woman.
This was the first time she actually saw her properly, and all Kara could think at that moment was how stunning she was. She was wearing a light pink top with skinny blue jeans and a pair of high heeled brogues, while her slightly wavy, jet black hair were cascading down her back with a few strands of hair shaping her face along with the perfectly defined jawline. She was sitting on a stool with a perfect stature and Kara couldn’t help but feel drawn to her. Kara noticed she had a nice tan, giving her skin the resemblance of smooth caramel and her eyes…
“Hey…” Kara snapped out of her thoughts as soon as she heard the now familiar voice again and immediately turned red thinking she probably had been staring at her again like a dumb idiot. She looked straight at the woman and managed to give a nervous smile and mumbled a shaky “hi”.
“Are you ok? You look a little frazzled”, said the woman.
“Oh no, I’m fine. I was just grabbing some drinks for my friends… and myself”, Kara smiled, adjusting her glasses. She suddenly felt overtly conscious of herself. She did not know what to do with her hands, where to look, whether to smile at her, or ask her something.
Noticing her awkwardness, the woman gave her a warm smile and extended her right hand, “I’m Imra”. Kara realized Imra was offering her a handshake and quickly extended her hand to Imra and shook it gently so she didn’t end up breaking her arm. They broke the handshake and Kara just continued to smile at her before seeing the confused look on Imra’s face.
“Oh, jeez. Sorry. I’m …yeah I’m… Kara. Kara Danvers.” Kara responded nervously.
“Nice name”, said Imra warmly, while Kara just smiled back at her.
Kara couldn’t help but notice Imra’s unique accent. *what is that? British? It sounds British, but also, not?*
Kara shook her head, proceeded to the counter and waited for the bartender to come to her side of the counter so that she could make her order. She noticed Imra sitting right next to her eyeing her out; Kara decided to ignore her nerves and continued to look out for the bartender, trying not to give away the nervous look on her face.
After a few seconds of silence, Imra out of nowhere said, “So, what was that back there?” Kara’s heart started to race but she kept her composure, or at least tried to.
“What? What do you mean?” she furrowed her brows.
“You know what I mean, I saw you earlier.”
Kara freaked, *shit she noticed. I knew it! Ugh, why did I have to stare at her like that? How do I get out of this? Should I fake a stroke? No, just be chill. DENY everything.*
Kara scoffed as if she just heard the most ridiculous thing ever, “I have no idea what you are talking about. I was just with my friends, you know, talking, about stuff.” She gave a quick look to Imra to see if she bought it. Imra shrugged, “I mean it looked like you were doing more than just chatting with your friends, but ok.” Imra then looked to the other side of the bar while Kara contemplated her response. Finally, Kara slumped her shoulders, “you’re right. I was staring”.
She quickly followed that with “I didn’t mean to though. But if I made you uncomfortable, I’m sorry. I swear it’s not something I do usually. Or at all. I just…” Kara stopped herself promptly as soon as she realized she didn’t know where she was going with that sentence.
“It’s ok. I wasn’t uncomfortable. I was…. intrigued”, Imra said. “Especially after how you reacted once you realized I was onto you.”
“um ‘into you’? oh no, I didn’t think you were into me”, Kara laughed nervously.
“Onto you. Not into you.” Imra laughed.
“Oh, pfft. Right. That’s… uh.. that’s what I meant. ‘onto you’, not ‘into’ cause, you know, why would you be into me” Kara blurted out before being overcome with embarrassment all of a sudden and covered her face with her hands giving out a shy laugh, finally looking at Imra after a second or two, completely flushed.
Kara was blushing and Imra noticed how pink her cheeks had suddenly gotten, she also couldn’t help but notice how sweet and innocent Kara looked, almost like a puppy; it made her heart full for some reason.
The bartender finally came to their side of the counter, while Kara was still looking shyly at Imra and laughing at her own silliness.
“What can I get you, ladies?” the bartender asked. Both Kara and Imra snapped out of their thoughts and looked at the bartender, Brian. “oh um, yes four beers, and a Zakkarian ale, please”, Kara responded. “I’m good, thanks” was Imra’s reply to Brian when he looked at her for her response. “Four beers and a Zakkarian ale, coming right up”, said Brian as he walked away to get Kara’s drinks.
“Zakkarian ale? Didn’t think you’d be into that heavy stuff”, Imra said to Kara with a surprised look before continuing, “unless you’re an..”
“NOT an alien!” Kara almost yelled out the words, wincing at herself shortly after delivering the lines. “umm, my uh.. friend? Mike? He likes.. he likes alien drinks. That’s all.” Kara adjusted her glasses hoping Imra wasn’t suspicious of her.
“aah gotcha. You know what? You should try it too sometime. Everything is better with some Zakkarian ale” Imra winked. Kara laughed loudly, mostly out of nervousness.
Kara thanked Rao when she saw Brian come out with Kara’s orders, “that’ll be 20 bucks.”
Kara handed Brian the money she had earlier taken out of her purse before heading towards the bar, after which she turned to Imra as she grabbed the drinks, “Um, well it was nice knowing you, Imra” Kara smiled at her.
“It was my pleasure” Imra replied. They shared a quiet moment looking at each other smiling, then Kara finally started heading back to her table, where her friends were waiting for her.
But Kara turned around once she heard Imra’s familiar voice again, “Hey Kara”
“Huh?” Kara responded.
“You could join me this Wednesday for a game of pool if you’d like” Imra said warmly.
Kara stood there a little stunned, not knowing what to say even though she knew what she wanted to say. But, before she could respond, Imra added, “You know they have karaoke nights on Wednesdays, if that helps you make your decision”
Kara’s eyes widened.
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“Finally!!” Mon-el half-yelled as Kara arrived at the table with the drinks. “What took you so long, dear Rao!”
“Sorry, the bartender was a little busy”, Kara said as she handed out the drinks.
Alex nudged her little sister, as she sat next to her and as soon as Alex met Kara’s eyes, she asked, “So, did you get her number?”
Kara smiled shyly blushing a little and whispered, “yes.”