Work Text:
Understanding
Kalex Week Day Four: Marriage Tropes
Wednesday, 11/20 - Supertrope - Marriage - Marriage tropes! Fake married, arranged married, accidentally married, betrothal, etc.
I own nothing. So…I went with another AU for this one. I’m not entirely happy with it and will probably eventually revisit this in order to continue it.
Alex sighed, closing her book and taking off her headphones. Her parents were still at it, discussing what to do with her new ‘sister’. The alien girl that had yet to leave the room across the hall for more than meal times. The same girl who spoke very little English and seemed terrified of her own shadow.
She could hear her cry at night, although neither of her parents had appeared to be aware of it. Alex was used to this, since she knew from experience that her parents could sleep through practically anything. Alex was a light sleeper, like her grandmother.
Scowling down the staircase, Alex had to wonder if they realized how much sound carried upstairs from the living room and kitchen. If Alex could hear them, then Kara with her super hearing could as well. Better, actually, when Alex thought of it.
Sending a dark look at the closed door guarding the younger girl, Alex returned to her room and began gathering supplies. She didn’t want to have anything to do with the new girl that had invaded her family and clearly did not want to be here. Not that Alex could blame her for that. Alex didn’t always want to be here either.
Looking over the pile, Alex nodded to herself. Talking was all well and good, but sometimes action was better. She was fairly certain action was always better. It certainly got more done than talking a subject to death did.
Creaking open the door (they would need to replace it at some point, Kara’s uncontrolled strength having cracked the door and frame several times), Alex slipped into the dark room. Searching the space as her eyes adjusted, the thirteen year-old felt her heart break.
Kara was curled up in the corner furthest from the door. Her hands were over her ears and her eyes were squeezed shut. She was once more dressed in the same odd white clothing that she had arrived in, the tattered remains of the outfit she had worn to breakfast scattered beside the bed. Things were broken and torn all over the room, testament to Kara’s abilities.
New abilities, Alex reminded herself. With that, Alex began approaching the smaller girl. Kara looked up at her and Alex stopped. No one had ever looked scared of her before, but she didn’t know what else to call the look in tear filled blue eyes.
“Hey,” she said softly.
Kara blinked at her. “Hello,” she said slowly, “Al-Ex.”
“Alex,” Alex corrected at the odd pronunciation of her name. At least she was no longer using Alexandra.
“Alex,” Kara repeated slowly, nose scrunched up in concentration. She shifted more into the corner, winching when she felt the material crumble from the movement.
She hated this. Not the Danvers, but the situation. None of them understood exactly what Kal-El had done, and he was too busy ignoring her to learn his mistake or assist her in rectifying it. Kara doubted he would want to, as human as he was.
He had taken everything but the clothing she wore to his Fortress. All the things she could have used to assist her in adjusting to this planet were now hidden away from her. She was prohibited from using powers she didn’t understand, much less know how to control.
Like his, her parents had planned for the changes that would occur. Unlike his, hers had planned for her to raise him and hide both of them should the need arise. No one had planned for her to go off course, but then she doubted they would have expected Kal-El to abandon her to strangers.
Kara almost wished she was back in the Phantom Zone. At least there she was no one’s inconvenience. She was not betrothed to a girl who had no understanding of just what that meant. Kara was pretty certain Alex disliked her, either as a ‘sister’ or future spouse.
She did not have the language needed to explain all of this. The older Danvers were trying, but they lacked the same understanding as Kal. They were all focused on her adjusting to Earth and being human. None of them had stopped to consider that she had just lost her family and the world she knew as home. They all appeared to be under the impression that she should be ‘over it’ already.
Alex broke their staring contest, moving to sit beside her. “Can you at least understand what I’m saying?” She asked bluntly.
“Zhi,” she winched, “yes,” she repeated the affirmative in English. Understanding the language was the simple part, trying to use it to express herself was proving more difficult.
“Okay,” Alex nodded to herself. “This is how this is going to work. You are going to teach me Kryptonese, and I’ll help you with your spoken English.”
Kara nodded. It would help and she owed the girl that much. Perhaps eventually she could explain what Kal had done.
“While that happens, we’re going to work on your powers.”
“I am not to use them,” she repeated the phase she had heard far too many times to count.
Alex scoffed. Adults. “Then how are you going to learn to control them?” She took Kara’s silence as agreement. “We’re starting with hearing and strength. And once we figure it out, you’re taking me flying. Got it?”
“Got it,” Kara nodded, feeling a smile form on her face for the first time in days. Flying was easy, and she would be very careful with Alex.
“Good,” Alex pulled out a fresh notebook. “So first thing, alphabet.”
Several weeks went by like that. Using basic skills most people learned in preschool and kindergarten, Alex helped Kara control her strength. She found sounds for Kara to focus on when things began to be too loud. Kara taught her the basics of Kryptonese, both the simplified alphabet and key words. Alex made a game of it, exchanging word for word around the house and figuring out terminology when there simply wasn’t a translation available.
Kara was much faster with English, although she still spoke formally instead of with the vernacular of a thirteen year old. Once she had enough words, she lamented the loss of her pod and what it contained to Alex in the dark of the night.
“We could try to ask for it,” Alex suggested quietly. She had discovered that Kara was tactile to the extreme, so it was no longer odd for her to have the smaller girl curled in bed with her. It meant that Alex was not yanked from slumber to Kara’s night terrors, plus she was never cold.
“I doubt they would allow us to have it. Kal-El desires me to forget, to be human.” Kara had tried before, argued that it belonged to her. Would it really harm anyone if she was allowed those small pieces of home?
Alex snorted. She was beginning to like, possibly even love, the odd girl. She was not, in anyway, the least bit human. Why should Kara have to forget anything? Alex equated it to being told to forget her Nana and Papaw after they had passed away. How could she forget the man who had first taken her surfing, or the woman who made her favorite blanket for chilly nights?
She was well aware it was not the same, but she had nothing else to compare it to.
“So we don’t ask permission.” She wondered if she had the right clothing for a trip to the Artic. “You fly us there and we steal it back.”
“I do not believe I can carry you and my pod.” Perhaps if Alex was inside? Kara didn’t think so, not when she would need to fly high enough to remain unseen.
“So we take the big back pack,” Alex replied, “and we fill it with the important bits to bring back here. That I know you can do.”
Kara nodded. “Yes, but it would take time. More than a single night.”
“You have a point,” Alex mulled it over. “I have an idea, but it means waiting. We’ll need to be really convincing in order to pull it off.”
“Okay.” Kara trusted Alex. Kal-El may have made many mistakes, but this one might actually become something Kara was no longer angry about. She hoped that Alex would be understanding and accepting of it.
“Okay,” Alex hoped this worked out. If not, they would be grounded until college. Well, she would be at least. “I need to make a phone call, but this will work.”
A single phone call later and her Grandma Mason (Eliza’s mother) was a firm ally. Alex hadn’t even really had to try to convince the woman to begin asking for the girls to visit. The eccentric woman was always up for trouble, a trait she shared with her granddaughter.
Not that Eliza had much room for complaint. She had agreed to take in an alien child using faked documents to make it look legal. She also managed to use the ‘sister’ title as if she actually believed it.
Emily Mason took exactly three months to arrange for the two girls to spend two weeks in Indiana in June on the family farm. Eliza and Jerimiah were fine with it, although both gave the same lecture on keeping Kara’s origins a secret. The ‘no powers’ rule was to be strictly enforced, and they left it on Alex’s shoulders to ensure it happened.
Dutifully, fingers crossed behind her back, Alex promised to take care of Kara and keep the secret. Kara did the same, although she still did not fully understand why crossed fingers negated a promise.
It took all of an hour once the elder Danvers were gone for Emily to turn to the girls and ask them what the plan was.
“Kara’s an alien and we’re going to get her stuff back.” Alex answered.
“And that’s the reason for all the missed family gatherings then,” she nodded. It made much more sense than the excuse her daughter had been using. “Well, come along and fill me in. I have fresh gingerbread and tea. Kara dear, how to you like yours made? Sugar or honey?”
“Honey, please!” Kara’s eyes were bright at the thought of two of her favorite things on this planet. Krypton had not had bees. She wasn’t entirely certain what went into gingerbread, but the spiced sweet reminded her of her aunt and the candies she would return with from her travels.
Alex grinned, following the two inside. Grandma was the perfect ally.
Emily listened as the two teens told her Kara’s story. Her heart went out to the girl. Her own grandparents had been Holocaust survivors and she had grown up with their stories of the camps and the war and the aftermath. To have lost everything and not truly been given the time to deal with the trauma, it was hard enough on an adult.
“The old field outback is well hidden,” she told them after a few minutes of silence. “You should have no trouble practicing out there. The barn is old, but still perfectly sound. There are plenty of things around here where we can work on things, and hide others.” She studied them a bit. “How certain are you that your pod is at the Fortress?”
“Where else would he have taken it?” Alex asked. “He wouldn’t have…” she trailed off. Clark wouldn’t have destroyed it, would he? He had been cruel enough to leave a distraught, traumatized twelve year old on her parents’ doorstep.
“It is there.” Kara said. “He took it and myself there first, before taking me to the Danvers’. He said it would be there for when I was older.” She didn’t think he would be capable of destroying it. There was a failsafe in the pod to prevent such a thing. Her father had assured her of it, mostly to assuage her worries probably but she trusted him not to lie to her.
“Then it won’t hurt to at least check it out.” She sighed. “That would be something to see. You’ll have to tell me all about it when you get back. Alex, your grandfather’s old jacket might be a bit big but I think a few extra layers and it’ll fit just fine.” She set her empty mug down. “I want it to be understood that I do not like the thought of you two going that far away without adult supervision, but I think this is something you both have to do.”
“It is,” both girls replied. Kara needed that information to help explain what it was Kal-El had done. Accident, misunderstanding, whatever it was, he had still done it. Considering her foster parents’ constant stressing of the title ‘sister’, she was beginning to suspect they had some inkling of what had happened.
“Alright, but you leave and come back at night. And,” she stressed this, “you do not leave until I am satisfied that you are prepared.”
Not wanting to lose their only ally, they both agreed. Kara thought it was smart. The cold wouldn’t affect her, but Alex would freeze in moments. She did not want to lose her betrothed. Alex was the absolute best thing on this planet. Even better than potstickers.
They were allowed to leave two nights late. Alex was bundled up to the point she was more concerned with heatstroke before they got off the ground than she was of freezing once they were in the Artic. Kara was dressed in a brand new black leotard, blonde hair tucked up in a black beanie. Both of them had new black combat boots, Alex’s a size too big to accommodate the layers of socks on her feet.
Emily was prepared for everything. From the amount of snacks she provided, not even Kara’s appetite fazed her.
“Your grandmother is,” she struggled for a moment to remember the correct wording, “amazing.” She beamed when Alex smiled at her.
“Yea, she really is.” Alex looked around the woods they had stopped in for a break. It was pretty, all pine trees and very different from the beach she had grown up on. “Um…Kara…we need to go.”
“Why? You are still cold.” Despite the layers, her human was still shivering from being so high in the atmosphere going at speeds just under dangerous for humans. She had promised Emily that she would take care of Alex, keep her safe and bring her back in one piece.
“Yea, I can deal with the cold. That, not so much.”
Kara turned to see what Alex was looking at. She knew the animal from the television and books, but it took her a moment to place it. “Oh! A bear! It’s so cute!”
The animal saw them. It growled, rising onto its back legs to tower over them. Soft snuffling sounds came from behind them.
Alex swallowed as two bear cubs appeared. Kara cooed over them.
“No Kara, don’t pet them!”
Kara froze when the mother bear roared. Catching herself, she changed targets to Alex, picking her up and taking them back into the air. The adult bear roared again, but the girls ignored it in favor of locating another clearing. This one without any bears.
“Don’t pet wild animals, ever.” Alex told her firmly. “No matter how cute they are.”
Kara looked down, ashamed. She was invulnerable, but Alex wasn’t. She could have gotten her betrothed hurt, or worse killed. “I am sorry Alex.”
Alex sighed. She pulled Kara into a hug. “I’ll get you a stuffed animal. You can pet those as much as you want.”
Kara’s eyes widened in horror. “Who would stuff an animal? Why?”
“No, no!” Alex shook her head. She no longer had any of her stuffed animals, having long ago abandoned them in favor of science kits and other more interactive amusements. “It’s a kind of toy. I don’t have any, not anymore, but,” she paused. “Find us a town, I’ll show you.”
That was how their quest got sidetracked so Alex could buy Kara her first stuffed animal. It was a floppy puppy with bright orange and green fur. Alex had no idea what kind of dog it was meant to be, but it made Kara smile as she looked it over.
Toy tucked carefully in the bag, they continued on. Alex had absolutely no idea what time even was when they arrived at the Fortress. She knew she was cold and the light was strange. Kara was tired, she knew that as well by the way she had slowed even as they reached an area where it was safe for them to fly lower.
“A giant key, really?” Alex crossed her arms, words muffled by the layers of scarf covering her face.
“Kal-El’s security measure could be much improved.” Kara agreed. It was easy enough to get inside.
It hurt a little, to see this small piece of home. However, it didn’t take her long before she had the Fortress online and warming to safe human temperatures. Scowling at the computer, Kara quickly fixed the settings so that such functions were automatic.
Lights turned on, illuminating the different spaces. Alex was awestruck, absently shedding her outer layers as she tried to take everything in at once. The little robots that appeared speaking Kryptonese took the clothing and began leading them to a room Kara’s presence had apparently unlocked.
“Oh Rao…” Kara felt tears escape her eyes and didn’t try to stop them. Her Uncle had nearly perfectly recreated her room and the view from it. She suspected that one of the kelex units had moved her pod here. It was set against one wall, waiting for her.
“Is that…Kara, is that Krypton?” Alex asked softly. “It’s pretty.”
“It was,” her voice trembled.
Alex listened as Kara began half singing what sounded like a prayer. She remained quiet as Kara’s voice flowed from one prayer to another, eventually choking off. At that point Alex wrapped the girl in a hug, offering what comfort she could.
For some time, they just sat there in the room staring out the ‘window’ at a view that no longer existed. Eventually, Kara stood up and broke the hold.
“I need to show you something. I do not know how to explain it. You need to know.”
Alex, confused, watched as Kara opened her pod and began to take things out of it. Clark had clearly not done anything more than set it down. Kara paused over a few items, wiping away tears as she separated things into two separate piles.
“Here, this is a translator.” Kara held out what looked to be (and were) a combination of contact lenses and tiny earbuds.
Alex hesitated a moment, but took them. Kara had to help her put it on, but they managed it with only temporary discomfort.
“How do I know they’re on?” Nothing looked different.
“Can you understand me?”
“Yea?” Alex looked at her weirdly.
Kara smiled sadly. “They’re working. Can you read this?” She held up a small tablet, sliding a crystal into it before the screen lit up.
“Tales of Firebird,” Alex frowned as the shapes she recognized as Kryptonian rearranged themselves into English. “That is freaking awesome.” Her frown turned into a grin as she began to understand how this worked. Of course an advanced civilization like Krypton had technology akin to something out of science fiction.
Kara’s smile was weak. Yes, she supposed it would be amazing. She took the tablet back and removed the crystal. She picked another, this one a simplified explanation of Kryptonian culture. Inserting it, she skipped to the section concerning the joining of families.
“Please read this.”
Alex took the tablet, eager to learn more. Kara seldom spoke about her life, mostly because all of the adults were so intent on her learning to live on Earth. It had been nearly a year. Kara would be going to school soon instead of studying at home.
She began reading. She paused, moving back to the top of the page to reread it. Then she did it again. And Again. Finally, she looked back up at Kara.
“We’re engaged?” No one had asked her about this! Is this why Kara was so reluctant about certain things?
She rescanned a few phases.
Gift giving. Alex had given Kara any number of things since her arrival. Kara, once they had begun testing out her powers, had taken to giving her small stones she had shaped. The blonde had also gifted her with several sketches, mostly of Alex surfing or fantastical animals.
Food sharing. Kara was often reluctant to try new foods, but she gave anything a try once Alex had tried it or offered it to her. Once Kara knew what her favorites where, she often brought them to Alex when the older girl was slow to get going in the morning or when they were having a lazy day.
A family Elder turning over the person in question to the new House. Clark had done that, insisting in both English and his terrible Kryptonese that the Danvers were adopting Kara. They were to be her new Family, her new House. He had fulfilled the negotiation stipulated in what she was reading.
“Holy shit.” Alex breathed out. “We’re engaged.”
“Yes,” Kara spoke. “We don’t have to be if you don’t wish this. I understand,” she kind of did, more than she had anyway, “kind of, that adoption is different here. Kal-El did not know what he was doing.” She continued to babble, apologies mixed with explanations.
“Kara,” Alex set the tablet aside and went to her alien. “Kara, it’s okay.” She could handle this. “We can be engaged.” She swallowed, determined to see this through. She had been told to take care of Kara. She was just going to do it in a vastly different way than had been intended. “When we’re older,” she covered Kara’s mouth, “when we’re older,” she stressed, “we’ll talk about it again.”
Kara nodded and Alex removed her hand. “So is there a ring to go with this?”
“Ring?” Kara frowned.
“Humans exchange rings when they get married, and one person usually wears an engagement ring.” Alex explained.
“Oh! We exchanged bracelets,” Kara explained. “Plain ones, made by the larger house for the engagement and more ornate ones for the ceremony.” She swallowed. “Marriage was for life. Unless one of a pair died, there was no dissolving the bond. Even then, the remaining partner seldom bonded with another.”
“Right,” Alex could do that. Bracelets would certainly be easier to get away with. She was going to have some fun with this. “Does my being a girl bother you? Is that why you waited?”
Kara looked confused. “I do not understand. On…on Krypton gender is not…was not…it’s a thing that is. Why would it matter?”
Alex had a feeling she would be reading the information on the crystals over and over again. “It doesn’t,” she finally decided on. “So, do we have bracelets?” They were easy to make, she probably had all the supplies needed at home. If not, her grandmother would have them.
“I think I might.” Kara got up and looked through the small pile of items she had set aside. She pulled a small box engraved with the House of El crest. “Here.” She brought it over, opening it to show Alex what was inside.
Two silver bracelets rested inside, both embossed with the same House of El crest that Clark had made so popular the world over. This was sharper, the lines and points less rounded.
“I have a set, and another that were meant to be Kal-El’s.” Kara said. “Betrothal bracelets are often handed down through the generations while the ones used for the formal ceremony are forged through the courtship. These were last used by my parents.”
“You’re awfully calm about this,” Alex commented, hesitantly reaching out for one of the bracelets. She stopped. “Does it matter which one I wear?”
“I always knew my marriage would be arranged once The Matrix chose my match.” She gave Alex a small smile. “I think we would have been matched. I think my family would have liked you a great deal.” She set the box down so she could remove one of the bracelets. “Do you…are you sure?”
“I’m sure.” Alex was well aware she could have taken the out. They could work on becoming the sisters her parents wanted them to be. Alex…didn’t want to do that. She held out her left wrist. “I accept your proposal Kara Zor-El.”
“I accept your proposal Alex Danvers.” Kara slid the bracelet onto Alex’s wrist. Alex startled when it reshaped itself to her wrist until it was the perfect fit. Kara’s did the same when Alex repeated the actions.
“We should pack up and get back to Grandma’s.” Alex looked around. “Pity we can’t take this with us. We could have our own clubhouse.”
The trip back was simpler.
There were no bears for starters.
Alex took a great deal of pleasure in informing her parents that they had already arranged her marriage.