Chapter Text
It’s Friday morning. Friday. Kara smiles to herself as a little pang of nervous excitement shoots through her chest. It’s a strange feeling, like fear and happiness at the same time. It’s what she expects someone would feel when they’re on a date with someone they really like, or in this case, apparently the feeling one gets when one’s boss and one’s sister have conspired against them.
Kara walks into the ground floor of the CatCo building, the thumping in her chest building as she takes the elevator to the office. She grips Ms. Grant’s latte and strudel in hand, feeling the anticipation as the elevator dings. Just like any other day in the office… except it isn’t. Fridays are different.
Kara stops briefly at her desk to say hi to Winn, but cuts him off as soon as he starts trying to turn it into a real conversation. She can’t be late. “You know how she is!” is Kara’s apology as she makes a beeline to Ms. Grant’s office.
“Good morning, Ms. Grant! I brought you your--”
The icy stare she’s met with is enough to make Kara forfeit the end of her sentence. Latte. And strudel that I’m sure is trashcan-bound.
“Shush. I can’t deal with your endlessly chipper attitude this early in the morning. Frankly I don’t know how your sister does it.” She takes the cup and bag from Kara’s hands. “And lucky for me, today is the one day of the week when I don’t have to deal with it at all. Now sit.”
“Yes, Ms. Grant.” Kara looks around. On the couch, probably? Or… “Um, where, Ms. Grant?” Kara wishes the demand had been more specific. She doesn’t want to make a mistake this early in the day.
“Oh, so that’s how it’s going to be today, is it? Little Kara needing every tiny thing spelled out for her. Right. Here.” She gestures with the toe of her stiletto to the floor space beside her, and Kara almost asks if she should bring a chair but doesn’t want to push her luck. Kara nods instead and settles herself down, kneeling, next to Ms. Grant’s chair behind the desk.
“Now I’m sure you have lots of important work to do today at your desk. If you’re a very good girl I might even let you do some of it. But that’s not looking too likely, is it?”
Kara glances up at her boss with her patented puppy-dog look, all long eyelashes and round eyes. This look always worked on Eliza, to Alex’s continual dismay. “I want to be good, Ms. Grant.” Kara really means it, too. She always means it.
Letting out a sigh, Ms. Grant drops the bag of strudel at her feet. “Even Supergirl can’t be goodall the time. Eat up, kitten.”
Kara devours the strudel, leaving her hands sticky and cherry filling on her cheeks. She squirms a little, not knowing what to do with herself.
It takes her boss a solid fifteen minutes before looking down at her again. After taking in the sight of her pet, Ms. Grant grabs a tissue and bends down with a slight look of disgust on her face. “You really are a child. That’s what I get for hiring twenty-somethings,” Ms. Grant remarks as she wipes the remains of strudel off of Kara’s hands and face.
Another thirty minutes pass of Kara on her knees in silence before she just has to say something. Her boss has been staring at the same page of layouts for what feels like forever, and shouldn’t she be a helpful employee?
“Ms. Grant, can I help you with those?” Kara questions as she looks up.
“Darling, the only thing you can help me with today is following my instructions and doing exactly as I say. Do I make myself clear?” Kara nods. “Right now I merely want you where I can see you, so that I can make sure you’re not wasting your workday chatting with those imbecile male coworkers of yours.”
Eventually Kara dares to switch positions, as super strong joints unfortunately do not seem to be part of her package. As if suddenly remembering her presence, Ms. Grant takes one hand away from the layouts to pet Kara’s hair. Kara is grateful that she’s behind the desk at times like this, though part of her can’t help but wonder how the other CatCo employees would react to their boss casually petting her assistant. They’d probably be too scared to stare or question it, she thinks. It’s a relief, considering the office is basically a fishbowl with its glass walls.
Finally Ms. Grant sends her to get lunch, and Kara is grateful to stretch her legs. “You have exactly ten minutes to get back here, and believe me, I will be counting,” Ms. Grant says without looking up from her work.
When Kara makes it back with 28 seconds to spare, she swears her boss almost looks pleased. “Good girl,” Ms. Grant says in affirmation, “at least you’re not completely useless.” Ah. There it is.
Ms. Grant sits down on one of the couches in her office to eat her lunch, and pats the space next to her without making eye contact with Kara. At least it’s the couch this time. Ms. Grant has some of the layouts with her to study while she eats, ever the multitasker. She finally, finally asks Kara for her opinion, and just as Kara is suggesting that they re-title one of the articles Ms. Grant starts to tear off little pieces of her sandwich and hand them to her.
Kara doesn’t know how to react other than to eat the offerings. She wouldn’t want to be impolite, after all, and she also has a sneaking feeling that this might be all the lunch she gets. But then she remembers that Alex will make her dinner tonight, because that’s the Friday arrangement, and in the meantime Ms. Grant is actually feeding her and giving her attention and not yelling. A warmth spreads through Kara’s chest as she offers up another suggestion about reordering a couple of the articles in the issue they’re working on.
After she’s done eating, Ms. Grant pats her lap and Kara’s eyes go wide -- does she want Kara to actually sit on her lap?? With an exasperated sigh, Ms. Grant clarifies, “Lie down, kitten. Mommy still has work to do.”
Well this is new. Kara carefully, gently slides her body onto the couch and rests her head in Ms. Grant’s lap. Her boss’s lap. After a minute or two of trepidation, Kara feels herself start to relax. While Ms. Grant flips through CatCo social media posts on her tablet, Kara closes her eyes and thinks back to a few weeks ago when this all started.
~~~
“My boss, Alex. You talked to my boss?!” Kara exclaimed, pacing around her apartment.
“She actually contacted me. It turns out we both have the same concerns about you, you know."
How did Ms. Grant even get Alex’s email address? Then she heard her boss’s voice in her head: “I run one of the top media companies in the country, Kara. And you don’t think I can manage to track down my assistant’s sister’s email address?”
“We think you’ve taken on too much, too soon. Frankly, Cat believes you’d do a better job in the office if you weren’t so constantly frazzled, and you know I’m just worried about you. So that’s how we came up with this plan,” Alex explained in a calming tone.
“So let me get this straight. Once a week I will be Ms. Grant’s slave -- which I already am, by the way -- and then I’ll come back here and be your… what? Your little sister? I’m already that, too!”
“Her pet, Kara. And yes, you’ll still be my little sister, you’d just get to be littler than usual. Think about it. You’re so in control and in charge with all this Supergirl stuff all the time, plus dealing with your job and personal life… I think it would be really good for you to give someone else the control for a little while.”
Kara took a deep breath. “Okay. But if I want to stop we can stop, right? Ms. Grant will stop?”
Alex walked over to her and put a reassuring hand on Kara’s arm. “Of course. Cat definitely doesn’t need a sexual harassment lawsuit to deal with on top of everything.”
It alarmed Kara only a little bit that her sister and Ms. Grant were apparently on a first-name basis now.
~~~
Kara’s focus comes back to the present when she feels Ms. Grant start to run long fingers through Kara’s hair, stroking her as if she were a kitten in Ms. Grant’s lap. No pun intended. Kara does appreciate the metaphor though, and is tempted to start purring because it feels so nice. That would really complete the picture.