Chapter Text
Kara stood against the wall near the balcony trying to take a moment to herself. This week had been an unqualified disaster. It hadn't been the villain of the week as Winn had taken to calling them. That would have been a simple and welcome change from what her week had actually entailed. Lois Lane was had broken up with her cousin...again...for some reason or other and thought that a trip to National City was exactly the thing to make herself feel better. While that was fine in a general sense, it meant that all week Cat Grant had been completely devoted to making sure that all attention was on her. National City was her city and like hell if anyone else was going to come in and try to pull the spotlight off of her. It had been a week filled with appearances and press tours and announcing a new book that Kara was sure that Cat had only thought of in the moment that she said it. She wasn't sure what Lois had done to make her boss loathe the woman more than she'd seen in those who were actively trying to kill her or take over the planet, but it had to have been huge. The way she could tell that most clearly was that tonight a date with Cat Grant was being auctioned off to a bunch of men with FAR too much money in clear competition with Lois Lane. She knew it had nothing to do with the Earthquake repair efforts the money was going towards and everything to do with showing up the brunette from Metropolis. She was also sure that Cat had bribed/blackmailed a few men to drive the bidding up. This last development was so much worse than being called 'Keira' every few minutes 24/7 for the past 6 days.
It wasn't that Kara was against the charity. She knew that a lot of people had lost their homes, that insurance often didn't cover things and a that lot of claims were being denied. The issue was that this entire event was sexist and idiotic and she KNEW Cat felt the same way as she'd said as much when they had originally asked her. She was sure what the reaction settling in her stomach wasn’t just misogyny based, but she told herself that it was. This was stupid and she wished that she could be out in the skies. There was a comet passing close by Earth tonight and she'd wanted to watch it. She didn't want some underserving old pig pay to spend the evening in Cat's company and it was worse if it was someone who didn’t want to be next to her at all. Cat was special and she deserved better.
Kara discreetly used her superior reaction times to work on beating her high score at Temple Run instead of watching the spectacle. Spectacle might be the wrong word. It was all very by the books and 'high class'. Kara had hated that even on her own world. Everyone should be equal to each other and ‘high society’ was a way of keeping people out and making them less than.
There were a lot of cheers as Lois went up. Everyone knew she had some connection to Superman and they were curious. The bidding went high. REALLY high. She looked over to where Cat was waiting to go up, last and she could practically feel the rage radiating off of her as Maxwell Lord closed the bidding. This hadn't gone according to Cat's plan. Even beyond the financial aspect, Maxwell Lord was seen as a catch even if Kara herself knew that he just wanted details about her cousin.
Cat went on after Lois as she had wanted to go last so she’d be the ‘one people were left talking about’. As much as she wanted to ignore what was happening, her eyes were glued to Cat the moment that she went on the stage and gave her speech about giving back to National City and subtle compliments to her own person to try and elicit higher bids. She wasn't sure why Cat was doing that. She was beautiful, successful, smart and funny in an acerbic sort of way that made Kara grin when it wasn't directed at her.
Kara's was focused on Cat so she was as surprised as anyone when Dirk Armstrong came in, freshly out on bail, and threw out an insulting bid for a dollar. Kara could see Cat waiting for the guys she'd checked with to bring the bidding up, but they were both suspiciously missing from the audience. The smug grin on Dirk's face told a story that said that he had something to do with that. The bidding raised slightly and at a glacial pace. Kara felt her stomach drop. She HAD to do something. She couldn't bid. Everyone would just think it was Cat's money and a low bid for these people was a years salary for her or more. She looked out onto the balcony. The comet was finally coming into view, just barely visible over the glow of the city. An idea formed in her head.
She slipped over the balcony as fast as she could. She had only gone as high as space once and it had been terrifying. She almost impacted a satellite and there was a strange coldness and lack of life that had made her hurtle herself back to earth as fast as she could. Still. The astronomers had said that the comet was covered with diamonds and would be worth a fortune if they'd had the ability to mine it. It was set to go into the sun, so it’s not like it would hurt anything if she snagged a piece.
She took a deep breath and headed up. There was no air in space so she had to hold her breath. Kara pushed herself to her maximum speed. The rock didn't look so special closer up—maybe a bit glittery. She dodged a satellite. Dammit! She could feel the motion of the earth speeding her up and she pushed further. She could almost reach the comet, but it was hard to see as small pieces were burning up in the Earth's atmosphere and breaking off. She reached out and a large chunk of the planetary body impacted her face. She reached out and grabbed that as she hurtled back towards the planet in an inertia spiral. Once she was low enough, she was able to pull out of the spin and look at what she caught. There seemed to be a few large diamonds visible. It had to be good enough.
She flew into the room where Dirk was snickering as the auctioneer called, "Anyone? It's for a good cause..." She braced herself trying to look confident as Cat looked over at her with a guarded sort of hope in her eyes. Kara smiled at her.
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Cat Grant tried to look confident as she met Supergirl’s eyes. This had not been one of the outcome that she had anticipated for this evening. It was an unqualified disaster that left her feeling like her more desirable years had slipped away without her noticing. To be frankly honest, she hadn’t done much considering at all before agreeing to this event. Lois Lane brought out the absolute worst in her and she knew it. She would never admit it, but aside from her mother, Lois was really the only person to ever make her feel small and she refused to ever feel that way again. She tried so hard to avoid it that it had of course brought it about as Dirk had descended upon her and attacked with the special smug overconfidence of a mediocre white man. She should have never left herself vulnerable to that.
"I have a bid." Supergirl kept her eyes locked on Cat's as she walked up to the podium and deposited the basketball sized chunk of the comet in front of the auctioneer. "I'm unsure as to what that would be in your currency, but I've heard you value diamonds greatly." The girl seemed to be playing up the alien card, but her heart sped up all the same. She knew that a hunk of a diamond comet pulled from the sky by an alien would be worth a LOT more than what Maxwell Lord had bid for Lois and that was only part of it. A beautiful woman had plucked a piece of diamond out of the night sky and brought it back to earth for her. It had a certain amount of poetry to it and she couldn’t help the way that her gaze took on a bit of wanting. She had always been someone who wanted. The confused auctioneer declared Supergirl the winner, though the blonde was looking so intently at her that she looked surprised as people started to get up and move around beside her. She lost the eye contact, but started making her way towards the younger woman.
"Oh...yes...Thank you! Enjoy your comet chunk.” She heard Supergirl saying as she walked up. The girl had a lot to learn about staying assured in all situations, but it was endearing and part of why she had thought the superhero was actually her assistant. If she hadn’t seen them in the same room with her own eyes, she would still think that. Some bit of goodness seemed infused into the both of them. The crowd dispersed further into small groups as the winners were supposed to compare schedules to pick a night for the date that worked for both parties. Cat kept her walk to a slow saunter and it seemed to be appreciated. That helped to bolster her confidence a bit. She took a glass of champagne from a passing waiter. Neither noticed a defeated Dirk Armstrong making his way out discreetly.
"So...Supergirl...I didn't know that you were such an admirer of mine." She look a long sip of the bubbling liquid, looking at the woman in front of her with for interest. She was trying to figure out the girl’s angle. Had she really just heard about the event and thought it would be a good way to ask her out, or had she taken to being her guardian angel once again and rescue her from embarrassment. Hell. Maybe just hates Lois Lane too and it’s all a clever ruse. As much as she hated Lois, she hoped the last one wasn’t the case. She was Cat Grant, she reassured herself. Anyone would want her. It rang hollow with echoes from her past, but she embraced it all the same.
"I..." The woman in front of her seemed to be having a bit of trouble with her words and it made her wonder how far in advance this was planned out. "Well...there was never really a good time to declare it. You have to admit, I's been a busy time." The girl seemed proud of herself for coming up with what Cat had to admit was a fairly smooth answer.
"I'll give you that much." Cat kept a sort of half grin on her face trying to show interest, but not reveal too much. "I'm interested to see what Kryptonians do on dates." Excited was more accurate, but she wouldn’t let that much slip. The girl intrigued her.
Supergirl seemed nervous, which Cat found flattering. She had seen the girl take 10,000 volts of electricity for her without issue, but a date seemed to give her pause as she waited a moment before speaking, ” I think you'll find it adequate. When would be a good time for you?" She ignored her mother’s voice in her head saying the pause was because she didn’t really want to go with her. The girl brought back priceless space diamonds for an evening of her time. She wouldn’t let the bitter old woman in to ruin this.
"Saturday at 6 would work for me." Cat moved a bit closer to her and put a hand on her arm, letting it linger. It wasn’t wrong to be interested and the slight blush on the Kryptionian’s cheeks emboldened her to move just a bit further into the woman’s personal space.
"I'll see you Saturday at 6 then. Bring a jacket. It can get cold flying." She winked as Cat's eyes widened a little. She had always wanted to know what it felt like to fly. It was probably why she spent so much time in the company jet up among the clouds. Her grin fell just slightly as the woman got all noble. "The city needs me. I have to check in and make sure everyone is safe and sound." She very carefully leaned forward and kissed Cat's cheek, which sent tingles over most of her body. The tiny contact was making her head spin and she was already working out in her head how to make sure there was more of it. "Until Saturday."
“Until then, unless something comes up.” It was always a possibility in her estimation. There often seemed to be some dangerous being or disaster happening and it was always close to her somehow.
“Let’s hope not. As much as I like to see you, I prefer you safe and sound.” Supergirl looked at her warmly as she pulled away and made for the balcony. She flew off into the night. Cat watched the spot where she left for a moment taking another long sip of her drink. Supergirl cared if she was safe. She tried to ignore how warm that made her feel in case things went poorly.
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Kara flew in a loop, knowing that Cat would be needing her soon as she had no idea she had been talking to her not a minute before. She had managed to trick her boss with holographic technology and a little help from the DEO staging a fight at CatCo. She had cut herself with a bit of kryptonite for effect and now Cat had stopped looking at her as anything more than the girl who brought her lattes hot, lettuce wrap crisp and Lexapro stat.
The assistant version of Kara started making her way over to her boss with few of the stares she had gotten as Supergirl. Well. There was one notable exception. Her arm was grabbed by Lois, "I don't know what you were trying to do, but the way you looked at her..." Her cousin's sort of ex sighed, "She can't date both Supergirl and Kara Danvers. It's...I hope this makes you happy, but when you put on that cape...it's only part of you and it’s easy for a person to get swept up in. A real relationship requires the whole deal and you'll find that harder to do than you know now." The brunette looked down as Kara pulled away. “She doesn’t see you.”
"I'm not him and she isn’t you.” Cat saw her. Kind of. “I appreciate the advice, but we aren't the two of you. Just. Go home. This isn't your city and hiding out and riling up Cat to make yourself feel better is just petty. Find some other hole to crawl into, or better yet—go back and make up with Clark. It’s clear that you aren’t over him and you aren’t wanted here.” The last part was louder. She walked away and towards Cat a bit surprised at herself for insulting the reporter. She didn’t miss the sigh that followed behind her, but she refused to turn back. The other woman was wrong and she’d done enough damage in National city.
Cat barely looked at her, "Kiera. There you are. I need you to clear my Saturday. I have plans." Cat was smiling and Kara nodded.
"Of course, Miss Grant. Whatever you need." She fought Lois's words as best as she could. She wished Cat would look at her like she had been earlier, but she was an afterthought now. She moved to her customary place a few paces behind her boss waiting to be asked for something and ignoring the empty feeling in her chest.