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“It’s prom, Alex,” Kara says, sighing and shaking the flyer in her face. “It’s an important part of the adolescent human growth cycle - ”
“Oh my God, stop talking,” Alex interrupts before it gets worse. “I know what you’re doing and it’s not going to work this time.”
“What?” asks Kara, clutching the flyer to her chest the same way she insists and carries Alex’s books every day. “What am I doing? I’m not doing anything, Alex.” She fidgets with her glasses.
Alex eyes her balefully. “That thing you do where you purposefully sound like a freak just so I’ll agree to anything to shut you up.” She crosses her arms and raises an eyebrow challengingly.
Kara blows a raspberry at her and laughs nervously. “I don’t - I don’t do that,” she says, rocking side to side and avoiding eye contact.
Alex rolls her eyes to the sky after a moment. “Do I really have to go?”
Kara scuffs her foot and an inch-long splinter tears up from the floor. She grunts, pulling out some sandpaper from her desk, and drops to her knees, already scrubbing at the rough wood as gently as possible. “It’s your senior prom. My junior prom. I want - ” Kara buffs at the minor gauge in the floor for a moment longer until she’s satisfied, “I want to have one more memory with you before you leave.” She looks up Alex in front of her, still on her knees, eyes wide and blue. “I don’t - I don’t have to come with you, but I want to be with you.”
Alex sucks in a breath, tries to force her mind passed the image of Kara on her knees in front of her, looking up at her pleadingly and saying things like ‘be with you’. Because Alex wants, well, she’s not entirely sure what she wants, but that’s an inkling somewhere on the list, down passed waking up to Kara’s face every day and Kara’s easy affection and acceptance.
“I haven’t worn a dress in years,” Alex argues, running a hand through her hair. Not since her father’s funeral. Her fingers catch on a snarl and she tugs viciously, wishing for the thousandth time that she would just cut it already.
Her mother always mentions how much her father loved her long hair every time Alex brings it up though.
Kara stands quickly and places her hands on Alex’s arms. “You don’t have to,” she soothes, rubbing her hands up and down over Alex’s skin. Alex focuses on the feeling of Kara’s hands on her instead of Kara’s attempt to subtly kick a magazine full of frills and ruffles under her bed. At least the floor escapes unscathed this time. “I’m sure you’ll look just as amazing in a suit. Or a tux!” adds Kara, flicking her eyes over Alex’s frame so fast that Alex barely has a chance to feel warm from the look.
Alex stares for a long moment then sighs. “No pink,” she orders, trying to ignore the Kryptonian squeal right against her ear as Kara wraps her in a too tight hug and she digs her index nail into the one pressure point Alex has managed to find on Kara’s body to make the girl release her before her ribs are bruised again.
-----
“Has anybody asked you to prom?” Kara asks, swiping Alex’s sandwich as soon as Alex puts the finishing slice of bread on it.
Alex sighs and starts making another, though she knows she won’t get to eat one until Kara has had at least three. “No.”
Kara looks at her, cheeks stuffed. “Do you want anyone specific to ask you?”
“Not really.” Alex shrugs. “You?”
“No and no. I just want to go.” Kara makes a vague gesture that Alex knows means that Kara hasn’t quite figured out how to say exactly what she wants to say in English yet.
“<I did get that much.>” She hands the second sandwich to Kara before she can steal it.
Kara beams at her and Alex’s heart betrays her with a stutter, but Kara’s more focused on her face.
“<I’m still not wearing a dress,>” Alex adds.
Kara mutters something into her sandwich in Kryptonian.
-----
Kara drags Alex to the mall after school. Alex picks out her tux easily enough, but knows the hard part will be finding a dress for Kara.
She ends up awkwardly juggling dresses for Kara in the changing room, because Kara managed to pick the one stall without a hook. Alex nearly drops Kara’s third dress, distracted by the smooth skin over Kara’s shoulder blades and the long arch of her spine. She leans against the wall instead and tries to find the least dangerous part of Kara to stare at.
Apparently it’s not her legs, Alex decides as she rights herself from where she started to tilt and slide down the wall.
Kara smiles at the mirror and claps her hands. “What do you think?” She twists her head around to look directly at Alex instead of her reflection and her hair falls over her shoulder.
“You look good. I mean, you always do,” Alex says, clearing her throat, “because you’re an alien jerk that can’t get pimples and your body is perfect. Perfectly proportioned. And blue is a good color for you.” She mumbles the last sentence, even though Kara can hear it perfectly.
Kara beams, but her shoulders drop when she looks at the price tag.
Alex groans internally, already pulling out her wallet to check.
It’s not Kara’s fault, she knows. Her mother’s new budget after her father’s death had a noticeable decline in how much was allotted to Kara’s food expenses, so Kara tried to supplement a few thousand of her missing calories each week with her allowance and her paycheck from Waldenbooks.
Just because Kara could ( theoretically , Alex sneered mentally) get her energy entirely from the sun doesn’t mean it’s comfortable to be hungry all the time.
“I’m thirty dollars short,” says Kara, already reaching for the zipper. Alex slides two twenties into her palm. Kara startles, crinkles the money in her fist as she spins. “Alex, we can't. We'll get in trouble again.”
Alex feels her chin raising up defiantly before Kara even finishes her second sentence. “It's my money,” Alex insists.
Alex pushes down the memory of the last time her mother found out Alex gave Kara money.
(“She has to learn the value of saving for the things she wants, Alexandra.”
“So I'm supposed to just let her starve?”
Her mother had stared at her then, nostrils flared and eyes heated. “Of course not. But you’re not - you’re not preparing her for real life. You can’t just hand Kara everything that she wants.”
Alex’s hands had curled into fists without her realizing, and only the popping of her knuckles made her grip loosen. “I think she’s had more taken away than I could ever give her,” Alex had muttered bitterly before turning away, unwilling to hear any more.)
“It’s my money,” repeats Alex, and Kara gives her a watery smile.
-----
Kara does Alex’s makeup. Kara’s hand is cupping her jaw, thumb swiping gently over her cheek as she does all these fancy things to make Alex’s eyes look fantastic, things Alex had learned just to teach Kara and then promptly shoved into the box in her mind of things she rarely cares to examine.
This box is separate from the one where her jealousy, pity, and butterflies for Kara hides in the back of her mind.
Alex drives them to the school in her dad's belovedly well-used pickup. She's careful, even knowing Kara could probably warn her of any issues well before Alex would be aware.
Kara is opening Alex's door and holding out her hand before she even pulls the keys from the ignition.
“You realize that I'm the one in the tux tonight, right?” Alex teases, but she takes Kara's hand and laces their fingers together anyways.
“Who cares?” Kara's eyes shine a bold blue that reminds Alex of the ocean underwater, when she's knocked off her board. Kara's grip keeps her tethered to the air around her.
Kara crinkles her nose the second they walk into the gym. “I thought they would have gotten rid of the sweat smell.”
“They might as well burn the gym down first.”
They sit at a table for a while, letting Kara eat her way through enough food to make up for the cost of both of their tickets. Alex picks disinterestedly at a chocolate dipped strawberry from the platter Kara brought from the chocolate fountain that sputtered and splashed. Most of the girls had kept their dresses well away from the disaster zone.
It’s not terrible, Alex decides, even if their few friends are distracted by their own dates. Vicki glances their way once.
“Hey,” Kara says, muffled as she swallows her last strawberry. “Dance with me?”
Alex lets Kara pull her up. “Please don’t break my toes again.”
“I only broke three!” Kara squeaks, flushing. “And that was once.”
Her hands find Kara’s waist naturally, Kara’s arms draped over her shoulders. Alex keeps them at arm’s length, doing that side-to-side shuffle, aware of the annoying buzz of the other students in the background beneath the blaring music. It makes her want to hit someone.
And then Brad tries to cut in and she definitely wants to hit him as the music changes to something slow and romantic. She shoots a glare at the speakers.
Except he’s holding his hand out to Alex and, oh.
“No thank you,” Kara says, smiling, but her eyes seem to pierce him like ice shards as she steers them halfway across the dance area, away from Brad.
Alex tries to pretend her stomach doesn’t flip pleasantly at that.
“Wait, why are you leading?” Alex asks after a few minutes, when the warm glow has finally faded from her face.
“I’m taller.”
“We’re the same height.”
“Only because you’re in heels.”
“Exactly. I’m not going backwards anywhere in these things.”
“Then take them off,” challenges Kara, giggling at the face Alex makes. She smiles and leans in, forehead to Alex’s temple.
Oh.
Alex wants to kiss her. This just isn’t stupid feelings, the kind that Alex doesn’t care to deal with. This is a desire, an urge, a want, a need.
But Kara has pulled them tight together, not quite full-body touching, and her hands are on Alex’s shoulder blades, and Alex needs to kiss her more than anything.
The only thing she’s ever needed more is her dad back.
On impulse, she turns and presses a kiss to Kara’s cheek.
They don’t stay long after that. Kara wraps a large handful of cookies in a napkin and hides it against her side as they leave. She wraps her other arm around Alex’s shoulders as they walk to the truck.
“Thank you for coming with me,” Kara whispers, lips close to Alex’s ear, even though they’re outside and away from the booming music. “I wouldn’t have had as much fun with anyone else.”
Alex tilts her head into Kara’s shoulder. “Why do you say that?”
Kara half-shrugs. “It’s true. People that aren’t you just aren’t… Alex-enough.” She drops her head and looks up at Alex from under her eyelashes, makeup still perfect.
“That’s…” Alex starts to say, but they both lean in at the same time.
There’s crumbs on the corner of Kara’s lips, and they rub against Alex’s skin. Kara’s hair is stiff and sticky with hair spray when she runs her hand up Kara’s nape, and Kara’s hand mashes the napkin of cookies against her hip. Her heels skitter in the parking lot gravel and she leans harder against Kara.
It’s wonderful.
Kara presses her up against her dad’s truck. Dirty sand and cookie crumbs probably coat her tux now, but Alex can’t find it in herself to care.
Not when Kara is kissing her like this.
And then they’re on the roof of the school, Kara’s finger over her lips. Alex peers over the railing and sees a couple of the teachers on chaperone duty moving through the parking lot. One of them stops near their truck and Kara giggles, pulling Alex in for another kiss.
-----
Alex can’t stop laughing as they make it through the door to the Danvers home.
“I don’t know how we’re going to explain this to Ms. Moon on Monday,” she says, tugging her heels off as Kara locks the front door.
“We had a flat and walked home,” replies Kara.
“No, we didn’t.”
“Oh, we did,” Kara affirms, nodding her head and blushing. “I accidentally clipped a tire when we took off and, well.”
She tugs Alex up the stairs and Alex chuckles into her shoulder.
Kara locks this door behind them too with a toothy smile, sharp and eager, and Alex kisses her softly against the wood, pries Kara’s hand from the doorknob before it crumples in her grip.
Alex twists Kara’s dress in her fingers as she nips at her lip, rocks on her tiptoes at the gasp Kara makes. Her thumb rubs against the zipper and Alex forces herself to pull away.
“We should change,” she says hoarsely, stealing another kiss and stepping away.
Her mouth looks swollen in the bathroom mirror as she wipes off her makeup and tugs on her pajamas.
Kara looks gentler, more Kara, without makeup over her near-perfect skin. She’s sitting on Alex’s bed in soft pants and a short-sleeved hoodie, glasses off, working out some equation from Alex’s homework on scrap paper, transcribing into Kryptonese.
“So, we should do that again sometime, right?” Alex blurts, because this night has been so fast, but it’s felt inevitable since she let Kara tug her from her dad’s truck earlier. Like there was multiple ways this night could have gone, but this is the one where they kiss like that and she wants to keep that as long as she can.
Kara smiles. “How about right now?” she asks, pulling Alex closer and pressing her nose against Alex’s neck.
They trade kisses until they’re exhausted, giggly and half-asleep, Alex’s arm wrapped around Kara’s waist and Kara’s mouth against her temple.
Kara was right about this night being important, Alex thinks as she snuggles closer to Kryptonian warmth.