the earth is not a cold and dead place, a supergirl fanfic

the earth is not a cold and dead place

Author: Lilylovett

Rating: T

Summary: This chronicles what might have happened after Kara is brought to live with the Danvers. Kara/Alex, Kalex

Notes: Titles come from the album with the same name by Explosions in the Sky. There's pseudo-incest type content to come. If Kara and Alex code as sisters to you and that makes you uncomfortable, please do not read it.

1. first breath after coma

At first, it is an utterly normal Saturday morning for the Danvers. Alex is fifteen now, so she always needs more sleep and resents Eliza dragging her out of bed before 10am. But Jeremiah loves to cook and he's got an entire spread out: sunny-side up eggs, still-sizzling bacon, and fresh hotcakes. Alex can't help but think that's definitely worth waking up for.

Jeremiah dishes out a plate for everyone and they eat while idly chatting about their plans for the day. Eliza scolds Alex for eating too fast.

"But mom, I'm meeting some friends to play basketball at the court soon," Alex tries. "I have to get ready for that soon."

Jeremiah tries not to get too involved, bemused as he watches his wife and daughter bicker. When there's a knock at the door his expression flashes briefly into hard lines of concern before sliding back into smiling, harmless Dr. Danvers mode. The knock is a single noise, but strong and unmistakable.

Alex looks up from the table to see the infamous Superman at her doorstep. Eliza looks attentive to his presence, but strangely, neither of her parents is star struck nor appears to even be surprised.

"I'm sorry to bust in on you like this, Dr. Danvers," But now he's flashing his pearly whites in a clear strategy to win over his friend, as if to say but not that sorry. "I need your help."

That's when the girl steps out from behind his cape. She looks to be about Alex's age, maybe a year or so younger. Her hair falls in gentle, brunette waves and her eyebrows are dark and thick. She's wearing a cream-colored tunic with the infamous "S" insignia and similarly monotone pants. But what captures Alex the most is the expression on her face—fierce and serious, but her eyes are ice blue and give away the melancholy behind them.

"This is Kara. She's my cousin—also of the planet Krypton." Superman's face softens now. "Please Jeremiah, I think she's going to need some help adjusting to this world." The Danvers clan simultaneously turns to Kara now. In response, she just smiles awkwardly back and Alex can't help but think that she had no idea aliens could be cute.

"Hello, there, Kara. I'm Eliza—also Dr. Danvers—and this is Alexandra." She smiles warmly as Kara steps forward. With great hesitancy she shakes Eliza's hand gingerly and then Alex's with a little more confidence.

"Well, we'll need to talk more about this, but please sit down, Clark." Now Jeremiah turns to Alex. "Why don't you show Kara to the guest bedroom?"

"Right." Alex doesn't argue, even though she now has a million and one questions about the relationship her parents seem to have with Superman. But truly, she's more interested in Kara. It seemed almost comical that such a young and lithe girl could be related to the powerful city-saving Superman. But then again, Kara seemed very careful about the way she carried herself—it was clear to Alex that she must be concentrating hard to holding back some of her alien strength.

Alex guides Kara wordlessly up the stairs. She knows that the adults were just trying to get them out of the room, so she takes her time by showing Kara her room first.

"So…" Alex starts, unsure of what to say to an alien that looks like a timid high school freshman, but is another species entirely. The day seemed surreal to Alex, so she can't even imagine how overwhelmed Kara must feel.

"Feel free to look around. Err, just let me know if you have any questions about anything."

Alex's room is relatively neat. Her bed is made up and her bedspread is a light blue. She has one poster on the wall and it's a NASA image of the Andromeda galaxy. The desk has a printer and a few stray books, but is otherwise barren. Kara looks around, absorbing information, but not saying or touching anything.

Alex is nervous. Anxious almost. But she's not sure how she's supposed to behave or feelin this situation, but she knows that she wants Kara's approval. She's not sure why it matters to her what this stranger thinks of her bedroom, but she wants Kara to like it.

"I do have one question," Kara tucks a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "What's that for?"

"Oh! They're really cool. It's called a Rubik's cube—which is like a puzzle? I guess? The goal is to have every side be the same color." Alex isn't sure if the word puzzle really means anything to her. But it seems to click with Kara and she picks it up when Alex gestures that it's okay to do so.

"I only know how to solve it because I was bored one day and memorized algorithms to turn the cube. There is a method that will always solve each layer."

Kara turns the puzzle a couple of times, curiously. Then she begins focusing on it intently, turning it around in her hand and rotating various parts. Alex is focusing on Kara. Her dark eyebrows are furrowed in concentration and her hands looks graceful while manipulating the cube. Alex feels content just watching her. It's a strange kind of warmth that sits in her belly that she becomes familiar with when she's with Kara.

"You know, most aliens wouldn't see—ah, you call it Andromeda?—like that." Kara says, nodding her head toward the poster but not looking up from her hands or the cube.

"It's only an approximate color rendering of what it would look like in visible light, according to our best telescopes.

"But infrared is really the best wavelength of the electromagnetic spectrum to see it in."

"I think there are some renderings of it infrared, but I suppose these prints are usually taken from the Hubble telescope. It's so cool that you can see in infrared! Humans rely so much on technology that must seem outdated to you."

"If you like looking at the night sky, maybe some time you can show me yours."

Kara looks into the other girl's eyes with a gentle smile, and Alex blushes at her show of enthusiasm for astronomy. They sit in silence for a while, after that. The only noise in the room is the quiet turning of the Rubik's cube—and for Kara, Alex's heartbeat, which is starting to become one of Kara's favorite sounds.

When the final turn is completed, Alex looks up, thoroughly impressed.

"Wow, you're amazing. Kryptonian biology must be something else. How did you learn our language so quickly anyways?" Alex is genuinely curious. She has completely forgotten about her plan to meet her friends, despite her phone flashing on silent in her pocket.

"Kryptonians have the ability to learn languages the same way that Tamaraneans do."

"Oh. I've actually never even heard of another alien aside from Superman. Journalists have gathered the basic facts about him based on his vague memory as a child—that he's from the planet Krypton which was set to be destroyed by a nuclear chain reaction in its unstable core. But he's grown up here his whole life, so he could never answer questions about other life forms or even really what life was like there."

"Kal-El has grown," Kara nods. "I…yes, our planet suffered from total annihilation. He is lucky he doesn't remember much."

And there's a beat of silent that passes between them. Alex recognizes how hard Kara is trying to keep it together. She realizes that the loss of Krypton was very real for the other girl, even if Alex is still sort of reeling for the fact that aliens (aside from Superman) exist. She wants to be there for Kara, but doesn't really know how or what to say.

The somber moment passes and Kara changes the subject and is clearly trying to look more upbeat.

"Do you still want to know how I learned English?"

"Yes! Maybe it'll help me find a way to pass AP Spanish in school," Alex jokes and she's still sort of half-smiling at her own joke when Kara is suddenly moving closer to her.

The space between them becomes impossibly small. Kara smells good, faintly like men's cologne and it's probably because she's been with Superman all day. But then there's the underlying scent of her hair and it's fresh, like lavender shampoo and Alex has this urge to run her hands through it. They're standing inches apart in the middle of her bedroom and Alex can't think.

She can't think at all, because Kara is inching closer and her breath is warm on Alex's lips. Kara halts her movement.

"Is this okay?"

"Yeah," Alex breathes out and she doesn't know what else to say. She has completely forgotten what their conversation was about. Just knows that she deeplywants Kara to kiss her. She doesn't even know Kara beyond that she has lovely blue eyes, can see in infrared, and that she can solve a Rubik's cube.

Their lips touch for a moment that is achingly short.

"So, that's it." Kara says excitedly. "Contact with the source of verbalization—in this case our mouths—enables Kryptonians to learn other people's languages. I am fairly sure that humans do not learn the same way. But I could show you some Kryptonese. It looks very interesting next to your language," Then Kara's eyebrows knit in confusion. "Or if I find someone that knows this Spanish I suppose I could learn from them and help you with that."

"That won't be necessary," Alex responds quickly. "But I'd love to learn some Kryptonese or even just see how it's written."

Alex feels her cheeks burn at the thought of Kara going about kissing someone else in order to help her. She's not sure if it's jealousy or secondhand embarrassment, because Kara doesn't understand the social context of a kiss on Earth, it seems. But the mention of Alex wanting to learn Kryptonese has Kara smiling a million-watt grin.

: :

"Alexandra, please try to understand me. You have to look out for Kara. She's your younger sister now, and we must help her live as normal of a life as possible." Eliza talks to her in a hushed tone, despite that Alex has been informed that Kara has super hearing anyways. She can eavesdrop on them if she wants.

"Yeah, mom, I get it. But Kara's super smart. I doubt she'll need my help."

"She will in ways you might not expect. Regardless, she is now a part of our family, and we will take care of her as such. It is now our duty to keep her secret—just as you now must keep Clark's."

"Right. It's crazy that none of his fellow journalists from the Daily Planet figured it out."

"There's a reason why he has an alter ego, Alexandra. It's stressful for others to always place high expectations on you for something out of your control. That's why we must ensure that Kara's identity is protected, especially while she is still adjusting."

"Of course, mom."

Alex eyes her phone, feeling guilty that she never got back to her friends. She had spent the rest of the day with Kara. Introducing her to things around the house and talking about how life at Montgomery High kind of sucks. In turn, Kara described some of the different views she had seen in space and how things appeared in other regions of the electromagnetic spectrum since Alex had expressed such an interest in it before. Even though they were mostly just having idle conversation, it was fun. Having a bioengineer and theoretical physicist as parents could make life as an only child…boring at times.

"And one last thing. I know it's a lot to ask of you. Things will change fast," Eliza kisses her forehead. "But don't grow up so fast."

Alex turns off her lights after her mother leaves. She crawls into bed and replies to her texts, one by one. She's almost finished composing her final message when her door opens quietly. The moonlight from the hallway is now streaming into her room, but it's still too dark to make out more than Kara's outline.

"Hi."

"Hey, Kara. Are you okay?" Alex can't help but feel concerned. She hasn't even known her for twenty-four hours, but Alex has decided she really likes Kara.

"Yeah, I just—I can not stop thinking about what happened." Kara swallows. Quietly she clarifies. "Saying goodbye to my parents, knowing I would never see them again."

"You should come here," She lifts up the comforter and indicates the spot beside her.

"Okay."

Kara closes the door and floats over. She knows what Eliza and Jeremiah said about not using her powers, but now Kara is in front of only Alex, who mentioned that she thought superpowers were supertotallyawesome and not scary at all. (Clark had warned Kara that people might come to fear or resent her if they knew.) So maybe Kara's showing off a little, but she really wants this human to like her.

When they're situated next to each other, Kara immediately seems more at ease. Alex finds herself more relaxed, too, even if she knows that it's weird to share your space with someone that you haven't known for long. But Kara has just lost so much that it's incomprehensible to Alex what she must be going through.

"In my AP Psych class—oh, that's psychology. It's the study of the mind and behavior. We learned that an important part of coping with trauma is to talk about it and be validated. You need someone to listen." Alex slows down her spiel, feeling shy suddenly. "And I'd like to be that person for you…if you want me to. I know we're not super close or anything yet, but we're supposed to be sisters now. So if you want to talk about it or your parents or even just life on Krypton…I'm here for you."

Kara smiles back in the dark. She is so close to Alex, she can hear her heart beating loud and clear—the blood moving in her veins at a healthy rate. At this proximity, it drowns out the other sounds in the house. It's nice.

"I think for tonight, I would just like to tell you about the way our education system was very different from how your 'high school' sounds. Because from what you've told me, it seems like not very much fun."

: :

Alex awakes to Kara clinging to her, both asleep and peaceful.

She looks over at her alarm clock and it's 3:30am. Kara's abnormally high body heat makes it feel almost too warm, but Alex finds that she doesn't mind much. She likes that they are starting to trust each other already.

Alex isn't sure how, but she already knows that she'll keep with her promise to Eliza—she will protect Kara with everything she has.