Her compass revolves slowly, three hundred and sixty degrees a day, like clockwork. It doesn't always make sense – it points at the sky for twelve hours a day, for one. Sometimes it changes a little, but it keeps to that slow circle, always, until the day that it starts spinning wildly. It spins like that for over twenty years.
In two thousand and five, it finally gains some sense of normality, spinning in that slow circle with the occasional tick back and forth. Two thousand and six brings a stillness, pointing west, unless Cat flies somewhere on holiday, or on a business trip. It spins a lot more in later years and Cat has a feeling that it's because her soulmate is in National City, too. Carter takes great joy in watching it when they sit together on the sofa, Star Wars playing in the background.
Sometimes, Aphrodite visits them. Cat rolls her eyes at the woman who decided they were friends. "We were never friends."
"We were when I was still Lois to you."
"You were never Lois," Cat snaps back, anger bubbling under her skin. Carter starts calling her Aunt Lois afterwards and Cat has to deal with rampant rumours about their relationship – speculation as to whether it was platonic or not – when a reporter catches it. The news that Lois and Lucy Lane were both goddesses had made headline news internationally and explained a lot about both of them.
Clark Kent and Superman being Aphrodite's boy-toys similarly filled papers for a while, as well as Lucy Lane being Athena clearing up why she didn't have a compass at all.
"You're a demigod, you know. It means a lot," Aphrodite says one day. "Your father never existed."
"My father existed," Cat's heart beats fast, an icy poison filling her veins at her words. "I remember him."
"Let me rephrase: Carter Grant Senior was never a real person, in the same way that Lois and Lucy weren't real."
Carter – the second – takes the news strangely. Greek Gods History was never something he liked, but afterwards he takes it up with a serious vigour, one that reminds Cat of herself. Soon, he has an entire notebook dedicated to his thoughts on certain gods and their histories.
"Who's my grandfather?" He asks when Aphrodite comes over to have dinner with them, uninvited.
"Dionysus. It's why your mother can't get drunk unless she wants to."
Cat doesn't quite know whether to be insulted or not, but when said god visits her in a familiar form that evening, she doesn't really care. He presses a kiss to her head and says he's proud of her, that her sons are brilliant in their own ways and that he's the person who sends her an anonymous bottle of brandy every year on her birthday. He leaves after a last, cryptic comment.
"Your compass will lead you to someone special – they won't be human, I know that for certain."
"Will they be a god?" Cat questions, disturbed. Dionysus hugs her tightly, not answering the question.
"Until we meet again."
Cat thinks hard on that. A god. It's a terrible prospect. Her father's soulmate, Ariadne, is a prime example. You can't make humans into gods – you can only ensure their reincarnation, because gods are difficult and they have soulmates too. They aren't human – they keep their soulmate, the same soulmate, until the end of time. Cat remembers when her mother didn't answer to Katherine, sometimes. Her nana had hated it deep, down to the fibres of her bones. Your name is not Ariadne, it is Katherine Alison Grant!
But Cat gets on with her life. If she's destined to be with a god, then she just won't react. She'll pretend not to care and if they seem normal, as if they aren't a god, well then – she's not going to have another Lois disrupting her life. If this is her curse – to be the soulmate of a god, practically cursed to relive life over and over and over – then she'll get her revenge early.
It's not surprising when Kara turns out to be Supergirl, but it makes it far more difficult to decide what to do as new factors are introduced to her.
"I hate you," she mutters when Dionysus visits her, after she opens the prize bottle of cognac he'd gotten her the year previous. "You couldn't have shaken your head? Nothing?"
Dionysus shrugs. "You humans view people like her as gods. Who was I to say otherwise?"
"She's an alien." Cat hisses, throwing the glass at him. He dodges. "That's quite different from a deity, I assure you, father."
Dionysus shrugs. "She's your soulmate. Does it really matter?"
That is what causes Cat to fumble with her words. "No- what? Kara? Kara Danvers is not my soulmate."
Dionysus raises an eyebrow. "I thought that was what we were talking about? How your soulmate isn't a god: she's an alien. Were you not talking about that?"
"No!" Cat practically screams. "No, I was not! Kara is not my soulmate, father – that's impossible! I'm around her all day – I would have noticed my compass suddenly making a few direct turns."
Her father grins at that, shaking his head. "Oh, my little lioncat. Let's have a wager. You get her up tomorrow onto your balcony, tell her to shut her eyes, then do the circle test. Foolproof, isn't it?"
"If she's not my soulmate, you owe me a favour," Cat mutters.
"If she is, you have to introduce me to Harrison Ford," Dionysus looks slightly manic at that. "I want his autograph. I have a bet going with Apollo."
"Fine," Cat hisses, before getting a new set of glasses for the both of them, pouring some more cognac out.
The next day…maybe she gets cold feet. She's hungover – Dionysus forgives her and then replaces all her alcohol with apple juice. I'm taking it hostage until you get some balls, he texts.
The next day…she gets cold feet again, until Carter gets involved and makes her stay at CatCo later in the evening. Then, while Kara's obsessing over layouts on the sofa, Cat gets up, pushes her sleeves and watch up and surreptitiously does a circle around her hyper-focused assistant.
"Ms Grant?" Kara looks to her as she feels her heartbeat rise in her chest. Cat, for once, doesn't have anything to say, but her bare wrists do it for her as Kara's eyes slip to the compass, visible for once. Cat licks her lips, glancing at Kara's wrist, hidden by her own thin watch that should technically be too small to hide a compass. "Oh. You figured it out."
"…yes, though it seems that you already knew," Cat murmurs. "May I see?"
"I don't have a compass," Kara says and Cat's face twists into one of horror.
"What?"
Kara stands, eyes wide. "It's not like that! I don't have a compass, but I have something else that shows me who my soulmate is-"
"How?" The thought, 'she's an alien, that's why!' runs through Cat's head, but she's shocked out of her skin for no conceivable reason.
Kara hesitates, glancing out into the bullpen, but there's no-one there. They'd all signed out hours ago.
"I…I'm an alien," Kara says in a hush, before abruptly unbuttoning her cardigan, turning away from her to show off the back of her dress. "It's a little below my zipper."
Cat swallows, then makes her way around the coffee table, turning Kara lightly so she can reach. Her heart is still thudding in her chest and everything seems heightened, tension in her arms. The ends of her nails scrape lightly on Kara's skin and she turns it into fingers, hand pressing against her back. Kara breathes in and Cat can feel it beneath her hand, before she takes the zipper, undoing it about halfway before slowing.
"Is that…a tattoo?" Cat frowns, before undoing the rest of the zip, pushing the two planes of her dress away to stare at the giant line-work. There are curls and spirals in deep red-pink, all coming out from a familiar diamond. But instead of the famous S, there are a lines and weird, blocky ovals.
"It's my soulmark. Inside the diamond is your full name and the first words I ever heard you say: 'This is CatCo news.'"
Cat cringes slightly. "You watched my show?"
"When I first came to Earth. Eliza had taped a rerun." Kara turns then, shifting a little as one of the straps of her dress starts to fall. "But I always knew it was you, in any case. Always – since I could read."
"Oh," Cat thinks on this for a moment, before motioning her to turn back around. "Here. I'll zip your dress back up. We'll talk more on this tomorrow, after work. It's late. You should get home."
"Okay," Kara whispers as she zips her dress back up. When she's done, Cat watches her turn then hugs her, Kara obviously not expecting it, but taking it all the same. "Cat?"
"Yes, Kara?" Cat says in a murmur, "What is it?"
Kara pulls back a little, taking her hand and holding it as if she's going to shake it – but it's more intimate, because they're so very close.
"Hi. My name is Kara Zor-El and I'm your soulmate. It's nice to meet you."
Cat smiles.
"Hello, Kara."