"I could lay here all day", Adam sighed as he supported his head with his hand and lay down on the bed next to the girl he loved, the one he had finally conquered all for himself and who also happened to be a superhero with crazy superpowers. The brown-haired man admired her and groaned softly when he felt her soft palm rubbing his cheek. He had it all and he never wanted to let go again.
"Don't we need to unpack first?" Kara asked, pushing Adam off his cloud of pleasure and laziness, "I think normal people would have done so by now."
The girl smiled when Adam frowned and pouted at her. "Really? I have no intention of getting out of this bed", he chuckled before he swung his arms around Kara's waist to prevent her from leaving.
"You do know I can easily stand up if I wanted to?" she grinned, lifting one eyebrow at the man.
"But that's the point", her lover returned with a foolish smile, "I know that you don't want to."
"Uh, you're right", Kara mumbled, "Which doesn't mean that we can just stay camping here between all those boxes. I'll be right back with you."
Before Adam realized what was going on, he felt how Kara had slipped away from under his grasp, definitely with the use of some of her superstrength, and looked around when he saw nothing but a streak shifting around in the room. Confused, he climbed out of his sleeping spot and scratched the back of his head. When he blinked his eyes, Kara stood back in front of him and he noticed that all the boxes had been emptied and put in the corner of the room.
"Did you just do what I think you did?" he smiled, still amazed at his girlfriend's powers although she had already used them quite a couple of times in his presence. It was just something he would never get used to.
"Your clothes are in that closet, personal stuff in the second cabinet from the left", she clarified, "You'll have to figure out the rest by yourself."
"You didn't have to..." Adam began. Secretly, he had hoped that they would have gotten the chance to unpack together as he was sure that it would have been a hilarious sight knowing that he got Supergirl helping him.
"Leaves us more time to finish what we started", she interrupted, throwing a quick glance back towards the bed.
"How can I disagree?" the brown-haired man laughed, mesmerized at all the beauty in front of him.
"I just don't know why you need an empty frame for", she added when she walked towards his nightstand and picked up the frame that she had placed on it.
"Because I still need a picture to put in it", he spoke as he quickly wrapped his arm around her while he used his free hand to push the camera button on his cell phone. Kara blinked her eyes because of the flashlight. "Now I have one", Adam smiled when he observed the result.
"That's not fair, I probably look all goofy on that", she whined.
"Yeah, well you don't realize how adorable you are when you don't notice that I'm looking at you. I wanted to capture that look, the look of innocence and sweetness you also have when you're sleeping. I like watching you while you're asleep", he grinned and revealed his teeth, "Do I sound like a creepy stalker now?"
"Not at all", Kara answered. Adam was her boyfriend, it was perfectly okay that he guarded her on the moment when she was the most vulnerable. It was in fact the only moment on which he had the opportunity to do so. "I think it's kind of cute."
Adam sighed in relief and laughed silently when Kara took the collar of his shirt to pull him closer. She had those little lights shining in her eyes again that he loved so much, those lights of pure joy and happiness. For some moments, they stood only a few inches apart, so close that they could almost hear each other's heartbeat speeding up. Adam gulped when he stared deeply into her blue eyes that were hidden behind her glasses. If they had been at Kara's apartment, he was sure that he would have taken them off to admire her beautiful eyes properly. Sunk in his thoughts, the brown-haired man was surprised when he felt how Kara brought her lips on his. But just as he started to get used to the feeling, Kara took advantage of his unawareness to snatch the phone out of his hand and stepped back, abruptly ending the kiss, leaving Adam longing for more. "Now, let me see that picture", she grinned.
"That's evil", Adam chuckled, "You could have asked me to show you."
"That would be no fun", she replied, still grinning like an idiot. However, her expression disappeared immediately when she observed the picture. It portrayed Adam wearing the biggest smile Kara had ever seen, his arm tenderly swung around her, while she herself looked surprised, but most importantly, utterly happy. It was perfect. "This isn't so bad", she shrugged as her eyes seemed glued on the small screen.
"Just admit that you want me to send it to you so you can print it yourself", Adam teased, poking her stomach which made the woman snicker.
"I wouldn't mind if you did", she confessed with a squeaky voice.
"The Girl of Steel has tickling spots?" the man questioned in awe at this discovery. "If you're ever interested in having some major fight?" he laughed as he came closer, filling the space there was between them. "It's the only fight in which I stand a chance against you."
"Oh, bring it on", she chuckled teasingly, staring right into Adam's brown eyes.
With an amused look written on his face and a smile that formed around his lips, he swung his arms around Kara's waist and embraced her tightly. The girl buried her nose in Adam's neckline and sighed deeply as her fingers lovingly went through his short hair.
"That's a deep sigh", he whispered into her blonde hair without releasing her. "Something's wrong?"
"No", she replied, "I'm just happy."
"So am I, Kara Zor-El Danvers", he smiled.
Kara felt flattered that he remembered her real name and grinned as she inhaled deeply through her nostrils, taking in the smell of the man she loved.
"Uhm Kara…" Adam started when he watched down and saw how they were floating a few inches up in the air.
"Sorry", she replied with red cheeks before she brought Adam down, "Guess I just literally start walking on a cloud when you're around", she added flirtingly as she landed with a soft thud.
"I like to hear that", he let out, his hands still tightly wrapped around her when he placed another sweat kiss on her lips. Answering his kiss, Kara gently pushed him backwards and directed their steps towards the bed again. She smiled softly between two kisses and put her hands on his chest to feel the shape of his strong muscles. Carefully, Adam let himself fall backwards on the bedsheets and pulled Kara down with him. Laying down, he turned on his side and eventually got up, resting on his elbows that he had placed on each side of Kara's waist. With his left hand, he gently caressed his girlfriend's cheek and smiled when she closed her eyes at the contact. Then, completely out of the blue, he brought his hand to her side and poked it gently. Kara's eyes opened widely now and she gave him a confused and fake-angry glare.
"What?" he laughed, raising one eyebrow at the girl beneath him, "I wasn't joking about that fight."
Kara playfully tilted her head and shook her hair on one side. "In that case…"
"Let's see what you've got Girl of Steel", Adam joked, already tickling her belly which made Kara yell out loud. The girl's sweat snickering and chuckling filled the room and brought a bright smile on Adam's face. He was quite sure that he had just discovered one of Supergirl's weak spots and that realization provoked a warm feeling inside of his stomach. It was amazing that someone as powerful and strong like Kara still remained so human. Here she was, National City's superhero, smiling like a little child with tears in her clear blue eyes because of the laughter. Here she was, laying on that bed with him, having all the fun in the world. Kara's squealing had to be one the most comforting sounds Adam had ever heard.
"Adam? Kiera?" Cat stood amused in the doorway, her hand clenched around the doorknob, "Thank God, I thought someone was being killed in here considering the amount of screaming that reached my ears downstairs.
At the sight of the media mogul, Kara pushed Adam off her and climbed out of the bed the fastest she could without using her powers while her face became as red as a tomato. "Uhm, Miss Grant…" she started, straightening her shirt and avoiding all possible eye contact. Making out in the house of her boss, what had they been thinking?
"When I told you that day in my office that I wanted to get to know you better Kiera, this wasn't exactly what I had in mind", the businesswoman smirked as her son crept off the bed on his knees and hands to join his embarrassed girlfriend. Cat couldn't deny that the whole situation was quite comical to watch. The two stood awkwardly in front of her like two punished school children that had been caught stealing candies. Their heads bent down and their hands innocently clenched together as if to make sure that they wouldn't accidently touch each other.
"Don't stand there like I have just discovered you were hiding Supergirl in that closet", she teased, curiously testing Kara's reaction. It was a disappointment that the girl didn't move one muscle at the remark. Cat sighed and took off her glasses. "I am the Queen of All Media, finding out my son is intimate with my assistant is the least of my concerns. And although I greatly enjoy observing your reactions, there's nothing to be ashamed about", she spoke monotonously as she waved her glasses carelessly around in the air. "Or do you millennials really think that someone my age doesn't know how those things work?"
"Mom, I…" Adam began, quite sure that Kara would have melted the ground under her feet if that meant disappearing, but the sound of shattering glass prevented the man from talking.
Shocked at the pieces of glass that flew around the room, the three protected theirselves by holding their arms before their faces.
"Superman?" Adam let out when he looked through his fingers. But the man, or rather the creature, they were confronted with was nothing like the superhero. He had the features of the Kryptonian but looked more like a robot than a man. His right arm was missing and had been replaced by a metal claw. Other metal parts covered up his shredded body, but the most terrifying characteristic was that half of his face consisted of metal and that his left eye was gone. The monster looked horrendously.
"Kara Danvers", the robotic voice spoke, as he stood staring intensely at the girl without moving a foot. His one eye lit up which made Adam recognize the phenomenon immediately because he had already witnessed the same thing with Kara. As soon as he spotted how the colour of the monster's eye vanished and changed into one red glow, just like Kara's did when she used her heat vision, he reacted.
"Watch out!" he screamed as he jumped towards his girlfriend and pushed her out of the way, milliseconds before the laser crossed the spot where she had stood, hit the wall and went right through it. The two landed violently on the floor and Kara felt Adam's weight on top of her. It didn't hurt her at all but she nevertheless let out a faint cry. A cry that was meant as a deceive, to not give Cat any more reasons to link her to Supergirl.
Watching the scene, Cat silently stepped back until she felt her back had reached the wall. Then she just remained glued on it and sought support with her two hands as if she wanted to prevent herself from falling over. She kept her gaze on the evil creature but nevertheless saw in the corner of her eye how her son helped Kara to get up again.
"Are you alright?" Adam asked as he picked up her glasses that had dropped when he had pressed her against the hard surface.
Cat now looked with open mouth at her assistant. She had only seen the girl once without her glasses and it had convinced her entirely of the resemblance between Kara Danvers and Supergirl. Now she experienced the exact same feeling seeing Kara without them again, but that feeling extinguished shortly after when Kara put the framing back on. For a moment though, her assistant had changed into the hero and Cat had recognised her for who she truly was. Now, she was just dorky Kara Danvers all over again.
"I'm fine, you know I am", she responded, rolling her eyes at Adam to remind him of the fact that he wouldn't have had to rescue her, that it was in fact stupid of him to risk his own safety for hers.
"Kara Danvers, you have to be destroyed", the Superman impersonator continued, interrupting the small scene between the couple.
"Oh just in case you would have forgotten all about that guy", Cat spoke sarcastically while gesturing with one hand at the robot that now slowly made its way towards Kara. Someone had to do something. That someone being Supergirl as Cat was convinced that she was in the same room as the hero.
Kara remarked the fear on Adam's face when she searched his eyes. Hers were shortly meeting his full of despair. It was blowing her cover or witnessing how this man, who seemed unimpressed at her presence and was literally waiting for her to attack, hurt Cat and Adam. There was no choice to make.
"Kara…" Adam whined and pulled softly at her sleeve to encourage his girlfriend to fight back.
"I know", she faintly replied and stepped towards the Superman lookalike. "What do you want?" she groaned harshly, using a tone which Cat had heard so often when she was out there, saving the world with Supergirl.
Now the creature had what he wanted, the hero was willing to stand up against him and eagerly waiting for his first move. As he lifted his hand, ready to punch her, she easily dodged it by ducking down and tackled the robot by swooping her leg around. It was a surprise to find out that her opponent didn't seem to be taken aback by her counterattack. Instead, he simply stood there and Kara watched in abhorrence how his metal mouth showed an evil grin. The creature shifted his gaze from her towards Adam and Kara's heart skipped a beat when she noticed he planned on attacking her boyfriend now.
"Don't you dare!" she screamed in anger as she grabbed at his cape, made a swift turn and threw him with all her strength out of the window from where he had entered.
Kara threw a quick look around the room. Miss Grant stood silently in the corner, her head bent down, overthinking what she had just witnessed and Adam walked towards her, relieved that they were safe. "You should get out of here", she spoke, lifting one finger in the air to support her point.
"We're fine", the young man answered as he let his hands rest on her shoulders and massaged her soft skin, "You've dealt nicely with that."
But his words hadn't gone cold or the creature flew back into the room and planted his metal fist on Kara's jaw. The powerful punch made the girl hurtle in the air and both Cat and Adam gasped when they saw how she went straight through the wall.
Immediately after her launch however, Kara was on her feet again. Her clothes were now soiled with dust and white cement when she appeared back in the room through the hole in the wall that she had just created. It was no surprise to Cat that she was unharmed.
"Now we're done with fair", Kara hissed with her teeth clenched together and eyes that spat fire. She realized that she couldn't win the fight so instead she decided to play it dirty. Just like she had done with Red Tornado, she inhaled deeply and launched a vigorous blow of her freeze breath at the robot when she exhaled again. Then she followed by throwing a hard punch on his metal claw. The hollow sound his arm made when it fell down on the ground echoed through the small room.
The evil personification of her cousin looked slightly confused at his amputated arm and back at Kara with pure hate on his metal face. "This isn't over", he threatened, "I'll be back." With these words, the monster flew away, leaving Kara, a shocked Adam and an even more perplexed Cat behind.
I knew it!" Cat exclaimed. "Kara Danvers is Supergirl", she screeched, addressing herself rather than the two that surrounded her. Then her voice dropped when the realization hit her like a train. "My assistant is Supergirl", the woman whispered as she frowned and remained still.
"I'm sorry you had to find out this way, Miss Grant", Kara spoke decisively, taking both Cat's shoulders, "But this really isn't the best time to explain. You should get to safety."
Cat nodded. She wasn't used to her assistant giving orders like that while acting confidently at the same time. This was no behaviour that she normally expected from Kara Danvers, the girl who always turned red whenever she lost control in Cat's presence and who was so awkwardly shy that the ground always seemed more interesting than the desk Cat was at. No, this truly was National City's hero speaking to her, disguised with the use of glasses and some messy bun. With this glimpse of fierceness, Kara's true identity slipped through and there was nothing to unsee it. Cat could see it crystal clear now.
The girl shared a look with Adam, who seemed to approve her plans, and handed him her glasses before she ran off. As she unbuttoned her shirt on the way, she revealed the large S that she usually held hidden underneath it. Cat squealed a little when she gazed how her assistant flew away through the shattered window. She finally had the confirmation to what she had suspected all along.
000
"You were attacked by some half-human and half-robotic clone of Superman? Some kind of Cyborg Superman?"
Kara simply nodded. "Strange events are following each other, and the worst thing is that we don't have a clue on who's behind it", the blonde complained, "It almost seems like the whole world knows who I am."
"We're doing all we can Kara. Our agents are working every day to try and find something."
"I know", the girl sighed, "Any news on your dad yet?"
Alex shook her head. "Nothing. I wished we could do more but there's nothing we haven't tried yet."
Kara's shoulders dropped. Being attacked was one thing, being attacked multiple times without knowing who was after her was worst case scenario. "I should call Kal-El", she started, "His identity is abused in this case. He has the right to know… And I could really use his help on this one. This guy practically consisted of metal, I don't think blue kryptonite will work like it did when we fought my Bizarro double."
"It's a good thing you want to call for assistance, it's better if you don't take this on your own", Alex agreed before she noticed the look of worry and fear that marked her sister's face. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing."
Alex rolled her eyes at her little sister and smiled faintly. "I know you, you do that thing with your eyes when something is bothering you."
"Cat knows", Kara finally let out with a deep sigh, "She saw me fighting Cyborg. There is no way that we can convince her otherwise this time."
"This can't be good", the agent replied and Kara remarked how her face grew more serious.
"I don't think she'll expose me", the youngest Danvers quickly added.
Alex's face made a threatening frown. Way too many people knew her sister's identity and the possibility that one of them could reveal that juicy information fed her concern. "She'd better not. Or I will find her."
"I know you will", Kara grinned. She would never admit it to her, but secretly she liked it when her sister switched to her overprotective mode. It somehow made her feel like she belonged. "But I don't think it will be necessary."
"If you say so", Alex agreed with restraint, crossing her arms.
"Trust me", the blonde stated, "If she had truly wanted to make a story out of this, she would have done so long ago."
Still standing there with her arms crossed, Alex grumbled something incomprehensible between her teeth as she resisted to look into Kara's begging eyes
"Okay?"
"Fine", she finally uttered. She really had to learn not to give in so easily, but the problem was that Kara knew all too well that her older sister was defenceless when confronted with those puppy dog eyes.
"Don't worry, I'll make sure she keeps this information to herself", Kara finally assured. It wouldn't take much time and effort. Miss Grant had already had multiple occasions on which she could have written an article on her assistant being a superhero. If that really was her intention, she would have done it months ago. No, Kara had seen the look in Cat's eyes when she had sat with her that afternoon, when she had confessed that her boss was in fact her mentor and friend. Something told Kara that she could trust the older woman, that Cat felt satisfied to be able to take that role upon her.
"Supergirl", a female agent greeted as she walked over to the two sisters, an act which caused Kara's face to go blank when she recognized the woman.
"Meet our newest asset", Alex explained, "agent Lane."
Kara's pupils widened and she tilted her head at her sister to make clear this was bad. "Lucy?"
"Major Lane", the short-haired woman corrected, immediately setting the boundaries, "I will help coordinating our missions from now on."
"Great", Kara returned unconvincingly and unenthusiastically. She wasn't really looking forward to working together with Lucy on a daily basis, at least not while she operated as Supergirl.
"Something I can help you with?" the woman returned as she gestured at the hero. An infallible act to question in reality what Supergirl was doing at the DEO.
"I just came in to discuss some issues with agent Danvers."
Lucy narrowed her eyes as she observed the two. "Yeah, I've been told you two have a close relationship… I'm just wondering why that is."
"Lucy, I think director Henshaw could use some assistance in the weaponry room", Alex interrupted, changing the subject because she had sensed the tension and hostility hanging in the air, waiting to strike down. Based on the glares Kara and Lucy threw at each other, it was better to get rid of the DEO's latest recruit.
"I'll see what I can do", agent Lane replied formally as she trailed off and exchanged one more look with Kara.
"Besides from seeking who sends all those supervillains my way and finding out what happened to your father, I now have to deal with Lucy too?" Supergirl complained, provoking a small grin on Alex's face. "As if it things weren't bad enough already."
"It's quite ironic that you two get along really well in normal life", Alex chuckled, "What if she knew that it's really you?"
Kara's face shifted. She didn't want to ruin her friendship with Lucy. There was no way the woman could find out. Then her phone buzzed.
Cat: Can you meet me at your apartment when you get back?
"What's going on?" Alex curiously asked, trying to get a glance at the screen.
"Miss Grant", Kara sighed, surprised that Cat had used a question rather than a command. The woman had to be really desperate to see her when she was willing to throw her usually harsh composure away. "I'll go talk to her first."
A/N: So Cat finally knows for certain! And Clark is coming over in the next chapter to help destroy Cyborg Superman. (Another character from the comics, but he really isn't portrayed as powerful here and has nothing to do with Brainiac. In my story, he's rather some crazy science project.)
Thank you all for your support! It means a lot that you keep reading :).