Disclaimer: I don't own DC Superhero Girls!

Title: Acknowledgement

Summary: Kara has a rough fight with her parents and goes to Babs' house.

...

"My dad and I have a bit of an agreement," Babs says as she leads Kara up the stairs, the girl's back slung over her shoulder. "He lets me have all the surprise sleepovers I want, so long as it doesn't affect my grades."

Kara, following, had her arms crossed close to her chest in an effort to make herself smaller. She raised her eyebrows. "This happens often?"

Babs shrugs over her shoulder. "Leeny-beany's family is complicated. Hey, you want a pair of PJs?"

She hadn't had much time to change. Or to pack, really. But Kara always had a bag ready these days- her temper was infamous for having her storm to other places, other people. Her jean jacket and pants weren't really built for sleepwear. "You got some that fit?"

"Some stretchies. They're all Batman, though. That's not, like, illegal for your brand, is it?"

Kara takes the PJs. Her ankles stuck out of the bottoms awkwardly as she shuffled into her room, suddenly extremely self-conscious that it was three in the morning. She hadn't really been ready for polite company before all this. "You think your dad would mind if I slept on the couch? I kinda forgot my sleeping bag."

Babs patted her bed in lieu of an answer. "What happened?"

She sighed explosively, chucking her balled up clothes into a random corner. "It's stupid. I was stupid."

"You're not stupid, Kara. You just care a lot. It's a good thing."

Kara set her foot on the bottom rung of the ladder. She didn't have to climb. The nice thing about having powers was that Kara rarely had to do anything, and she certainly never had to do it at full force. But sometimes it was comforting to take those extra steps, like holding a good luck charm. Can't have bad dreams if you climb up all the rungs. "I don't even know, man. My foster folks have been on my case about the alarm clocks lately. And I keep telling them it's not on purpose, you know?"

Babs is nodding along even as she rolls up top. In her hands is one of Kara's favorite sets of noise dampening headphones. Babs always knew what she needed. "It's too loud."

"Yeah, but what else can I do?" Kara shrugged, pulling the headphones over her ears. It didn't erase the overwhelming shriek of sound. Nothing would ever do that. But it made it a bit more bearable, the same way heavy rock in the club did. "We had a fight about it, and they went on and on about finding another way to get me up, and I've tried them, man! And then they started talking about how Clark didn't do that sort of thing, and..." Kara sucked in a deep breath, fighting the irritation that gurgled up. If she broke Babs' bed they'd both be out of a sleeping spot. "I was stupid."

"You aren't stupid," Babs repeated, this time more emphatically. She took Kara's arm and tugged, and then they were laying down, the left cup of her headphones digging into the skin slightly. "It wasn't right of them to compare you to Superman."

"But they're right. Even when he was little, Clark didn't..." Kara didn't know the end to that sentence. In the grand scheme of things, Clark and Kara were as different as can be. Trying to pin down a single trait was like finding a needle in a needlestack. "Well, whatever. You know what I mean."

"Having some sensory issues is perfectly normal! You're a metahuman living in a bustling city. Clark got to get used to it in a less stressful environment." Babs took one of her hands and intertwined her fingers with her own, and Kara couldn't help but be extremely aware of how easily she could hurt her. The slightest twist of her fingers and Babs would be in a lot of pain. She hated that. "If the Danvers wanted Clark, they should've asked Clark to be their foster child. Not you."

Kara laughed a little, wet with tears she refused to shed. "You're too nice to me, Babs."

Babs shrugged, pulling a Batman stuffy up to her nose. "I just know what it's like to be compared to someone much, much bigger than you."

Author's Note: Did this for a drabble prompt on tumblr and felt like posting it! Idk I just think Kara and Babs are both highly underappreciated in their respective circles. Kara's got hella anger issues, yeah, but between her foster parents (who're doing their best but lbr, aren't equipped to deal with her circumstances) to how the public treats her, I'd be pretty salty too. Meanwhile Babs has been bullied by Robin most her life for wanting to work alongside Batman.

-Mandaree1