Author: Ashley

Title: Contractually Yours

Rating: M - Mature

Part: 15/?

Pairing: Mon-El and Kara Danvers (Zor-El)

Word Count: 3,552

Summary: Long ago, the Daxamites chased the Kryptonians off of their shared world. They were forced to live on a nearby moon. That Kryptonian moon is now running out of resources, while the Daxamites' planet is becoming a wasteland. The Royal Families have decided to come together in a truce to help everyone live better lives; a truce made with a signed contract involving their children; a contract that the children have no say in. Arranged Marriage Karamel AU.

Disclaimer: I don't own Supergirl, DC Comics or anything related to such things. The ideas, dialogue and plot points of this AU were inspired by the show, but they are my own. Plagiarism isn't nice. Please don't steal my ideas.

A/N: I know, I know. Where have I been? Literally the last time I opened this fic document on my computer was May 24. I'm so sorry I abandoned this for so long.

To be honest, I just kind of lost interest for a while.

Overall, it's just been a hard year for me; health wise, work wise, emotion wise, and Supergirl wise. Last year at this time, I was still recovering from the S3 finale, while also experiencing some of the greatest moments of my life with Melissa on Broadway, and ever since then, things have just continued to be crazy in my real life.

Some of you and I might have this in common, but I'll always feel like a little bit of the show died for me while watching S3. I guess that's often how a shipper feels when they lose their ship and an aspect of the show that they love so much, but I've been shipping for YEARS and this was the first one that really just HURT. Because of that, it's hard to sit down and write sometimes, because in order to write, I need to get back into the karamel headspace, and when so much is going on in my life personally, it's hard to bring myself back there where I know that the only happy ending will be in the fic that I'm writing.

I just wanted to let you guys in on all that because I'm really busy in real life and I have to say that this fic isn't a priority for me. But I also want to make it clear that I love this couple and I LOVE this fic. I NEVER want to post an update of this story if I'm not feeling like I'm in the right headspace. I never want to force myself to re-read a chapter and post it if I'm not ready. I take a lot of pride in this fic, more so than with the others I've done, because at this point, I've been working with this one for well over a year now and it's very special to me. So I apologize for any long waiting periods for updates, but I'm never going to half-ass this story for you guys. People who love my writing deserve better, and this ship deserves better. It's already had a lifetime's worth of bad writing.

Anyways, you didn't come back here after all this time to listen to me rant and ramble on. So here's Chapter 15.

Also, it's my birthday today, so reviews and comments are like extra special gifts for me today. :)

Chapter Fifteen: Tears and Elixirs

Day Twenty-Six

Mon-El felt soft fingertips, feather light, moving up his torso from his bellybutton to his neck. He looked down and watched the movements covered by the thin sheet draped across their bodies.

"Kara," he called out and he watched the sheet flutter lightly as she breathed against it. "Come out of there," he told her and he felt her lips land on his abdomen; trailing kisses from left to right as her hands hooked into the waistband of his pajama pants.

"In a minute," she answered back and he smiled, his hands landing on her sheet covered head.

She continued to trail kisses along his torso, lips following the curves of his pecks before her tongue flicked out against a nipple. He groaned at her. Her head slowly popped out from under the sheet, her hair mussed, a teasing grin on her face as she kissed up and along his neck to his ear.

"Are you ready for me?" she asked and he nodded with another groan.

"Always," he sighed, and she tongued at his ear as her hand slid into his pajama bottoms, reaching for his cock, her fingers wrapping around him tightly. His eyes slid shut at the feel of her hand around him, and when he opened his eyes again…

He was alone.

Lying in his bed alone, red sunlight streaming onto his face through the thin curtains draped across the window of his room. He caught his bedroom door closing as soon as his eyes finished properly taking in the surroundings of his room.

Morning already? He groaned in dissatisfaction. He hadn't slept at all last night. Kara's crying had kept him awake for a long while. Then once she'd quieted, he was kept awake because he couldn't stop thinking about her; about how awful she must feel about being stuck here to be crying like that nearly every night. He looked to Kara's room and noticed that her door was wide open. It occurred to him that she had just left and that she was the one he caught closing the door a few seconds ago.

He sighed. Maybe he could try to get some sleep now that she was gone. He closed his eyes, but he had to squeeze them shut hard in order to block out the sun streaming into the room. He lay there for no more than fifteen minutes before giving up on trying to fall back asleep. His back was sore and his neck told him he didn't rest properly against his pillow all night. He knew what his body needed. He needed a shower in the bathroom with the multiple shower-head shower; the one where every shower felt like a full body massage.

Yeah, he nodded to himself as he sat up. That was definitely what he needed. He swung his legs out of the covers and moved to stand. He walked toward his window, shoving aside the curtains and looking out at the day ahead of him.

Just as crappy as it was yesterday.

He sighed before turning away. At least it wasn't much longer until Kara's parents were going to help out with the mess out there. Maybe they could actually start living in a city that was once again decent to look at. He knew how bad the people out there had it, and how little his own parents cared about them. His family looked great; that's all they cared about. They only invited the highest of classes into their events; the richest of citizens. They didn't know about the poverty that existed out there. Or at least, if they knew, they didn't care enough to pay attention to it.

He was lost in his own thoughts as he moved through the hallways and toward the bathroom. It hadn't even occurred to him to question why the bathroom door was closed. His hand was already on the doorknob and he was pushing the door wide open without thinking.

"Mon-El!" Kara was screaming. Not just screaming; shrieking. She had an arm and hand tightly pressed to her naked breasts, a hand trying to cover between her legs as she spun around to face away from him. She nearly slipped on the tile floor, but caught herself before she could fall over.

His jaw dropped, his eyes wide before he, himself, spun around. "I didn't see anything!" he shouted back.

Kara was hurriedly trying to grab the towel from the counter, wrapping herself in it tightly. "Get out of here!" she growled. "Close the door!"

Mon-El took one large step and he found himself out in the hall, slamming the bathroom door closed behind himself.

Holy crap.

Why did he open that door? Why didn't he knock first? Why was she using the one shower in the entire Palace behind the one door that didn't lock?

Her naked body flashed into his mind again.

Holy crap.

He decided to take his shower in one of the bathrooms on the total opposite end of the Palace.

His cold shower.

His very, very cold shower.

When Mon-El had arrived at the breakfast table, his parents were already sitting waiting for him.

Lar Gand watched Mon-El walk in and sit down in his chair at the table. "Son, have you seen Princess Kara this morning?"

"No!" he shouted and he flinched at his own outburst. "I mean, no. No, I haven't seen her." He fidgeted in his chair, his eyes trained on the empty plate in front of him. "She had already woken up and left her room before I woke up."

"Ahh, there she is," he heard his mother say and his head rose quickly. He turned to watch Kara walk across the room before taking her seat next to him. She was already blushing and clearly avoiding his eyes.

"Good morning, everyone," she mumbled the greeting quietly while sitting down.

Nobody spoke again until all the plates were nearly empty.

"We'll gather again after lunch," Rhea told everyone. "We'll be discussing the invitations and the guest list for the wedding: who we must invite, who we should invite, who you both would like to attend. We'll have to plan out the seating arrangements as well. Princess, we have instructions from your parents from their recent visit, so we'll discuss them, too. So, please, everyone be on time for lunch so we can get started promptly afterwards."

Mon-El watched Kara nod before he did as well. The servants came out to collect their plates and Mon-El's parents stood from their seats.

"Have a good morning you two," Lar Gand stated before leaving the kids to continue staring awkwardly at the table in front of them.

Mon-El cleared his throat with a cough. "Kara…" he started and her head flicked upward abruptly, surprise clear on her face at him addressing her directly; her wide eyes meeting his for the first time since the incident. "I, uh, I had a hard time sleeping last night. I wasn't really all that awake this morning. I just didn't even think of knocking before opening that door. I'm really the only one who ever uses that shower and I just didn't expect anyone to be in there. But I was so tired and so out of it, I just want you to know that I didn't really see anything."

Liar, he heard himself say in his own head. You saw enough to know that your dreams have been selling her short. She was so much better.

"Mon-El, can we just…" she sighed. "Can we just never bring up what happened again? Like ever?"

He nodded.

"We'll just forget it," she told him, face serious, but clearly she was still embarrassed.

"All is forgotten," he stated. Again, liar. He didn't think he'd ever be able to forget the gentle jut of her naked hips, the smooth, unmarred skin stretching across her flat abdomen, leading up to the curves of her breasts. Oh Rao, he needed to stop thinking about it all or he'd need another cold shower.

"Thank you," she nodded with an exhale. She looked relieved.

But she also looked tired.

Really tired. Dark circles under her eyes, lids that were puffed up enough to be concerning. The edges of her eyes were reddened, clearly from swiping tissue across them a few too many times last night; little red cracks in the whites of her eyes, the normally sparking blue of her irises now dull.

"Kara…" he started, about to bring up the crying he'd heard last night.

"If it's okay with you, I'm going to stay in for the day. I don't feel much like going around the city or doing much of anything really." She finally stood from her seat, her eyes avoiding his again. "I'll see you at lunch…and the meeting."

Before another word could leave his mouth, she'd left the room. He scrubbed his hand across his face. He could tell she was struggling being here; how hard it was for her to face his family every day while in this situation, especially now that her parents and Alex had left. He wished he could help to make it easier on her. He didn't know why, but he really did.

The rest of the day had gone pretty well…considering how awful it could have gone as an alternative. Lunch was the usual: everyone sitting in silence at a table, no sound other than chewing and silverware clanging against dishes. Even the meeting about the wedding wasn't as dreadful as Kara had expected.

"And who else did you wish to have attend, Princess?" Rhea had asked her, voice surprisingly pleasant. Kara's eyes met hers.

"I think you've covered all the bases with your list." It was extensive. Over a hundred names, none of whom she knew.

"Your mother has also provided us with a list of your side of the family who must be invited," Lar Gand chipped in as he opened up a hologram list for her that Alura had left with them. More people?! Kara looked down the list and she realized that she actually knew most of them; at the very least they were people she'd met a few times. "But who do you want to have there?"

Kara eyed Mon-El sitting next to her. This felt like a trap. Like she was supposed to give some names and they would forcefully turn them down, just to rub it in her face because that's who these people were.

"I guess there's some friends I had when I was younger; those who went to the schools and universities in the area while I was tutored at home by my parents. I haven't seen most of them in a while, but it might be nice to have some familiar faces…"

Rhea slid her own electronic device over to Kara. "Please add their names to the bottom if they're not on your parents' list and we'll have the invitations made up."

"Your mother has put in her suggestions for the font and style of the invitations - all Kryptonian guests will have invitations in Kryptonese; the Daxmites will receive the same in our own language," Lar Gand instructed. "Will any of your guests have a problem with that? I assume none of them would be able to read the Daxamite alphabet, and the lower classes may not be able to properly read the English language."

Kara nodded, "Yeah, I think that's true. Besides, we didn't see any Daxamite writing on our planet; surely nobody would understand it. There are very few, if any, that lived on Minerva who may have actually come across it."

They'd shown her samples of what the invitations would look like. They'd looked like something she would have chosen herself, had the wedding been her own choice in the first place.

Though the day hadn't been the worst yet, the night was still hard.

Kara lay on her bed, as close to tears as she could possibly be. The more they talked about the wedding, the more she realized that it was actually coming. She'd been living with the Daxamites for almost three weeks now. The wedding was a little more than five months away, but that was still far too soon for her liking.

So she continued to lie on her bed (that was somehow now missing her blanket), her closed book resting beside her since she couldn't concentrate on reading anyway, contemplating about what challenges tomorrow could bring.

At least she wasn't crying this time, Mon-El thought to himself as he lay on his bed in the dark. He heard sniffling every so often, but no direct sobs this time. Progress?

His eyes flicked over to the small crack of an opening to Kara's room. Her light was still on, even though it was getting late. He hadn't seen her in a while, but when he'd gotten home, her door was already pushed far enough to probably be deemed "closed".

He debated if he should go and get the elixir her knew he kept in the kitchen cupboard downstairs. It might help with all the crying. He heard another sniffle followed by a loud cough, and it made his decision for him.

When he'd returned, her light was still on and he assumed he was safe to walk in. His hand pushed at the door and it swung open easily.

Kara jumped and sat up in her bed. "Mon-El!"

"I didn't mean to startle you or anything," he said. "I just wanted to leave this elixir here for you. It'll help with the…" he took in her reddened, puffy eyes, "…dehydration."

Oh, great, she thought. He probably knew she had been consistently crying her eyes out. She really thought she'd pushed her door all the way shut. Not that that seemed to matter to him anyway.

"Don't you ever knock?" she asked, contempt audible in her voice as she referred to the moment earlier that day that neither of them would directly speak of ever again.

He shrugged. "Your door wasn't closed. Your light was on."

"Maybe I wanted to be alone, thought I pushed the door closed, and it turns out it didn't swing all the way shut? Knock next time," she told him.

"Okay," he crinkled his eyebrows at her. "Do you want this or not?"

"What is it?"

"An elixir," he repeated. "I use it whenever I'm sick or when I drink too much alcohol or whatever. It restores your body and mind faster from sickness and dehydration than water does."

"I don't want your potions," she stated firmly.

"We're Daxamites, not witches," he told her. "It's just a drink that restores your body. You don't have to drink it. I can bring you water if you want that instead."

"Shouldn't you be busy in your own bed with whatever girl you found and are screwing tonight?" she spat out at him.

"I don't only screw in my bed, Kara," he emphasized as he quoted her choice of word back at her. "We didn't make it back here this time," he stated with a nearly proud grin.

"Ew," was her only response as she moved to lay back down on her mattress.

He watched her try to get comfortable before he noticed something. He furrowed his eyebrows at her even though she wasn't looking up at him.

"Where did your blanket go?" he asked confusedly.

"I dunno," she shrugged as she lay there.

"What'd you mean you don't know?" he asked with a laugh.

She shrugged again. "It was gone when I came back from the library."

He peeked out into his room and looked around. He didn't see an extra blanket laying folded anywhere. "It was probably taken by someone for laundry and they forgot to bring you a new one." He paused. "You know, it may feel like it, but this isn't a prison. You can ask for another blanket."

"I'm not using your slaves," she said defiantly.

"You could have asked me," he said. "I wouldn't refuse to give you an extra blanket if you needed one. I know you hate me and that our parents are making our lives miserable. I'm not going to make it worse on you."

"That's all you do!" she suddenly shouted as she sat up again. "You're making every day here miserable for me."

He crinkled his eyebrows. "What?" he asked. "What am I doing to make your life miserable?"

"Well, all of the girls for starters," she said. "Not only do I have to marry a man that I didn't choose, but I have to also marry a man who whores himself out to the entire planet!" she shouted again, standing up this time, face to face with his surprised one. "And to top it all off, you bring them home to do it right outside my door nearly every night. You're rude and sarcastic and you've never done anything for me that would make me change my mind."

He nodded at the elixir in his hands, as if his offering were supposed to be the thing to make up for everything.

"Ha!" she scoffed. "I don't know why you'd think I'd be anything but miserable here."

He blinked at her. "I can't help who I am, Kara."

"Really?" she challenged. "You can't stop having sex? Even now that your wife has been chosen for you?"

"Are we going to start having sex?" he returned.

"No," she stated firmly.

"Then I'm not going to stop having sex with girls who will."

"And me being stuck with you acting like that…you're not making my life miserable, right?" she asked, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"Kara, I don't see why you're putting this all on me. I've told you before and I'll keep saying it until you hear me. You can go out and have sex with someone else and this will all end right away. It's in the contract. You can bring a guy home from wherever you find one and screw him on the Dining Hall table in front of everyone and you can be shipped right back to Krypton. But instead, you're still sitting here complaining."

She shook her head. "You just don't get it at all! Unlike you, I'm not only thinking about myself. I'm thinking of my people; the people stranded on Krypton, barely surviving thanks to your family. I need to keep this contract valid in order to take care of them and my own friends and family. To make sure that they all get a better life; are given a chance to survive. At least once all my people move here, when the contract ends, we'll already be saved. I could care less about who they pick to be your new wife."

"So, you're just going to be miserable for the foreseeable future instead then?"

"I guess so," she stated firmly. "Besides, I like to cry, you know. It's a way to release my emotions. It feels good."

He took in her reddened eyes and scowl. "Are you sure about that?"

She sighed heavily. "Can you just go now? I'm less miserable when you're not standing next to me." He watched as she turned and got back into bed. "I'd like that extra blanket if you wouldn't mind."

He walked back into his room and left for a moment. When he returned, he had a fluffy blue blanket in his arms; one hand holding it and the other holding the elixir. "I'll leave this just in case. Drink it or don't. Don't say I never did anything for you."

She scoffed at him again as he left the room. He got back into his bed, mood dampened until he started thinking. She was probably right. He hadn't really done anything for her. Yeah, he probably made less jokes about her personality and he didn't insult her people anymore. At least he'd hoped so. He hadn't really been paying much attention to her.

Oh wait, that was probably part of the problem, too.

Then he realized another thing. She was living with him inside the Royal Palace. She'd barely been into the actual city. His parents only allowed her and Alex to go to a specific nearby mall when they went out on their own; a driver being provided for their trip there and back. Surely Kara's parents didn't travel into the parts of the city where the real people actually lived.

Obviously he and his family were well off. They had anything they could ever desire or require. That was purposeful. They kept everything to themselves; provided for no one outside of the Palace. They barely even provided for their servants.

Kara had no idea about all the people on the planet that really needed help; all the people he tried to ignore whenever they went out in public because that was what their family did. All the people that his family didn't invite to the parties or announcements or feasts. The people who surely were not going to be on the invitation list for the wedding.

He decided that he needed to show her.

She needed to know who else this contract was saving.

A/N: Twitter: _ashleymaria_