Author: Ashley

Title: Contractually Yours

Rating: M - Mature

Part: 18/?

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

Word Count: 2,424

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: Hi everybody,

I'm hoping to get back to regular updates again (we'll see how long this lasts). Luckily it's a long weekend, so I found the time to get this one posted. Hope you enjoy it!

(And Happy Thanksgiving weekend to my fellow Canadians out there!)

Chapter Eighteen: Accidentally Sharing Secrets

Day Seventy-One

It had been over a week, but Kara still couldn't get the moment out of her mind.

The gentle way Mon-El had cradled her body against his chest as he'd lifted her off the reading room sofa and carried her upstairs to bed. She had been awake from the moment he'd slipped his arms beneath her body. She was going to say something as soon as he'd lifted her into his arms, but once she was there, it had just felt so…right. So instead, she kept her eyes shut tight until he'd closed her bedroom door behind himself.

"She didn't know why she enjoyed being in his arms. This was a forced engagement to a guy that was selfish, sarcastic and narcissistic. But recently, he'd become softer. Not physically…no, definitely not physically. It had been days, but she could still feel the hard planes of his chest against her form, his chiseled arms gripping her body to hold her tightly to him."

That was part of the problem.

She felt such an attraction to him, and it was only growing by the day, emphasized more so by the way he was changing around her. His voice would soften when he spoke to her instead of his parents, his jokes no longer insulting, but more so in attempts to make her smile. He was trying; trying to make this…whatever this was…work. He knew she missed her home and her family and her old way of life. He was trying to make her feel more at home here. They watched movies together, went on the sporadic trip to the mall, he invited her out with him more often (not that she'd go with him - the Daxamite clubs weren't exactly her style). Sure, he still brought home the occasional girl and she still got frequent enough use out of her earplugs, but he was definitely less crass about it all. He'd seemingly come quite a long way in the last couple of weeks alone.

"What're you doing?" she suddenly heard Mon-El's voice behind her and she jumped. She spun around to face him.

"Nothing," she said immediately.

"Were you just staring out the window at nothing?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Maybe…why? What's wrong with that?"

"Oh, Kara, honey, we need to get you out of this house," he shook his head with a sad smile.

"I was just thinking about stuff…while looking out the window. Leave me alone," she laughed lightly.

"I think we should go out tonight," he said. "You spend too much time locked up in this Palace."

"I don't want to go out. I'm fine. I'll just stay in and watch some television. Probably read a book. You know, the things I enjoy."

"At this rate, you'll have read our entire two libraries in a matter of months."

"You know I prefer reading rather than going to those clubs and drinking all night. That's not really my scene," she said as she moved toward him and away from the window.

"Well, I rarely read and I enjoy drinking at the clubs, so I need to get out of here. It's not good for you to be stuck in here either. My mother is practically pacing in front of the front door to stop me from slipping out tonight. I might have to climb out that window again," he laughed. "Just come out with me?"

"What? No," she said firmly.

"Why not?" he asked as he stepped toward her. "She'll definitely let us both leave together."

"Because I don't want to stand around all night while you hook up with whatever catches your eye."

"Well," he started, "you could do it, too," he suggested as he moved toward her window, taking a look outside of his own.

"I could do what, too?"

"Hook up with somebody," he said as he turned back around to face her.

She stared back at him wide-eyed. "No, no, that's okay."

"You know that it's not a problem for me, right?" He shrugged. "You can sleep with whoever you want. If you're worried about breaking the contract before your people can move here, I won't tell anyone. You know…if you wanted me to keep it a secret. Or even just until you can find a way to steer clear of my mother after breaking the contract or whatever."

Kara didn't say anything; she just shook her head slightly to disagree with his proposal.

"Does that mean you're not okay if I sleep with other people?" he asked, his eyebrows raised high on his forehead.

"Yes," she answered quickly. "Wait…no?" she paused, her eyebrows crinkling together. "I mean…you can do what you want," she shrugged. "There's nothing about that in the contract for you. Go off and have as much sex as you want." She said it, but she felt a twinge in her chest that told her that she really didn't mean any of it.

"It's just…I am a Daxamite," he wiggled his eyebrows at her with a laugh. "You and I…we don't have to, but I might need to," he continued to chuckle as he moved toward her vanity in the corner of the room.

"I mean, I guess that's fine," she shrugged again. Besides, it didn't sound like she had much of a say in the matter.

He was quiet for a moment, his hand continuing to reach for and grab at objects sitting atop the vanity; turning them over in his hands before returning them to the table top.

"I know you Kryptonians are all 'mate for life' and stuff, but I'm sure you miss it," he prodded lightly. She eyed him as she moved toward him, pulling her hairbrush from his hand. "Sex, I mean," he continued when she didn't look like she was going to respond to him.

"I don't," she stated as she sat down on the vanity bench.

"You don't miss it?" he asked, his voice clearly full of surprise.

She shrugged nonchalantly. "No, I don't, but I guess I don't really know what I'm missing since I've never-" she paused, eyes widening as she stared back at herself in the mirror.

Oops. She hadn't exactly wanted to reveal that.

Too bad. He caught on real quick.

"You've never had sex?!"

She had to fight really hard to stop herself from standing and shoving her hand over his mouth to stifle his shouting of her secret.

Her eyes caught his in the mirror briefly before she looked away, starting to run the brush in her hand through her own hair. She shrugged at him again in response.

"Never?" he asked again. "Like, ever?"

She shook her head.

"Never?"

"No."

"What about stuff with like mouths or hands or-"

"Mon-El!" she shouted.

"Sorry," his eyes widened. "I just…I assumed that you would have at some point. I mean, with the amount of times I have," he chuckled before their eyes caught each other's again. She had an uncomfortable pout on her face. "Uhm, not important. But, I guess, I mean, look at you," he nodded at her reflection. "It's just kind of hard for me to believe that you couldn't find anyone to have sex with."

"Well, I wasn't actively looking," she said quietly, putting the brush back down on the table. "I had a very busy life before your parents forced me to come here and live on your planet, you know."

He nodded slightly as he watched her in the mirror. Her eyes were downcast, embarrassed and staring at the table top of the vanity, likely wishing that this conversation would just end already.

His mind couldn't help but think back to the conversation he'd had with Winn what seemed like so long ago.

"What? Why not? Would that be so bad?"

"No, Winn, come on, man. A virgin? They're so easy," he'd groaned. "You barely have to touch them and they just fall apart in your hands."

"So, it would be good then?"

"So good," he'd assured him. "They're so eager and willing to please."

She was scratching at a spot on her fingernail, clearly still avoiding eye contact with him. His eyes trailed down her body as he thought about being able to take her for the first time. Would she be eager? Would she reach for him and pull him toward her, or would she wait for him to guide her? He watched as she tucked her hair behind her ear. Hs eyes slid down the side of her neck. He swore he could see her pulse pumping below her ear; a quick pounding that made him realize how uncomfortable he had made her with his prodding questions.

"I'm sorry," he apologized and her eyes finally rose to meet his. "I didn't mean to push. I just…I'm surprised is all. You're beautiful, and you're a good person, and it just surprises me that you haven't found somebody that you wanted to-"

"Can we maybe just…not talk about this anymore, please?" she asked as she interrupted him.

"Yeah, sure, uhm, okay. Well, I came here originally to tell you that dinner would be ready soon. It's probably done by now. So I'll uh…just see you downstairs then."

She nodded, "Okay. Thanks." He turned to leave before stopping and turning back around. He walked back to her side again, but her eyes didn't rise to meet his.

"Kara, just look at me for a second." She sighed heavily as she turned her body on the chair and faced him, eyes still downcast, her knees nearly pressed into his as he looked down at her. He didn't wait for her to look up at him. "I know I tease you and stuff and I know that though I enjoy getting a rise out of you, you only partially enjoy it." She exaggeratedly rolled her eyes beneath him. "But I want you to know that…I know what this contract says."

Her mind quickly flashed to the clause of the contract that was burned into her brain; the clause that she'd memorized the moment she read it; the clause that she'd lately been thinking about the most.

Prince Mon-El and Princess Kara must consummate the marriage.

"But," he continued. "I want you to know that I'm never going to force you into doing anything that you don't want to do, no matter what some signed piece of paper says. You're gorgeous and honestly I would jump at the chance to…you know…with you…if you wanted to, of course. I mean, I would take care of you and I think we'd be amazing at it together and it would be fun and exciting and all good things…but it's always going to be your choice."

Her chin tilted as she finally looked up at him.

"Uh, that's it. I just…I'll see you at dinner."

She watched him leave the room and she continued to sit there blinking; trying to absorb the words he'd just said to her.

He wanted to sleep with her.

Well, if she were being honest with herself, he probably wanted to sleep with anyone that said yes, but that didn't stop her heart from pounding in her chest at the idea of letting him take her to bed.

Not that she had led a sheltered life or anything on Krypton, but she'd never had a real boyfriend. She'd never met a guy that she had actually wanted to be with. Sex had never really been on the table before…not in a way that was close enough to be tangible. Nothing like this situation; where she was to be married to a man and was supposed to be working on making a baby with him.

Had she wanted to, all she had to do was say yes and he'd be all over her.

The thought of that made her head spin along with her pounding heart, that dreaded, yet exciting fluttery feeling coming back to her stomach; as if a thousand butterflies were flapping their wings inside of her.

She was terrified.

Did she want to sleep with him? Sure, she'd always heard about how great sex was. As much as she hated to think about it, Mon-El was experienced in that arena and women came from all over the planet to try to sleep with him, so he must be good at it. Maybe her first time should be with someone that experienced?

But that only terrified her more.

What if she wasn't good at it? She didn't know what she was doing. If she wasn't careful, this tingly feeling inside of her could take over and sometime in the next nearly three hundred days she still had left in this contract, she could be enticed into sleeping with him. Rao, what would he think of her inexperience then? It would be embarrassing. He also had a lot of experience making sarcastic comments about things. She could be the punchline of every sexual joke he could think of for the rest of her life.

She was really getting ahead of herself here…

Nonetheless, he'd said it before. All it would take would be for her to go out and sleep with somebody else and it would end this contract immediately.

She could do that.

At least, she thought she could.

She didn't really want to, but at least then this would all be over. She wouldn't have to worry herself with the contract anymore.

But she couldn't do that.

Her parents would be disappointed that she wasn't able to keep the contract valid. She'd technically be giving up more than just her virginity; she'd be giving up on the promise she'd made her to family, to her people, to all of the citizens of Krypton who would lose out on their chance to live a better life on a planet that was supposed to give them a fresh start. But, Mon-El had even said that he'd keep it a secret for her if she was worried about the contract.

If she was so nervous about somehow finding herself in bed with Mon-El and proving to be a huge disappointment, maybe some secret practice wouldn't be so bad.

She wasn't even making any sense to herself anymore! What did she actually want? Practice "just in case" or to end this contract?

She abruptly stood from the vanity bench. All of a sudden, she knew what she wanted to do; what she had to do. She'd just have to find the best way to go about it.

A/N: As always, thanks for reading! I appreciate each and every one of you out there!

Twitter: _ashleymaria_
Twitter Tag for Sneak Peeks, etc.: #ContractuallyYours