Author: Ashley

Title: Contractually Yours

Rating: M - Mature

Part: 23/?

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

Word Count: 3,858

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: Welcome back!

Thank you to everyone for the kind words after the last chapter, both here, on AO3, and on Twitter. I will respond to everyone, I swear! I still have reviews and comments from way back to respond to (like chapter 14?), but I like to focus on actually writing new chapters when I get my muse rather than responding to comments because I know you're probably more concerned about getting a new chapter rather than an acknowledgement or response to your post lol.

Anyways, I've been on vacation this week and I've gotten a LOT of writing and plot organizing done. The time off from work (with nowhere else to go and nothing else important to do) has really given me the time to look back at some of my old completed fics and in progress stuff. It's helped me delve back into my love for karamel again (at least mainly my AU version).

I don't like surprises when it comes to reading in progress fics in terms of when the ending is approaching, so I'll let you all know now that I've written out a final story outline with the end chapter at 54, so I'd say were almost halfway through this fic (sad!). However, this is my third "final story outline" and I still have about 20 more chapters to actually write, so depending on their length, we may get more or less chapters in the end. It's not set in stone and definitely subject to change.

Anyways, on to the fun stuff. I must say, this is one of my favourite chapters. I mean, I love them all so much, but this one is special to me for some reason. I think we take a bit of a turning point here, and this chapter sets up a couple of things for future chapters, so I enjoy it. Hope you do, too!

(Also, we're getting closer and closer to earning our Mature rating...so fair warning for those of you youngins or shy folk who are concerned about it and who may need to prepare to bow out…however, if you're here and know my work and who I am, you're likely dying for it by now, so I'm here to reassure you that IT'S ALMOST HERE I SWEAR)

Chapter Twenty-Three: Meeting the Parents

Day One Hundred and Two (Continued)

"Hey," Mon-El greeted as he walked into his room. Kara was just stepping out of her own room and she looked up at him.

"Hey," she smiled. "You're just in time. I asked Rhys to bring the car around like five seconds ago. He'd said he'd just gotten back, but I didn't know if you were with him."

"You look great," he nodded at the dress that she'd changed into since he saw her earlier that afternoon. "Do I need to change?" he asked as he looked down at himself.

Kara shook her head. "No, you're fine. This isn't formal or anything. We're just meeting my parents."

He nodded, but her words echoed in his brain.

Meeting my parents.

Sure, he'd met them before. A couple of times. No big deal. So, why was his stomach fluttering with nerves? Why were his palms getting sweaty? He hadn't given it much thought before Winn had brought it up, but now he was nervous that they were headed to the hotel and he was going to have to make a "good impression". How would he even do that? What impressed parents?

"Oops," she said, cutting off his panicked thoughts. "My purse is in the reading room. Gimme a sec?" She turned to leave the room and he watched her go for a moment before it finally hit him.

He'd almost forgotten.

He walked over to his desk. He watched the doorway as he opened the top right side drawer. He reached inside, his eyes continuing to flick back and forth between the drawer and the entrance to make sure that he was able to take out the piece of paper before Kara got back. He quickly shuffled some things around before finding the sheet that he was looking for. He laid it flat on the table and began to fold it neatly; small enough that he could slide it into his pocket before Kara got back. He'd decided that he was going to see how the night went, and if the moment felt right, he'd use it. He nonchalantly moved out into the hall just as Kara stepped back into the hallway herself.

"Ready?" she asked with a smile and he nodded back at her.

"We should try to avoid my parents," he said as he caught up to her. "I'd rather not have to think up some excuse as to where we're going."

"They're not home," she answered easily. "They were leaving as I came back from lunch with Alex. I told them I wouldn't be back in time for dinner."

"Oh," he nodded. "Good. If you're not here for dinner, then they won't expect me to be here for dinner either." He emphasized his approval of their absence by grabbing onto Kara's hand. She glanced at him briefly before lacing her fingers with his as they headed to the front door.

"I told him to wait at the gates," she informed him as she nodded at the car Rhys had parked off the Palace property.

"Works for me," Mon-El stated as he squeezed her hand gently. He'd rather take a longer walk holding her hand than have to already let her go on the front doorstep.

Winn was right. When did he get so soft?!

When they reached the vehicle, Rhys lowered it to the ground. Kara greeted him happily and Mon-El acknowledged him with a nod of his head. He opened the door for Kara and she climbed into the backseat. He followed closely behind her again, his hands warm on her hips. He waited for her to buckle her seatbelt before sliding right up to her side.

"You really should ride in these things with a belt on," she told him as she turned to look at him.

"I'll be fine. Rhys is a good driver, aren't you Rhys?" he asked with a grin before looking to the driver's seat.

"I'd like to think so, my Prince," he answered back as he began to drive.

He grinned at Rhys before he turned to look at Kara. He watched her jaw flexing, the pulse pumping in her neck, the way she pursed her lips every so often as if she were thinking hard about something. He wanted to kiss her. When he was kissing her, he wasn't panicking, and right now he was pretty sure he was on the brink of panicking about actually having real conversations with her parents; sharing his ideas that he would never have dreamed of sharing with anyone, let alone even his own parents.

Though, he'd have to approach the idea of kissing her with caution. Rhys was sitting right there. She'd never go for it.

He moved to wrap an arm around her shoulders and he placed a hand on her knee. The hand on her knee quickly became a wandering hand. It kept sliding up and down along her thigh; slightly at first before he became bolder, tickling the inside of her thigh through her dress before drifting back down toward her knee.

"Kara…" he started and she hummed back at him in response. When she didn't turn away from looking out of the window to glance at him, "Kiss me."

Her head snapped around and she finally looked at him. "What?"

"Kiss me," he repeated, his lips slightly puckering in her direction.

"We're not doing that here," she whispered firmly. "Rhys is sitting right there."

He had to hide his smile. Predictable Kara. "I could put up the privacy screen if it would make you more comfortable," he suggested as he licked his lips.

"We're not being rude to Rhys," she said quietly.

"It's not a problem, Miss Kara," Rhys assured her, having been able to easily hear their entire conversation so far. "I'm used to it."

"Mother never leaves the screen down," Mon-El clarified.

"I don't mean to speak out of turn," Rhys added, "but I've also seen him do much worse in the back of my car. I've learned to ignore what happens in the backseat regardless of whether the screen is up or down."

"Ew," Kara muttered.

"That was one time, Rhys," he snapped back with a smile. He turned to Kara again, his face turning completely serious. "One time," he repeated.

Suddenly the screen was appearing, forming between the front and back seats, Rhys having pushed a button without saying a word. Mon-El looked up just in time to see him shoot a wink his way.

"See," Mon-El laughed. "He's giving us our privacy. Will you kiss me now?" he pouted.

"You're insatiable, you know that?" she asked as she leaned in to press her lips gently to his.

"Well, I am a Daxamite," he mumbled against her lips. "Besides, I'm sure it's one of my many qualities that you'll eventually come to love."

His lips were pressing against hers, his hand moving from her shoulders to the back of her head.

Love.

Surely he hadn't noticed his choice of words because he was kissing her instead of trying to correct himself. Surely he didn't actually mean love. That's not what they were doing here. Right?

After a few moments, she pulled away, her fingers grabbing at his chin and turning his head to face forward again.

"Cool down, please," she told him before she rifled through her clutch and found her lip gloss and a pocket mirror. She ran a thin layer of gloss along her lips before she adjusted her hair, touching at her eyeliner with the tip of her pinky finger. Then her gaze shifted back to the window. He smirked and pulled his arm from her shoulders, grabbing at her right hand instead to hold it in both of his.

He couldn't see her face, but she grinned. She liked this. Sitting here; being with him. No talk of marriage, babies or an eternity in a Daxamite Palace. He wasn't awful to be around. He was just a bit of a work in progress. It seemed like he'd never done anything slow in his life; never worked on anyone's schedule but his own, so surely the change wouldn't happen overnight.

Not that she cared if he changed.

She just had to remember to focus on the end date of the contract. Just a few hundred days left.

Ugh.

All of a sudden they were pulling up to the hotel's front doors. Regardless of what her mother had said in the past, it was not quaint. It was pretty dingy. She wished that her parents could stay in the Palace with the Daxamites, too, but at least they had somewhere to go for privacy away from them.

They said goodbye to Rhys and informed him that they would be going out for dinner and wouldn't call him for another ride until late in the evening. Mon-El climbed out of the backseat and held out a hand for Kara. She got to her feet, but shook his hand off once she was standing.

She didn't want her parents to get any ideas about them. He crinkled his eyebrows at her gesture and she felt the need to explain.

"I don't want to have to discuss the…other parts of the contract with them today," she said as she nodded at his hand that she'd rejected.

"Oh," he nodded. "Sure. I'd rather not have any questions about it, too. None of their business really," he shrugged. "We don't want them to think this plan of theirs is going to work or anything."

"Exactly," she nodded as they began to walk into the building.

They asked for directions to the reserved conference room and were slightly surprised to see that they'd arrived first, considering they were late and technically supposed to be meeting almost ten minutes ago. They each took a seat at the same side of the small table, across from the open doorway as they began to wait for Kara's parents to arrive. They'd sat there for less than five minutes before Mon-El turned to her.

"Kiss me" he said and she looked over at him.

"Again?" she asked, surprised. "We just made out in the car like five minutes ago. What's with you today?" she giggled as she turned to watch the doorway again.

"We didn't make out," he corrected as he leaned toward her, his arm stretching out along the back of her chair. "It was barely a few minutes filled with tiny little pecks. I need more," he whined, his nose pressed to her cheek.

"No, my parents could walk in any second," she told him firmly.

"They're already late," he told her.

"Which means that they'll be here in literally seconds."

"Just one little one," he smirked before kissing her cheek. "Really fast. We'll hurry."

She rolled her eyes. "Fast," she repeated and he backed away enough for her to turn to look at him again. She leaned in, but when their lips met, it was anything but fast. It was slow and purposeful; lips melding together, Mon-El's tongue making its way into her mouth. She groaned against him.

"Noooo," she laughed. "Not here," she insisted, but he kissed her again. She was leaning in her chair, nearly falling into him, one hand on his thigh, the other threading through the hair at the back of his head.

Zor-El and Alura rounded the corner and both stopped abruptly in the doorway upon seeing their daughter's lips fused to her future husband's. Zor-El's jaw dropped open and Alura had to cover her mouth to stifle a laugh. The back of her hand landed on her husband's chest and she moved to guide him backwards and out of the room as she took a few steps back of her own. They went back around the corner before they could be spotted by the couple.

Zor-El's eyes were wide as he looked at his wife. "They were-"

"Yes, they definitely were," Alura laughed.

"They really were…"

"I guess it's safe to assume that they're getting along?"

"I could see why one would think that," Zor-El laughed.

"Let's give them a minute," Alura suggested as she nodded at a nearby plush sofa in the hallway.

Back in the conference room, Mon-El pulled back and watched the smile spread across Kara's face. He laughed lightly and her eyes popped open.

"What?"

"I ruined your makeup," he said simply as his hand wiped at his own mouth.

"What?" Her eyes widened and he stopped her hands from rushing to her face.

"Just your lips," he grinned as he slid his thumb along the side of her mouth to wipe away the smudged gloss. He leaned back a bit and nodded at her. "No one will notice."

That didn't stop her hand from going up to smooth a finger across her lips anyway to be sure. He leaned in and kissed her cheek again.

"Beautiful, don't worry about it," he said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders as he tried to look out the doorway to see if he could see her parents coming. Wait, he thought, too couple-y. He adjusted his arm to sit along the back of her chair instead.

Her stomach had jumped at his endearment for her. He'd never called her that before. Beautiful. It had slipped out so smoothly that she briefly wondered how often he called his other girls beautiful.

Her wondering was interrupted by her parents appearing in the doorway. She grinned upon seeing them.

"Your Highnesses," Mon-El greeted as he stood from his chair. Kara's eyebrows furrowed as she watched him from her seat beside him.

"Oh, honey," Alura giggled as she walked toward the couple. "It's Alura and Zor-El, please. We'll be family soon. We don't expect you to be so formal, especially behind closed doors."

"Oh," he nodded.

"Sit, please," she encouraged as she squeezed his hand gently in hers before turning to Kara. "Hi, sweetheart," she whispered before kissing her on the cheek.

"Hi, you guys. How was the trip over?" Kara asked.

"Long," Zor-El responded as he leaned over and hugged her. He patted Mon-El on the shoulder as he walked back toward his own seat. "You probably heard from Alex, but we travelled overnight to make sure we'd get here and have time to tour around a bit of the planet and still get back in time for breakfast. We wanted enough time to settle in before seeing you. Alex said she was going to take a nap late this afternoon and likely won't end up joining us for dinner."

"That's okay," she nodded as she watched them sit down. "We had lunch earlier today. She should rest if she's worn out."

"Well, let's get started shall we? We thought we'd have an early dinner together before turning in. We'll be meeting the Daxamites first thing tomorrow morning and we'd like to be refreshed and recharged for the meeting."

Kara turned to Mon-El briefly before looking back at her parents. "Sounds good to me," she paused for a moment. "Uhm, I know I didn't say Mon-El would be coming, but…" she looked over at him, "he had some input he wanted to share." Her eyes connected with her mother's. "We thought we could leave you with some ideas that you could consider bringing up tomorrow at the meeting?"

"Certainly," Zor-El nodded. "You've been living here," he looked at Mon-El. "You're likely one of the best judges of what this planet needs the most. Where do you think we should start?"

"Uhm…" Mon-El looked at Kara.

She was confused for a second. Was he nervous? He looked nervous. She smiled back at him and nodded encouragingly.

"I wanted to point out the school situation."

"Ah, yes, Kara had mentioned to us that the schools are in disrepair," Zor-El nodded. "We understand that you require some educators as well. We aim to bring over the scientists, scholars and researchers to your planet first. Hopefully we can also provide some knowledge to the folks here who are interested in learning how to participate and be a part of the group to rebuild."

"We do need the scholars," Mon-El nodded. "There are only enough elders to educate the upper classes who live near the Palace and can pay more for the education." He rubbed his hands against his thighs. Why were his hands so sweaty? "I think it's important that we make education accessible for all. Without the schools open every day, the youth are spending their time being a nuisance, more than anything else, downtown. It's not good for them, and it's not good for the city."

Alura nodded. "The work would go faster if both Kryptonians and Daxamites were working together on the construction and rebuilding, so we'll propose focusing on the scholars first. Of course, once the teachers are here, we'd bring over our builders and creators for assistance in getting the buildings back to a respectable quality, too."

"Yes, I uh…" he looked at Kara before he reached into his back pocket and pulled out the piece of paper he'd neatly folded and hidden there. "I had some ideas about the layout for the old school downtown." He placed the page on the table in front of him before gently unfolding it. "I know it's in pretty rough shape, and it might be best to just tear it down…but I already know the inside layout and it's not bad…" he flattened out the piece of paper and Kara curiously leaned in to see what was on it. "See we could have a lunch room here, a science lab around the corner over here, traditional classrooms for literature…and numerical studies…and whatever else all along this side."

Kara's eyes were widening. "Mon-El…" she started as she reached for the piece of paper. "Did you draw all of this?" The oversized piece of paper was covered in architectural drawings and sketches of the school building he'd taken her to downtown that one evening. He looked over at her, their eyes connecting, but he didn't say anything.

Alura reached out to take the piece of paper from Kara to get a better look at it. She and Zor-El began to talk about the various rooms and Mon-El watched them, a concerned look on his face.

Kara smiled. She knew that Mon-El actually cared about people, even though he never really showed it. She realized then that he needed to share his ideas with people who wouldn't shut him down without giving him a chance to contribute; people unlike his own parents. His parents didn't care about other people, and surely they didn't want him caring either. Her parents were nodding and listening and engaging with him and she just sat there and watched him.

She reached over and placed her hand on his knee. She felt him jump slightly; a tiny twitch of his leg as if her touch had startled him while he focused intently on talking to her parents. He cleared his throat and continued talking. She only heard a few words; she was only half listening. Universities. Parks. Shopping centres. He had so many ideas and they were spilling out like a waterfall and she just felt so proud of him for the things he was saying and suggesting.

She didn't know when it happened, but eventually her hand was in his; their fingers laced together and sitting in his lap. She was too focused on staring at Mon-El, a likely ridiculous smile on her face as she listened to them all, that she didn't even realize all the time that had passed by. The meeting was coming to an end.

"Mon-El," Alura started. "We're so happy you joined us today. You've provided us with some very valuable input and we're definitely going to mention these things tomorrow at the meeting. You seemed to have much more to contribute tonight than Kara," she laughed at her daughter who only then realized that she was silent nearly the entire time they'd been in that room.

"That's great. You can keep the drawing, but it's just a suggestion. I'm sure the builders will determine if it's feasible or not," he smiled, before his grin quickly faded. "Actually, can I just ask one more thing of you?"

"Of course," Zor-El nodded.

"Can you just take credit for the ideas and not mention me?" Kara heard a slight tremble in his voice and she squeezed his hand under the table.

"Can I ask why?" Alura questioned.

"I think the proposal would go over better if my parents think the ideas came from you guys instead of from me. That's kind of why I wanted to make sure to mention it all while they weren't here."

"If that's what you want, we'll keep your name out of it," Zor-El nodded.

Mon-El sighed gratefully. "Thank you. I appreciate it." Kara's parents stood and so did Kara and Mon-El, their hands subtly releasing each other's before they did. "I'd also like to tell you that, I know you signed this contract to benefit yourselves and your people, and though my parents would never say it, we really needed it, too. Thank you for agreeing to help us."

Kara felt her heart clenching in her chest. Who was this man in front of her? This man who seemingly didn't have a care in the world for anyone but himself, was actually thanking her parents for helping the people of his planet.

"We needed saving too, Son," Zor-El stated. "Let's just do the best we can for each other. But first, I'm starving. We missed lunch. Can we eat now?" he looked at Alura who laughed.

"Okay, okay, let's go," she agreed. "Mon-El, will you be joining us?"

He looked at Kara who smiled back at him softly. "I would like to…very much."

"Fantastic," Alura said as she held out her arms, signalling for the kids to come around the table and join her. They did, each of them being pulled to her respective sides.

"I'll call for a ride," Zor-El said as he pulled his communication device out of his pocket and began to dial.

Mon-El was smiling, but he was a bundle of nerves. Her father had called him son. Surely, it hadn't meant anything to him. He'd said it so easily, just referring to a younger man who legally, by contract, was deemed to be in the same position as a son. But then he was being pulled into Alura's side in a hug as she told him that she was looking forward to learning more about him at dinner, and all he could do was nod and try not to stutter when he responded with a similar pleasantry.

Is this what it felt like to be in a real family? Is this how it would feel like to be a part of Kara's family? He knew how she felt about him, and what her intentions were with the end of this contract, so he didn't want to hope, but it could be really easy to get used to this kind of treatment.

A/N: Sending love out to all of you this weekend! Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Canadians. I'm thankful for a lot of things, but I'm so thankful to this fandom for welcoming me into it and continuing to be here for me even when I'm a bit off on the outskirts of it.

Please leave me some love in the form of a review if you can - they're great inspiration when I'm stuck.

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