A/N: Thank you! Thank you! Thank YOU! Your responses (as always) absolutely made my day. To the guests that I can't respond to directly, I appreciate you SO much and just know your prompts will be added to the next poll. Speaking of poll... I'm interjecting between usual updates to drop a holiday chapter, because it was requested by NicosMama (thanks!) and I forgot to put it on the last poll and we're running out of days in December so it was kind of now or never; ergo, we have a holiday chapter! I hope you enjoy it!

Also, happy holidays!

"Why do parents lie to their kids?"

From the couch, Eliza turned around to face Kara; while Alex, just walking through the doorway from soccer practice, bag still slung over her shoulder, froze and looked at her sister with furrowed brows. "What?"

Kara dropped her pencil back onto her biology textbook and stood up. "Well," she began, pacing around the living room. "There's this guy, right—on earth? Named Santa Claus?"

Alex bit back her smile, amusement blossoming across her flushed features. Eliza did the same.

"…and somehow everyone knows him, but also… he's not real? At least that's the factual information I've acquired, but everywhere I go, parents with young children say that he's real and everyone has these pictures of him, like he's real, but he's not. I mean, I don't think he is." She paced in front of the couch and paused in front of Eliza, rubbing her eyes with loose fists. "This is so confusing. " She glanced at both Eliza and Alex. "Just tell me the truth, is this Santa guy real?"

"No," Alex said at the same time Eliza replied "yes."

Kara groaned and dramatically threw herself onto the couch. Alex closed the front door with her heel and locked it, before making her way to the couch where Eliza had put a hand on Kara's back, smiling sympathetically.

Alex sat on the coffee table across from the pair and nudged her sister until the blonde sat up.

"It's time you learn about Christmas, Kara."

Forty five minutes later Kara found herself with a cup of hot chocolate between her palms and more questions than she'd started with.

"Okay so, I get the part about putting up trees—sort of, but why lights on rooftops?"

Alex took a sip of her hot chocolate and sighed, she never knew explaining Christmas could turn into such a grueling process. "Honestly, Kara, I don't really know. Mom always said it was so Santa could find his way around Earth to drop off presents, but since we've established he isn't real, it's probably just a hoax."

Kara rolled her eyes and threw a pillow at Alex.

"Hey! Watch it, I have a mug over here."

"That's not what I meant," Kara said and sunk into the couch.

"Well, what did you mean?"

"I don't know," Kara huffed and pursed her lips. She sat up a moment later. "Okay I have another question."

"Why do people kiss under mistletoe? And what happens if you eat it?"

"Is everything about food with you?"

"Sort of."

"It's toxic. Sometimes."

"Alex would know," Eliza said, appearing behind the brunette. "She ate it once when she was two."

"You did?" Kara asked, eyes wide in a mixture of amusement and shock.

"Yeah," Alex said flatly.

"Were you okay?"

"Well, I'm here now, aren't I?"

"I guess, but I don't know if you're okay," Kara teased and tugged the Christmas blanket Alex had pulled out tighter around her legs. It was soft and made Kara sleepy.

Alex rolled her eyes. "I was sick. On Christmas, which sucked. You should have some compassion. Being sick on Christmas is, like, one of the worst things ever."

This time Eliza rolled her eyes. "Alexandra, stop being dramatic."

"It's a fact not an opinion," the brunette said, raising her palms in a gesture of innocence-something Kara found funny, pulling a laugh from the young Kryptonian.

"What foods do you eat on Christmas?"

"Oh my god, so many," Alex said, lighting up, "There are gingerbread houses and candy canes and on Christmas Eve you have to leave cookies out for Santa and—

"I thought he wasn't real," Kara interjected, looking up from the bio book she'd pulled onto the couch while Alex informed her of Earth customs and the blonde took notes in the margin of an old test that'd been returned to her.

"He's not-Just go with it."

"You people are weird."

"Says the alien."

"Exactly."

Alex crinkled her face in confusion, what did that even mean? "Anyway, you have a big dinner with tons of people on Christmas Eve and then Christmas morning we stay home and Dad makes these really awesome pancakes that are shaped like snowmen with little scarves and everything."

Everything sounded really quite wonderful to Kara, she smiled down at her book before asked, "Why snowmen?"

"Because it's winter." Alex said as if it were obvious.

"But it doesn't snow everywhere on Christmas. That's why there's that one song that I kept hearing."

Alex nodded. "Right, but snowmen pancakes are a Danvers tradition, not an everyone tradition."

"Oh."

"There are some things, like Christmas trees and lights and presents, that pretty much everyone who celebrates Christmas does. And then, there are things that just our family does, but we do them every year so they've become our traditions."

"Interesting," Kara said, making note of it on her paper.

"All right, enough Earth lessons for now," Eliza said appearing from her office. "Jerimiah had to work late, but he'll be home soon and then we're going out to dinner. Go hop in the shower, Alex."

"Okay," Alex sighed, standing up. "We can talk later, Kara," the brunette glanced at her sister's homework. "And I can help you with that if you need it, too."

Kara beamed. "Thanks."

"Mhmm." Alex said as she deposited her mug in the sink before bounding up the stairs.

"Wait, Alex?" Kara called out.

"Yeah?" she yelled back from the top of the steps.

"How far away is Christmas?"

"A little less than two months."

"Okay, thanks for, you know, explaining all of that to me."

"Anytime," Alex said with a smile.

Kara decided that she liked Christmas.

/

On Kara's first Christmas Eve snow fell and coated the yard. It was the first snowfall of the year and Alex took advantage of the weather phenomenon to teach Kara how to make snow angels and snowmen and snowballs. When Alex's hands were sufficiently numb to the point that she couldn't curl her fingers, the sisters retreated inside where they helped prepare Christmas Eve dinner with Eliza and Jerimiah. Later that night, after all the guests had shuffled out Alex and Kara had changed into their new Christmas pajamas—Alex's decorated with snowflakes and Kara's with polar bears—before curling up on the couch with their parents to watch Alex's favorite Christmas movie: Home Alone.

While Kara had struggled to wipe a smile from her face the entire day, she felt a surge of guilt as she snuggled against Eliza and thought about Krypton, her dead world and her dead parents. She squeezed her eyes shut, for just one moment she didn't want to think about it. She wanted be happy without all the painful weight of the past, but the thought only made her feel guiltier and tears brimmed her eyes in response. Kara tucked her head closer against Eliza and took a deep breath.

"Are you okay, honey?" Eliza whispered and looked down. Kara nodded, she didn't trust her voice to hide her tears. Eliza must have known something because she dropped her arm down around Kara's shoulder and held her tightly. Some minutes later the youngest Danvers felt her eyelids drooping, until she fell limp with sleep against her foster mother. When Kara woke an hour later as the movie finished, she exchanged goodnights before trudging up the stairs, somehow feeling worse.

She couldn't sleep. Her heart was thundering and every time she closed her eyes she saw Krypton, she saw her parents. It wasn't fair to replace them. It wasn't fair to be happy, was it?

She didn't mean to cry and she didn't mean for her silent tears to turn into loud sobs that she tried to hide underneath her blanket. She didn't mean to wake Alex and she definitely didn't mean to fall off her bed in her haste to hide her cries when Alex entered the room.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Alex asked, immediately kneeling at Kara's side. "Did you have a nightmare?"

" 's nothing," Kara said through a hiccup and kept her head tilted toward the wooden floor.

"It doesn't seem like nothing," Alex said, she reached out and tentatively squeezed Kara's hand. "Come on, you can talk to me."

"You're busy, I don't want to bother you."

Alex almost laughed at that, but she bit her tongue instead. "I'm literally doing nothing, Kara, it's like one in the morning, and you're obviously crying for reason."

"I'm not crying," Kara sniffled.

"Whatever you say," Alex said and stood, extending a hand to her sister. "Come on, get up."

Alex pulled her sister to her feet and sat on Kara's bed, patting the space beside her until the blonde climbed up. Kara crawled over to the corner and tucked a blanket around herself, blinking at Alex. "It's okay, really," Kara said. She seemed to have better control of herself now that Alex was in the room, only taking little gasps of breaths rather than full on sobs that shook her small frame.

Alex rolled her eyes. "You're being ridiculous." She flopped dramatically across the mattress, knowing this was about to turn into a long talk. Kara noted, not for the first time, Alex's weird tendency to be simultaneously intimidating and welcoming. It was confusing. Was she annoyed or concerned? Both?

There was still a lot to be learned about Alex Danvers, Kara decided.

"Listen, you look sad," Alex began with a sigh, "and nobody should be sad or alone on Christmas; or sad and alone on Christmas, that's even worse—while I guess ideally people wouldn't be sad ever, but especially not on Christmas."

Kara squinted and tilted her head, trying to follow.

Alex pursed her lips before continuing. "Okay, it's like this: remember a few months ago when you first learned about Christmas and I said being sick on Christmas is one of the worst things ever?"

Kara nodded eagerly.

"Well, being sad is kind of the same thing."

"Oh."

"But it's okay, because we're going to fix it. I'm not leaving until you smile."

Kara made an attempt to grin at Alex through the darkness.

"That was weak. It has to be real or it doesn't count."

"Alex, I'm not really in the mood," Kara said. Her voice sounded pitiful in the night as she stretched out beneath the covers and turned toward the wall, away from Alex.

"No, I know. I'm serious." Alex laid down so her eyes would have been level with Kara's if she turned around. "What's wrong?"

An eternity of silence followed before Kara's voice cracked through the darkness. The tears had returned and the blonde swallowed. "Alex? Is it bad for me to be happy?" she sniffled and her whisper was so strained, so tear-ridden Alex had to stop herself from burying Kara in a hug. She couldn't stand to see people cry.

"No, of course not. Absolutely not." Alex shook her head fiercely. "Why would you think that?"

Kara turned around, looked at her sister with puffy, red eyes. "My parents are dead, Alex. My whole planet is gone and it feels so wrong to smile and laugh and feel good. I feel like I'm betraying them," she finished as her voice cracked.

"No, not at all, Kara," Alex whispered back.

"But—

"No, no, no, hang on. Tell me, honestly—your mom and your dad, would they rather see you crying or smiling?"

"Smiling," Kara answered with a shaky, watery voice.

Alex nodded. "Exactly."

Kara hiccupped and curled her hands beneath her pillow. "It's not that simple."

"Why not?"

A shrug carried her quivering shoulders.

"I can't imagine what you've been going through, but you can't feel bad for being happy. That's not fair to your planet, to your parents, and especially to you."

Kara's lips turned downward into a deeper frown, tears fell like little rivers on her face

"Look, if Earth were to explode right now and only one person survived, I'd hope like hell that he or she would be able to be happy again. No way our lone survivor is gonna be sad all the time, that would suck… or think about it this way, okay? Clark. You wouldn't get on Clark for being happy, would you?"

Kara shook her head.

"So you should give yourself the same courtesy. You're probably going to be sad a lot for a while and you have every right to be, but that means when you're happy it's especially important and you should try to hold onto it for as long as you can." Alex looked at Kara in the darkness, saw moonlight glinting off the tears streaking her sister's cheeks. "It's okay, Kara. Everything you're feeling is okay. You can be happy, we all want you to be happy. It's okay."

Kara nodded and Alex went to hold her sister's hand, but instead the blonde pulled Alex into a hug. They were so close that Alex could feel Kara's shoulders shudder with each hiccup and feel the warm breath of each sob.

Alex didn't know what to do, frozen still with her little sister in her arms. She wished so badly there was something to make everything better for Kara, but she didn't know what, so she hugged the blonde back and didn't complain when Kara's grip was tight enough to leave purple bruises the next day.

"It's okay," she kept repeating until Kara's sobs slowed and she uncurled herself just a little bit.

"Thank you," she said, rubbing a hand across her cheeks.

"It's what sisters are for, you're not alone here, okay?" Alex said and saw a smile flicker across Kara's lips. "There's a smile," the brunette announced, a grin spreading across her own face. "Finally. But don't worry, I can stay until you fall asleep."

Kara felt another smile tug across her lips as she closed her eyes and burrowed beneath the covers, still curled toward Alex. "You can—you can stay the night if you want? Like a sleepover—I've heard a lot about those."

"Sure," Alex said, turning onto her other side.

"Oh, and Alex?"

"Mhmm?" she murmured sleepily.

"I'm thankful you're my sister."

"Wrong holiday, Kara, but ditto." Alex smiled at the sound of Kara giggling softly.

"Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas to you, too, Kara."

"I'll see you in the morning?"

"I'll be right here."

Kara turned onto her side, sister sleepovers had become her new favorite Danvers tradition.