Kara was a flower, Alex had surmised. Physiologically, in respect to her powers, and also in the way this bright, cheery girl seemed to be withering up and wilting away.
"Come on, Kara. Maybe some sunlight?" Eliza half-suggested, but mostly pleaded. The blonde had decided to hide herself in the basement where it was quieter and darker and spent most of her time lying on the old couch in the basement.
"I am okay, Eliza Danvers." Kara tried to smile but it was really hard. She had been learning a more colloquial way of speaking, but sometimes still sounded like a robot to Alex. The brunette fidgeted impatiently; she had promised her friends that she would go out but her mother wouldn't let her and had scolded Alex for not trying to help. So now here she was, shuffling at the top of the stairs, feeling guilt, guilt, guilt.
"Come on, honey." Eliza's voice floated up the stairs. "How about some food?"
"I am fine." Kara said firmly, but politely. "I just want to… sleep."
They all knew Kara didn't sleep, Alex most of all. Sometimes she went over to Kara's room to check on Kara when she heard her crying. Sometimes, Alex did not, mentally and emotionally exhausted from the thought of caring about another being besides herself and her parents.
The sound of her mother's footsteps coming up from the basement drew Alex away from her thoughts. Before she could voice what she wanted, her mother held up a finger in warning.
"Alexandra Danvers. Could you please go downstairs and try to cheer up your sister." It sounded like a request, but the use of her full name told Alex that she was going to be in a world of trouble if she didn't go.
"Alright." Alex cut off her long-suffering sigh at the pointed look her mother gave her. She of course, also held back the urge to shout back that Kara wasn't her sister but knew she would definitely get into heaps of trouble for that. "Can I at least go outside and tell Rebecca I can't hang out?"
Eliza nodded, allowing the teenager to escape her mother's presence for a second to go to her friend patiently waiting at the door.
"What took you so long?!" Rebecca screeched as soon as Alex opened the door.
Or not so patiently.
"I can't go right now." Alex hissed, waving her hand frantically to get her friend to quiet down.
"Why not?" Rebecca's whisper was still too loud in Alex's opinion.
"I have to hang out with my foster sister."
"Oh, ew." Rebecca's lips twisted up into a haughty sneer. "Isn't it weird having a stranger in your home?"
Alex shrugged uncomfortably, feeling an odd sense of indignation at the way the other girl talked about Kara. Rebecca hadn't even met her yet!
"Just ditch, come on!" Rebecca motioned with her head. "Once you're out the door, it's fine! Your mom will just yell at you for a bit and then everything will be fine!"
"I can't do that-"
"Brendan's going to be meeting us at the mall." Rebecca continued on as if Alex hadn't been talking at all. "Come on!"
Alex chewed on her lower lip anxiously. Sure, Alex was a soccer star, but that didn't mean much right now except that you got really dirty and people told you that boys' soccer was way more interesting to watch. Being a 'ginormous nerd' as Rebecca put it, was a boon to Alex's social life: all the really cool kids needed her for their homework. Enter the Queen Bee, Rebecca Francelli. Recently they had been hanging out and Alex hoped that some of the coolness would rub off on her.
"Seriously, I can't." Alex said weakly. "Maybe next time-"
"Alright, loser." Rebecca rolled her eyes. "I'll tell Brendan you can't come."
Alex barely managed to control herself and not slam the door behind Rebecca, angry at the missed chance to hang out with new friends, but she took a deep breath and started trudging through the house and down the stairs. Alex huffed at the darkness, inching her way carefully through the junk the Danvers family had piled up in the basement, to the couch where Kara was sitting listlessly.
"Alex." Kara's eyes tracked Alex as the girl plopped herself down on the couch opposite of Kara.
"Kara." Alex stretched out her legs on the couch and the blonde shrunk away from her to sit at the far end of the couch, putting as much space between the two as physically possible. It had been a tough week for Kara, really. She had accidentally broken the front door, a wall, the remote, a window, a computer keyboard, and bruised the hell out of Jeremiah Danvers' ribs. "It's Saturday. You love Saturday morning cartoons, and in ten minutes or so, Kim Possible will be on!"
Kara looked conflicted, but shook her head. "It's okay. I want to stay here. Maybe with less sunlight, I will stop breaking things."
"You just need to get used to it, and hiding from the world isn't going to help you." Alex pointed out. "Come on."
"You don't need to stay with me." Kara's eyes were a watery blue. "I am keeping you from your friends.."
Alex winced. She had hoped that Kara hadn't heard any of the conversation she had with her mother, and especially not the conversation she had with Rebecca.
"It's ok, Kara. I can stay here with you."
"You don't have to 'hang out' with me, I will be 'okay'." Kara was using hand air-quotes, something she learned from that Kim Possible cartoon she was always watching. Alex was sure the blonde was using these air quotes incorrectly and broke out into a large grin at Kara's attempt to be more 'Earth-normal'.
"I'll be 'okay' here with you, too, 'Kara'." Alex did air-quotes too, still grinning at the younger girl. Kara couldn't help her lips from stretching upwards at the sight of Alex's toothy smile.
"Stop!" Kara held her hands to her cheeks, trying to prevent herself from smiling, only succeeding in making Alex start laughing at how ridiculous Kara looked with her cheeks squished together. Within a few seconds, Kara was laughing along with Alex, but with her hands still firmly pressed to her cheeks.
"Stop… stop, Alex." Kara laughed and laughed along with Alex, until she was suddenly sobbing and Alex stopped laughing abruptly to regard Kara in alarm.
"I… have to stop…" Kara hid her face in her hands and shrunk away when Alex tried to move closer, frantic.
"Kara, Kara what's wrong?" Alex placed her hand on Kara's shoulders, determined to try to get younger girl to talk to her.
"I… you make me smile." Kara sobbed into her hands, still turned away from Alex. "And… laugh."
"That's a bad thing?" Alex was bewildered.
Kara sounded completely broken as she sobbed out her next words. "How can I… still laugh. When… Krypton is gone?"
Alex had always kept contact with Kara to a minimum, just because she was never much of a hugger, but she knew instinctively that Kara needed Alex there, so she wrapped her arms around that tiny frame that hid such incredible power.
"I'm so sorry, Kara." Alex apologized, didn't know what she was apologizing for. "I'm sorry."
"It's not… your… fault." Kara's entire body was shaking. Alex rubbed the young girl's back in a, what she hoped, was a soothing manner. "I just… don't know how to… make it stop."
"Make what stop?" Alex just held Kara as tight as possible, not knowing what else to do.
"Hurting. It…" Kara laughed a bit deliriously. "I feel better than… I've ever felt. But that… makes me feel worse."
Alex leaned her head against Kara's back, could hear that strong heart thumping steadily inside the Kryptonian's body, could hear her sobs draw in air in gulping spurts, and could feel Kara's body shudder, and hear her breath catch on her tears. Alex didn't know what to do, didn't know how to make it better. For someone like Kara, who had powers equal to Superman, to hurt like this… she didn't know how she could help.
"I don't know how to make it better." Alex admitted aloud. "I don't know if there's anything that could make it better. But how could I help?"
Kara didn't reply, instead she turned around and burrowed her face into Alex's chest, still sobbing her heart out. All Alex could do was hold on tightly and hope that this helped, at least a little bit.
'It must be so hard for her.' Alex stroked Kara's back in soothing circles, trying to remember and mimic what her mother would do for her when she felt sick. It must be so hard to lose everyone and everything and then be brought to a different world where the only person from your own world was more like these… aliens than yourself.
"I miss my mom. And I miss my dad." Kara wailed, sobs wracking her body. "I want to go home."
Alex leaned her cheek against the top of Kara's head, the wheels in her brain spinning as she tried to think of ways to make it better, to make Kara stop crying at least. Her resentment and anger against Kara for making her stay home faded away, guilt settling into the tiny cracks Kara was making in her walls.
Kara was a golden child and Alex's parents were smitten by her, but Kara wasn't here to purposely rain on Alex's parade.
"I'm sorry, Kara." Alex repeated. She was sorry for being annoyed with Kara, sorry for some of her less charitable thoughts, and sorry for the way she had felt when Kara first showed up. Right there and then, Alex resolved to try harder to make Kara feel welcome.
They sat like this for a while, until Kara's weeping had dried up to sniffles. In the dark in the basement, Alex had no concept of time but her butt was starting to get pins and needles from not moving for a while. The older girl shifted a little bit to get more comfortable, causing Kara to look up at Alex in alarm.
"Don't go. Please." The desperation in Kara's voice was heart-breaking.
"I'm right here." Alex shifted around until Kara was pressed up against her side and Alex could wrap an arm around the Kryptonian's shoulders. "I've got you, I've got you."