"I do not think this is a good idea." Kara was chewing on her bottom lip. They were in the car and heading into town for some ice cream. Jeremiah had thought it would be a great experience and Eliza had seconded that motion. Surprisingly, it was the kids who exchanged the nervous glances and voiced their apprehensions all the way to the car.
"Nonsense, it'll be good to have you out! You've been doing a lot better the last couple of days and the only way to learn is to make mistakes!" Jeremiah said cheerfully while Eliza laughed along, the yes-man to Jeremiah's suggestions. Alex really felt like this was the twilight zone. Her loving parents, firm and strict disciplinarians, were whooping about ice cream and talking about making mistakes.
"I do not think making mistakes is absolutely necessary for learning." Kara looked from one parent to the other, then when she received no response except the excited trills of 'ice cream!', the blonde turned to Alex in exasperation.
"I do not know why they are making such a big deal about this ice cream." Kara muttered lowly. Alex could not help but crack a smile.
"Don't worry, you'll love it."
Kara nodded cautiously. After the cry-out in the basement, the two had gone upstairs so Kara could sunbathe in the backyard to feel better. They had lounged at home, watching random shows on the television while Kara sat close to Alex, not leaning on her, but with her arm pressed against Alex's. She could feel Alex's pulse pumping steadily through skin, cloth, skin, settling her own heart rate and letting her concentrate on ONE source of sensory stimuli. She could watch TV without the weird x-ray vision fading in and all other sounds could be turned down to low as long as she kept Alex's heartbeat in the background of her mind. They had had a good couple of days, with Kara waiting anxiously for Alex at the door for her to come home from school, then following Alex around like a little puppy. Just like that, they made it through the second week of Kara's stay on Earth. The parents had decided that was cause for celebration.
Rumbling along in the car, Kara patted the acoustic earmuffs fitted over her head with a little bit of relief. She could still hear, but the earmuffs definitely helped a bit. With her other hand, she inched her hand out, tentatively, so finally her pinkie was juuuuust touching Alex's pinkie. The brunette glanced down for a second, then very quickly placed her pinkie on top of Kara's, her heartbeat thrumming through Kara's nail. Slow. Steady. Strong.
"Alex, what's so special about this ice cream?" Kara was curious.
"You'll see." Alex's smile was both mischievous and delighted, so different suddenly from the Alex who had first greeted her that Kara wished that she had one of those capture devices that could capture Alex's image on 'paper'. Kara accepted that response and continued looking out the window at this strange, new world.
They soon arrived, stopped and parked curbside. Kara waited nervously for Eliza to open the car door for her, slipping out carefully when she did.
"Kara, can you hear with those headphones on?" Eliza asked, putting a hand on Kara's head. The blonde nodded, taking a deep breath to steady herself as she followed the two adults and walked as close to Alex as possible. The steady thrumming of the brunette's heart was now the go-to focuser for Kara. It was easy to pick out that beat now, the steady lud-dub of her heart.
The ringing of the bell over the door as the Danvers pushed through into the ice cream shop was loud and jarring, and Kara lost the sound of Alex's heartbeat, confused with all the other sounds and the few people in the shop along with all the sights and smells.
"Kara," Jeremiah waved her over excitedly. "Take a look!"
Kara glanced over at Alex who nodded encouragingly. The blonde trudged over to the glass display cases and looked down into tubs full of multi-coloured… stuff.
"What is this?" Kara looked up at Jeremiah and asked.
"Ice cream." Alex answered, squeezing in beside her and another kid, who had had his face pressed up against the glass, and who was now gaping at Kara in shock.
"You've never heard of ice cream?!" The little kid squeaked. "It's the best thing ever!"
"Well, I haven't been on this planet long-" Kara stuttered. "-this side of the planet. This side."
"They don't have ice cream in China?!" The kid continued to be amazed, still gaping in open-mouthed shock at Kara.
"Come on, which flavour would you like?" Eliza interrupted the exchange, trying to calm her speeding pulse at Kara's slip of tongue.
"Rocky road?" Kara wrinkled her nose. "Reese's peanut butter cup? None of these sound good at all."
It all did smell delicious but she was hopelessly lost and finally just looked over at Alex helplessly.
"Let's have a taste test." Alex crossed her arms over her chest, looking very much proud of herself that she knew what to do in this situation and was a connoisseur of ice cream. "Let's start with the basics."
The other people in the shop had gotten their ice cream and left to sit outside, so the two employees behind the counter focused their attention on the small family.
"Let's do vanilla, cookie dough, rainbow sherbert, mango tango, very berry strawberry, and chocolate." Alex announced importantly. Jeremiah raised an eyebrow and chuckled while Eliza hid her smile behind a hand as she repeated the order and held out the little pink spoons with the samples for Kara to try.
Kara's big blue eyes were wide with delight as she tried the flavours, almost vibrating with pleasure at the new tastes that exploded on her tongue.
"Which one do you like best?" Alex had a crumpled twenty dollar bill in her pocket that her dad had slipped to her before he and her mom went outside to enjoy the setting sun.
"I can have another one?" Kara's eyes widened, then she leaned in to whisper. "But we may go over our quota."
"Quota?" Alex was puzzled.
"Our ingestibles quota." Kara looked nervous. When Alex still had the same confused look on her face, Kara finally slapped her palm on the front of her forehead in a perfect mimic of Ron Stoppable doing his facepalm. "I forget I am not on Krypton."
"What?"
Kara smiled, pained. "We absorb our energy from the sun. Ingestibles are a luxury and we have a quota on this as resources were low back home. It was… prohibited, especially when it came to pleasurable items like this. Most families have a cache, though, for special occasions."
"You can have whatever you want here, Kara." Alex said firmly and took the blonde's hand in her own. Kara looked down wonderingly at their joined hands, then met Alex's eyes with an almost heart-breakingly astonished look on her face.
"Can I have the chocolate?" Kara carefully cradled Alex's hand in her own, concentrating as much as possible to control how hard she held Alex's hand.
"One chocolate, please. And one mango." Alex ordered. She had seen how Kara had looked between the mango and the chocolate. If she ordered the mango, Kara could have a bit of hers.
With ice creams in hand, they exited the ice cream shop, bumping right into a group of Alex's schoolmates.
"Alex!" Rebecca was there with a couple of other girls and guys, but most importantly, Brendan, who had been talking to her parents politely. He shot her a winning smile when he saw her.
"Hey, Alex."
"Brendan! Rebecca." Alex felt suddenly self-conscious and very aware of Kara's presence right behind her.
"Rebecca said you've been busy recently." Brendan continued. He was tall and muscular, seeming almost as alien as Kara since he and his family were about the only other Asian family in town. His parents worked with her parents at the same place; the labs in this quiet little town did attract a whole bunch of scientists.
"Yeah, a new foster sister?" Rebecca announced loudly, just toeing the line of politeness with Alex's parents in the background.
"This is Kara." Alex motioned Kara forward, full of teenage anxiety as all the kids from school studied Kara with intense curiosity. It was rare for new kids to come into this town, so Kara was an oddity.
"Hello." Kara was blinking rapidly, her free hand clenched into a fist and crossed over her chest protectively. Belatedly, Alex realized Kara still had her headphones on.
"What are THOSE?" Rebecca's voice held a barely there note of disdain.
"They are my noise-dampening over-ear cups." Kara's answer mortified Alex as she tried not to groan out loud.
"They're what?" Rebecca giggled, glancing back at her followers who also giggled at her lead. Kara was still blinking rapidly, her breath getting ragged. Suddenly, Kara's ice cream cone crumpled in her grip and the young Kryptonian was left with a handful of cone crumbs and chocolate ice cream. Not even realizing she was making a mess, Kara pressed both hands to her headphones, as if trying to make the headphones work harder, to block out all auditory input. Alex could hear the plastics of the earcups creaking, glancing over at her parents, panicked and felt even more alarmed to see her worry mirrored on their faces.
"Yeah, my parents have those, too." Brendan smiled at Kara, and those blue eyes darted to Brendan's face. He was firmly not joining in in the laughter, causing the giggles to die out quickly. His solid form moved so he blocked Kara's view of everyone. "They're good when you need some quiet, like when my mom gets headaches from my music, she'll wear them."
Alex felt nothing but grateful for Brendan as Kara smiled at him tentatively, probably not quite knowing what was going on but recognizing his friendliness. Alex took that opportunity to put a hand on Kara's shoulders, telling the blonde in barely audible tones to just breathe. Kara's head bobbed frantically in acknowledgement, making her seem even weirder, nodding at nothing. Alex winced, hearing a bit of laughter, but heard it die down when Brendan frowned and glared over his shoulder.
"Kara." Jeremiah's call got the girls' attention. "Alex, come on, let's go."
"It was nice meeting all of you." Kara squeaked politely before making a bee-line to the elder Danvers. Which left Alex standing in front of her peers, feeling awkward.
"See you in school, Alex." The look on Rebecca's face was pitying as Alex fumbled her goodbyes and her classmates filed into the ice cream store, leaving her alone outside, humiliated at the turn of events.
"Hey." Brendan's low voice made Alex jump a bit and she turned around to face him.
"I, um," Brendan rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "I understand, ya know? My cousin's special needs, too. Just take it easy and when you need help at school, just ask. I can help."
"Um, yeah, sure." Alex was blushing to the tips of her ears. "T-thanks."
"Alex!" Eliza called out, gesturing for her to join them. Eliza was busy trying to get Kara to open up her hands from the fists she had curled them into, to try to wipe at the chocolate staining the girl's hand.
"Coming!" Alex waved a quick goodbye and ran back to her family, resenting the fact that she had been interrupted, but that feeling disappearing when she noticed Kara hyperventilating.
"No, no, Kara." Alex felt her discomfort fall away now that she wasn't surrounded by her classmates. "Come on. Breathe. Like this."
Alex had taken Eliza's place in front of Kara, hands on either of Kara's biceps, awkwardly trying to hold her ice cream, too, until Jeremiah took it from Alex's hands.
Alex ducked her head to catch Kara's panicked eyes, forcing the blonde to look at her. Kara smiled tremulously, focusing on Alex, her x-ray vision finally clearing, her breath evening out, copying Alex's deep breaths. Alex's heart pounded through her, wiping out the white-noise of everything until it was just the steady bass of her heart.
"Let's go home." Alex gestured back to her dad for her ice cream, then presented it to Kara. Alex's heart felt so full at the look Kara gave her as she received the treat.
Carefully navigating Kara back to their vehicle, the small family quickly piled back in, Alex too worried about Kara to see her parents exchanging proud and hopeful glances. It wasn't until they had pulled out onto the road and were on their way home that Jeremiah broke the silence.
"Well, that went well!" Alex looked at her dad incredulously at his statement then frowned at her mother who was agreeing with him again. They really needed to get a reality check, Kara was not fine even if she was quietly eating ice cream right now. Kara's free hand was on the middle seat, her pinkie hooked onto Alex's.
"She just needs your support." Eliza's voice was firm, and Alex got the feeling that her mother was about to say something she wouldn't like, and wasn't disappointed.
"We think she's ready to go to school with you, starting next week."
"WHAT."
"We would've liked to keep Kara at home for a while more, but with the adoption and even with Superman's friends helping us, we still have to show that we can give Kara a stable home life, which includes going to school." Jeremiah looked at Alex in the reflection of the rearview mirror. "And you've shown that you're just fantastic at helping Kara deal with everything, honey."
Putting it that way was sneaky of her parents and she cut off her protest when her mother glanced backwards at her with that tight, expectant smile.
"Yeah, sure."
The slight pressure of Kara's pinkie on hers made the brunette turn to face Kara. The younger girl gave her a hesitant smile, which Alex returned with a slightly brittle one of her own. She wanted to be angry at Kara, but when the blonde offered the mango tango ice cream to Alex timidly, her anger drained out of her.
"Alex, let's share." Kara held out the ice cream to Alex until the older girl finally took a bite and had to smile at Kara's bright grin.
"Okay."