All the other girls here are stars,
you are the Northern Lights

They try to shine in through your curtains
you're too close and too bright

They try and they try but everything that they do
Is the ghost of a trace of a pale imitation of you...

Josh Ritter

"Well, there have been a lot of very not good things that have happened, but I for one can find a few reasons to be happy about it." Mon-El noted, and Kara blushed.

"Ha, I've just realised who you remind me of!" Felicity said, "Barry – you're similar to Barry."

"Really? I was just thinking that he seems like the broody Oliver Queen type – he came from a wealthy, privileged family, and because of hardship, left that life only to become a superhero, burdened with glorious purpose." Cisco said.

"Oh my god, please don't ruin my boyfriend." Kara shook her head in pleading at them.

"How would they ruin me?"

"Well, they'll make me think you're just like them, but you are your own person. I love you for you, not for the traits you share with my friends."

"Well, that's one way of–" Mon-El froze. He turned to stare at Kara in absolute silence and everyone else felt the shift in atmosphere and quietened too.

"I mean, the traits you share with them are fine but… What? Is there something on my face?"

"What did you just say?"

"About Barry?"

He didn't say anything, he just shook his head at her. Everyone waited taciturnly in anticipation for the penny to drop. She glanced around at her friends and looked confused, "What?"

Barry gave her a meaningful look and suddenly she clapped her hands over her mouth. Her eyes locked back onto Mon-El. He was looking at her in wonder.

"I can't believe this. In a room full of witnesses, dammit, I owe Maggie dinner." Alex said.

"You bet against me?" Kara looked affronted.

"Of course I did, Kara, you don't talk about your feelings."

"What, yes I do!"

"I have to be honest, I bet against you as well." Barry said, and gave J'onn 20 dollars, "You'll talk about everyone else but I've watched you avoid talking about your feelings too many times to take the risky side of that bet."

"Which is why I am now up $20." J'onn said.

"Yeah, but that's cheating, you're psychic." Alex scolded.

"Oh my god I hate all of you." Kara crossed her arms, "I do not avoid my feelings."

"Kara, you're avoiding it now. Like, as we speak." Winn pointed out.

Mon-El was doing his stray space puppy face and she felt simultaneously aglow with happiness and struck with misery, "No, I didn't mean it like that." She tried to backpedal and his face fell, "No, wait, hang on! Just let me… I…Oh I'm so sorry Mon-El, I wasn't going to… we were arguing and then you said you love me and I didn't know what to do and then Barry appeared."

"Wow, Barry, you still have the worst timing," Oliver said and Barry made a face at him.

"So I was going to wait until we got back to our Earth to finish talking about it, but it just sort of…"

"Do you love me?" He asked quietly.

"Of course she does, Mon-El! Why else do you think she was so furious that you nearly died for her?" Alex rolled her eyes in their direction and Kara frowned.

"Alex, I'll kill you." She said good-naturedly and Alex closed her mouth and nodded.

"Well, I always expect you to be a little annoyed with me." Mon-El shrugged and tried to act like it wasn't killing him that he thought she didn't mean it, "I tend to assume it's because I've done something wrong – and usually I'm right and I was acting like an ass somehow."

"This is very touching, but we do have battles to get to?" Oliver raised his eyebrows and Felicity smacked him.

"Wait, did you join this betting pool as well?" Kara asked Mon-El.

"Course I didn't, no. Absolutely not." He blustered, but she clearly didn't buy it.

"Did you bet on me?"

"I always bet on you," He said softly, "except for this one instance, when I put money on you never saying it, and possibly breaking up with me. Again."

"Mon-el!"

"Hey, I…" He sighed and threw his hands up in the air in defeat, "I'll finish your reprimand for you, shall I? You're still the same selfish, obtuse, spoilt Daxamite you've always been."

"Wow, that was a scarily accurate Kara impression," Alex looked disturbed.

"No, it wasn't!" Kara snapped, but no-one believed her, "It wasn't! God, Mon-El, did you really bet against us?"

"No, just you." Winn piped up.

"Shut up, Winn!" Mon-El, Kara, Alex and Barry said in unison. Mon-el scratched his cheek and took a hesitant step towards her.

"I just… Every time I think that we can be happy, that things are finally looking up, something comes out of nowhere and blindsides me. I was a prince, then your planet exploded and destroyed mine. I escape and get to Earth, only to find I'm completely alone and you're from Krypton so of course you hate me. I finally earn your friendship and Cadmus kidnaps me and shoots me. I start to develop feelings for you, then I get poisoned and nearly die. I try to save you from electrocution and you tell me you don't want to work with me anymore. I tell you how I feel, and you come to my place of work a week later just to tell me that you don't want to be with me. You admit that you were lying, and that you actually do have feelings for me, and Mxyzptlk shows up. We get together, then all that stuff with Jeremiah happens. Then you lose your job. Then my parents arrive and I tell you I love you and then you break up with me, which is fair, I lied, I get it. Then you get whammied by jazz hands and I basically just have to watch, thinking that you're going to die before I ever have a chance to prove myself. Then we get back together and my mother puts a bounty on your head and attacks you and I get forced back onto the ship to go back to Daxam. Then once you've gone to all the trouble to rescue me, two weeks later I get kidnapped and when you come after me, my mother forces me to TORTURE YOU, AND THEN YOU NEARLY DIE IN MY ARMS." Mon-El's voice got steadily louder and by the time he reached the end of his speech he was yelling, "AND DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON THE MULTITUDE OF REASONS WHY ME DYING WOULD HAVE MADE YOU BETTER OFF, KARA! SO YEAH, I BET AGAINST US. BECAUSE I THINKIF I HAD BET YOUR WAY, SOMETHING WOULD HAVE GONE MORE WRONG THAN IT ALREADY HAS."

He took a deep breath and everyone shuffled awkwardly. They were all thinking about how much his speech applied to their own lives – Oliver and Felicity, Barry and Iris, Alex and Maggie, Diggle and Lyla, Julian and Caitlin.

"Mon-El…" Kara said sympathetically, but he jutted out his chin and shook his head.

"No, you know what, Winn's right, I'm just… I'm gonna go back to the DEO. I'm barely healed, and you've got this handled, so…"

"What do you mean barely healed?" Kara asked, a dangerous edge to her voice.

"No, it's… it's nothing, forget it –"

"Don't you dare shrug me off, what do you mean? Are you still not okay?"

Mon-El didn't say anything, so she yanked his shirt up to find a huge purple, green and black bruise stretching across his chest.

"That's not possible, you should be better." The sharp tone had become vulnerable.

"Yeah, well, it turns out that tiny pieces of lead are really hard to find."

"I thought we got them all!" Alex exclaimed.

"Clearly not."

"Why didn't you say anything?" Kara asked.

"Kara, let me give you a quick run-down of the last 48 hours – I was kidnapped, you came after me, I was shot up with the only substance that can kill me, but I didn't realise until later, then I was forced to torture you or my mother was going to kill you. I found out that my mother murdered my father. You nearly died in my arms from something that I did to you. Once we returned to Earth, I realised that I was also dying, but you were a priority. Then I nearly died, and when I woke up, you were really angry with me for nearly dying. Then I told you I loved you, again, and then Barry appeared with news of a crisis. Then you told me you loved me, but you didn't mean it that way? At what possible point was I going to mention that maybe I'm not fully healed?"

"You're such an ass." Kara said angrily, her eyes sparkling with unshed tears and he balled his hands into fists.

"Can you just… is there any way you can turn those off?" He gestured at her eyes.

"Seriously guys, there is a crisis, we have to get a move on." Oliver said, but this time Diggle smacked him. Mon-El seemed to suddenly realise just how much of a scene they were making. He supersped, grabbing her arm, and they ended up on the other end of the warehouse.

"Don't manhandle me!"

"Manhandle? Kara I couldn't manhandle you if I tried."

"So you were just going to go into battle like that? When you're vulnerable?"

"Of course I was," He said like it was obvious, "you taught me that: it doesn't matter what the personal cost is, you have to protect the people at all times. I seem to recall you getting quite intense about that."

"Fighting while severely injured is not what I meant and you damn well know it." Kara hissed.

"No I don't Kara. I've seen you do it, why do you expect me not to? Is it because I'm a Daxamite or because you're worried about me screwing up? God, I love you, but sometimes you are so confusing."

"It's because I don't want you to die, that's why I expect you not to! If you hadn't told me, and then you'd died today, what was I supposed to do? What… what could I do knowing that you'd known and you'd fought anyway? Can you imagine how that would feel, how responsible I would be?"

"YES. Because that's how I felt YESTERDAY." Mon-El retorted, "And you got angry at me for it, remember?"

"Good point," Kara faltered and they both stood there, staring at each other in uncomfortable, charged silence. She wanted to tell him that she had meant it, she did love him, but she was too busy being annoyed at him. He wanted to tell her that he loved her even if she didn't love him back, but it hurt too much to admit that she might not feel the same way.

Across the warehouse, no-one was preparing for battle, all of them had turned as one and were watching the interaction.

"What are they saying, can anyone read lips?" Cisco asked.

"I can do you one better," J'onn suggested and tilted his head in concentration, "Kara is telling him off for not telling her, and Mon-El is saying that if she can fight while compromised, why can't he, does she not trust him? Kara is implying it's because she loves him… and now they're just staring at each other in angry silence."

"Oh my god, this would be so much easier for the two of them if they would just talk about their feelings." James said, and Alex, Winn and J'onn did simultaneous double-takes in his direction, "Okay fine. That's what I mean, I missed my chance with Kara, but he hasn't."

"Kara's the one that won't open up. Mon-El's been very open about his feelings from the beginning." J'onn argued.

"They've been frozen for a long time. The only way this is gonna end is in a fist-fight or making out." Cisco said.

They couldn't have heard him, but as if to prove his point, Mon-El broke their livid silence by grabbing Kara by the waist and pulling her to him, kissing her.

Kara nearly protested, she was trying so hard to stay angry at him, but the second his fingers brushed her hip to pull her in, her wrath dissipated. When their lips met it was passionate and broken and anxious. It was frantic, each of them tugging the other yet closer, and neither of them ever wanted it to end. Kara had fistfuls of his shirt and she yanked him forward. Mon-El wrapped one arm around her waist and stroked her neck with the other hand. Two days of panic, heartache, pain, love and anger had culminated in this fervent, unfaltering expression of love, and both of them felt an immediate sense of relief, a release of pressure, from the pent-up feelings and unsaid words. Unusually, it was Mon-El who broke the kiss first.

"Okay, we need to get to work," He said, nodding, but before he'd taken half a step away from her she wrenched him back and pressed her forehead to his.

"Do not put yourself directly in harm's way while you are this exposed." Kara whispered.

"I can't promise that." He said ruefully.

"Why not?"

"Because you made me better than that."

"Oh yeah. Remind me to yell at myself later." Kara joked.

"We really do have to go help these guys now." Mon-El muttered. He was still upset, that much was clear; he still thought that she'd only said it by accident, that she hadn't meant it.

"Yeah, I know," Kara mumbled back, "But I just… I..." She couldn't say it. Now that he was staring at her with that look on his face, and their friends were noticeably watching them from across the warehouse, and they were about to walk into battle, she couldn't let the words out of her mouth.

Mon-El sighed, partly out of frustration, but mostly in resignation. He shrugged and let go of her, "I promise I'll try not to die."

Kara rolled her eyes and followed him back towards their friends, who suddenly pretended to be busy, "That's reassuring."