havent seen you post in a couple months so hope you're doing ok !!!
Hey! Sorry for the late reply, the absence from Tumblr and the lack of updates! Life has been rough and busy the past few months (sadly even more now, in fact) but I promise I'm slowly but surely making progress on the next chapter so please be patient with me a little longer! m(_ _)m
Birds and the Bees : Kara and Mon-El’s child asks some tough questions the two don’t really know how to answer.
So... just to be clear, I set this in PiaD's (distant) future but mixed in some show canon details to avoid spoiling stuff. Also, whoever sent this, I hope you enjoy it (if you even remember sending it, that is).
“Mommy, are you a robot?”
The unexpected and bizarre question breaks Kara's concentration on the important but mind-numbing Legion paperwork in front of her and she jerks her head towards its source in surprise. “I'm sorry?”
Dawn's adorably confused frown deepens as she holds up her educational datapad as high as her little arms will allow. However, the way she's holding the device makes it hard for Kara to see what's being displayed on the screen. “It says Kryptonians come from machines called Birthing... May Trees...?”
Oh. “Birthing Matrices,” Kara corrects her daughter with a touch of laughter, having finally figured out what this is all about. When she and Mon-El had agreed to give Dawn basic access to the Fortress of Solitude's database so she can learn at her own incredibly fast pace, Kara is sure neither of them had expected it would lead to this. “I promise I'm not a robot, sweetheart, and before you ask, neither are you, okay? In fact, no one born from a Birthing Matrix is a robot; it's just a machine people on Krypton used to... um, help make their children for them.”
Despite having received clarification on the matter, Dawn continues frowning even as she lowers the datapad. “But why would they do that?”
As smart as Dawn is for her age, Kara has a feeling that genetic engineering – not to mention the more... unpleasant aspects of Krypton's preference for it – might be too advanced a subject for her daughter at this point in time. Best to keep her answer as simple as possible. “Well, they wanted to make sure all their children would be strong and healthy and... well, perfect.”
To Kara's surprise and concern, Dawn not only continues to appear confused but now also strangely looks a little... lost. “...But I didn't come from a Birthing Matrix.”
“No, you didn't,” Kara confirms slowly even as she wonders where this conversation is heading. “I gave birth to you myself.”
When Dawn's expression turns into one of hurt and heartbreak, Kara already knows there's been a grave misunderstanding before her daughter asks her next question. “Does that mean... I'm not perfect?”
In the space of a second, Kara goes from shocked and bewildered to horrified and panicked. “Oh Dawn, no.” She closes the distance between them using her superspeed and cups Dawn's face with both hands as if the physical contact will further reinforce her next words. “That is not true. You are perfect. You've been perfect since the moment you came into your father's and my lives and you'll always be perfect to the both of us no matter what.”
Dawn sniffles slightly, hopeful but clearly still harbouring a few doubts. Forgotten in the moment, the datapad slips out of her hands and falls to the floor unnoticed. “Then why didn't you use a Birthing Matrix to make me?”
“Because I loved you so much before I even had you that I was a bit selfish,” Kara admits with a soft smile as she wipes an errant tear running down Dawn's cheek with her thumb. “When your father and I decided to have you, I told him that I didn't want to use a Birthing Matrix because I wanted you to grow inside me instead – to be with me from the very second you came to exist. I wanted to be able to talk to you and sing to you and do so many things with you even though you probably couldn't even hear me at all. I was never once worried about whether you would be 'perfect' or not because I already knew that your father and I would love you no matter what and that was all that mattered. And look how you turned out in the end: perfect. That's the truth and don't let your doubts or anyone else tell you otherwise, okay?”
Another sniffle escapes Dawn but the shine in her eyes communicates not unshed tears of sorrow but rather pure hope unburdened by doubt. “Okay.”
The ice-cold grip of fear around Kara's heart finally dissolves and she pulls Dawn in for a tight hug. “Okay,” she repeats, beyond relieved that the unexpected situation has been resolved with relative ease. At least she'd managed to handle it on her own without needing to call Mon-El for backup because she can't imagine how he would've reacted to their daughter's misconceptions.
No sooner has the thought finished forming in her mind than the front door of their home unlocks with a cheerful beep and unceremoniously gets thrown wide open. Startled, she looks up to find the very person she had been thinking about standing there with his hand still on the door and his face a visage of pure panic. Despite his obvious anxiety and her own surprise, the primitive part of her brain goes through its routine appreciation of the way Mon-El's black Legionnaire instructor suit accentuates his toned physique. “What's wrong? What happened?”
“I thought you were training the new recruits today.” For some reason, that's the first thing out of Kara's mouth although her words are immediately drowned out by Dawn's enthusiastic cry of “Daddy! You're home!”
As expected, Mon-El's enhanced hearing manages to pick up her pseudo-question regardless. “I said there was a family emergency and asked Rokk to take over,” he replies distractedly as he shuts the door and opens his arms to welcome the hug-seeking missile that is his flying daughter. “What happened? I felt...”
He trails off there but the rest of his sentence is obvious enough to Kara that she can't help but feel a twinge of guilt. She must have been so distraught by Dawn's misunderstanding that she'd forgotten to keep her distress from flowing to him through their connection. Now that she's fully calmed down, however, she can feel his lingering panic and rushes to calm him with both a verbal clarification and their connection. “It's nothing too serious, I promise,” she says as she gets to her feet. “Dawn just found out about Birthing Matrices and got the wrong idea about certain things, that's all. I'll tell you more later.”
“Mommy's not a robot even though she came from a machine and I'm perfect even though I didn't!” Dawn helpfully summarises their earlier conversation with a beaming smile.
Unsurprisingly, Mon-El shoots a quizzical glance in Kara's direction at that apparent non sequitur but evidently decides to pursue the matter later in favour of focusing on Dawn first. “Of course you're perfect; you're my little princess, after all,” he tells their daughter with exaggerated gravitas and punctuates his statement with a noisy kiss to her golden hair.
Ever the daddy's girl, Dawn giggles as she soaks in her father's affections like an adorable sponge and for a moment peace in their household is restored. Then she suddenly pulls away from Mon-El's embrace and gives Kara the same confused frown from before. “But Mommy, if Grandpa Zor-El and Grandma Alura used the Birthing Matrix to make you, does that mean they don't love you as much as you love me?”
The new unexpected line of questioning throws Kara for a loop and she flounders for an appropriate response.
Luckily for her, Mon-El manages to come to her rescue despite his lack of clarity on how Dawn could have ended up with such a strange conclusion. “No, Dawn, they definitely love your mother as much as your mother and I love you. It was just normal for everyone on Krypton to be born from a Birthing Matrix until your id-”
“Mon-El...” Kara cuts in with a glare and a warning note in her voice, all too aware of just what he's about to say.
“-idealistic Uncle Kal-El came along,” Mon-El finishes, feigning innocence as if that had been the word he'd intended to use all along.
Oblivious to the ongoing silent war between her parents, Dawn accepts the simple answer but remains confused. “Did people on Daxam use Birthing Matrices too, Daddy?”
“They did, princess, but some people chose not to use it for their own reasons,” he affirms simply. Like Kara, he's apparently decided to leave the more complicated aspects of Daxam's views on reproduction for a future date. “I came from a Birthing Matrix too just like your mother.”
“But Grandpa Lar and Grandma Rhea still loved you, didn't they, Daddy?” Dawn asks innocently.
All at once, Kara feels the warm atmosphere in their home evaporate to be replaced by a chill so extreme that they both freeze where they are standing. Old hatreds rise from the depths of her heart where she had buried them long ago, and the uncharacteristic stillness she feels through their connection only feeds her fury.
The silence doesn't go unnoticed by their ever-perceptive daughter who glances between her parents with open concern and distress. “...Daddy, did I say something wrong?”
Her guilt-ridden question snaps them of out their respective trances, and Kara finds herself darkly marvelling at how she has found a new reason to hate Lar and Rhea.
While she silently stews in her rage and does her best to keep it to herself, Mon-El manages to recover from his unwanted trip down memory lane and puts on a forced smile. “No, princess, you didn't. It's just... My parents didn't like me very much,” he tells her gently, and Kara has to swallow the bitter scoff trying to escape her lips at his understatement.
Predictably, his answer only makes Dawn even more confused and upset. “But why?” Considering how much she adores her father and vice versa, the mere idea of him not being loved – by his own parents, no less – must be unfathomable.
Once again, Kara bites her tongue to stop herself from saying anything while Mon-El is the one who struggles to give a satisfactory answer that isn't an outright lie. “...I guess... I wasn't the son they wanted me to be.”
“...Does that mean...” Dawn's lower lip trembles, as does her tiny voice. “...Does that mean... they wouldn't have loved me too?”
With that one simple question, Kara's loathing of Lar and Rhea reach a new level she hadn't even known existed even as her heart breaks for her little girl. “Dawn...” is all she can bring herself to say as she all but runs to her daughter and mate to provide the comfort both of them desperately need.
Mon-El welcomes her efforts the way a man dying of thirst would the sight of an oasis and sends a weak wave of gratitude through their connection. As always when moments like this one descend upon them, he draws strength from her and brings himself to answer Dawn's question to the best of his ability. “I don't know, princess.”
To him, it's as close to the truth as he'll allow himself to admit but to Kara, it borders on an outright lie. Rhea in particular would have viewed any child of Mon-El's with disdain and perhaps only seen value in said child in terms of the preservation of the royal bloodline. But a child that was half Kryptonian? And not just any Kryptonian but rather her, Kara Zor-El, specifically? Rhea would have strangled Dawn in her crib... if she would have even allowed Dawn to be born in the first place.
Naturally not privy to her mother's dark thoughts, Dawn keeps her tear-filled gaze entirely focused on her father as her young mind struggles to comprehend everything she's just been told. Just as Kara is about to try and console her daughter, however, Dawn blinks away her tears and puts on a brave face. “It's okay, Daddy,” she says, bold and resolute, “because as long as you and Mommy love me, nothing else matters. And it's okay if Grandpa Lar and Grandma Rhea didn't love you because that just means I'll love you even more forever and ever to make up for it!”
Pure unadulterated joy and wonder. That's the only way to describe Mon-El's expression and the emotions flooding their connection from his end, not to mention Kara's own feelings at their daughter's declaration. Maybe it's a strange thought to have but Kara finds herself beyond overjoyed that the child she brought into this world loves Mon-El as wholly and unconditionally as she does. Unable to hold herself back anymore, she wraps both daughter and mate in as tight a hug as their position will allow, creating a small bubble of blissful happiness for their family in the process.
“Thank you, Dawn,” Kara hears Mon-El murmur softly in the silence of their home.
“You're welcome, Daddy,” Dawn replies, her voice equally gentle and overflowing with adoration.
They stay like that for an untold amount of time until the beep of Dawn's datapad powering down ends the comfortable silence. The sound reminds Kara of just how this admittedly emotionally draining conversation had begun and she pulls away to regard her daughter with gentle carefulness. “Do you have any more questions about this, sweetheart?”
“Nuh uh!” Dawn shakes her head vigorously, beaming smile in place and the tears from earlier nowhere to be found.
“Right. Okay. That's good.” Kara lets out a small sigh of relief, glad that they've managed to achieve a positive resolution despite the wretched subject. Then a thought occurs to her and she shoots Mon-El a worried look he has trouble deciphering based on his puzzled reaction.
If Dawn is already reading about the Birthing Matrix, then it's only a matter of time before she starts asking questions about the... other method of creating children. In fact, Kara would be surprised if she doesn't have to field such questions within the next hour or so considering Dawn already knows she came about through... traditional means, so to speak. Might as well get it over with as quickly as possible, she tells herself with no small amount of trepidation.
Bracing herself for a highly embarrassing conversation that promises to be even more humiliating with Mon-El present to tease her at every turn, Kara clears her throat and starts. “So Dawn... Since you've already learned about the Birthing Matrix, I think this is a good time to teach you about... um... how babies like you are made without it...”
Instead of being curious, however, Dawn brightens up. “Oh, I already know, Mommy! You have sex!”
The rambling speech Kara had been mentally putting together crumbles to dust and all she can do is choke on air. At the exact same moment, Mon-El stifles a noise of his own that sounds suspiciously like a full-bellied laugh at her expense. Combined with the mirth she feels from their connection, it's enough to snap her out of her stupor and she levels a death glare his way, silently promising a terrible and painful end for him.
Aware that he's now in mortal danger, he schools his expression and holds up the hand not supporting Dawn's weight in a gesture of surrender. “I swear it wasn't me.”
“Daddy didn't teach me about sex, silly Mommy!” Dawn giggles. “Aunty Eve did!”
This time, Mon-El makes less effort to stop himself from laughing out loud but Kara is too incensed to care, busy as she is with mentally cursing Dawn's godmother who is soon to be an ex-best friend.
Come away with me. Right now. We can be anyone. We can do anything.
Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt & Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa Faust in Mission: Impossible (1996–)
I'm rereading some bits and pieces, and the part where Mon-El and Kara awkwardly talk about meet the parents got me thinking again of Stuffing Thanksgiving and him meeting Eliza for the first time. ☺
First off, aww, happy to hear you enjoy it so much you're rereading it.
Second, I'm so sorry it's taking me so long to deliver the next chapter... Life has been absolutely brutal to my free time and energy levels in general so progress is mostly measured in sentences instead of pages... T_T
But haha, that was definitely a fun and sweet moment that proved Eliza was the best (not to mention a total Karamel shipper).
I haven't read the new chapter of PiaD but I just opened it and realized it says Part 1!! As in you're going to drag out our feelings through 2, TWO, chapters!
Cruel...
I'm sorry, blame my muse who won't stop making me write and write and write because I swear in the name of the writing gods, the chapter had already traipsed past the 16k mark when I finally made the decision to cut it in two... T_T
