An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Kara loves Paris.
People often ask her why she likes this city so much and each time, the answer is different.
She says it’s how the air can smell like adventure and endless wonder one day, and the next it will be all about how the rain makes a soothing sound when it falls on the black tile of the rooftops and depending on the hour of the day, the day of the week or the month of the year even, it is something else entirely.
She once told her family she was in love with the constant and peaceful flow of the Seine, she went into the details of a surprisingly poetic description of how the Canal Saint-Martin is the very soul of the French capital but then again, she said the same thing about the Saint-Louis island and its famous monument, Notre-Dame de Paris.
She can talk about the Sacré-Coeur for hours but she is also very loyal to the various castles that can be found around the capital’s limit.
She loves the Louvre just like about anybody else but she prefers the small streets no one knows like she does, the ones that smells like fresh baked viennoiseries when the first lights of dawn are still hours away.
Kara loves Paris.
---
This is the story of Kara Danvers, a bohemian artist living in the very heart of Paris, and Cat Grant, the powerful CEO of a multimedia conglomerate based in National City.
As the seasons go by, their love will grow and then crumble, for spring smells like blossoming hope and certainty while autumn echoes with the melancholic sadness of goodbyes.
---
Thank you @racheltuckerrr for the perfect aesthetic! I’m sorry it took me so long to finish it, but here you go!
Hey mum I have a prompt for you -- Kara introduces her friends to her (super nuclear family) girlfriend and son. //no one in the supersquad knows about cat and kara and they're all shook\\
Hi kiddo, I’m not sure if it’s what you wanted but be careful, it’s angsty. No happy ending this time.Part 2
She already knows most of Kara’s friends, since they’re gravitating around her like if she was the sun itself and sometimes, sometimes she thinks it’s true.
Kara is burning too brightly and she feels like Icarus. She is drawn to the girl of steel like Icarus to the sun and someday, she knows she will fall.
She never thought her wings would be set aflame by someone else.
—
The first one she meets is Alex Danvers and it’s not planned or anything.
It’s an accident and it’s a disaster.
She’s in Kara’s apartment after a little fight about something silly to be mentioned and they’re making out on the couch, it’s hungry, messy and a little bitter too, when Alex barges inside without any warning. She is talking about the takeout she’s just ordered and when her eyes catches the sight of her sister, lipstick smudged all over her face, hair disheveled and Cat Grant sitting on her lap, she drops her purse and gapes, eyes bulging out of her orbits as she stares at them, completely dumbfounded.
Cat winces and pulls away from Kara, who scrambles to her feet and tries to explain the situation in a typical ramble. Alex raises a finger and Kara shuts up, swallowing thickly. Cat doesn’t dare say anything, she just watches as Alex’s features shift from astonishment to something hard and cold. She knows it’s not going to be easy.
Alex opens her mouth but nothing comes out for a few seconds and she seems annoyed. Finally, she just glances at Cat and her eyes are burning with anger when she speaks “You know what, I don’t even want to know. I’m going home, we’ll talk later.”
Kara tries to call her back but Alex glares at her and Cat, who’s the queen of the meaningful glares, feels a chill down her spine at the sight. “I said later.” She repeats and then she’s gone, slamming the door behind her and Kara stares at it with such a pained expression Cat’s heart tug unpleasantly in her chest.
For days after this incident, Kara looks miserable and Cat knows Alex is refusing to talk. She understands the elder Danvers but it still hurt to know she’s responsible for the hurt in Kara’s eyes. Kara says it’s not her fault at all but Cat knows better.
It takes more days for Alex to agree to meet Kara to talk and it takes weeks after that for Alex to accept the invitation to come over for dinner with the Grants. She’s guarded and not entirely comfortable but then she meets Carter and they immediately get along and Cat is both impressed and grateful for the way Alex acts with the young boy.
They’re not friends, rather far from it, and Alex is sometimes snarky, borderline mean but Cat can deal with that if it means she’s not trying to talk Kara out of this relationship.
—
The second person she meets as Kara’s girlfriend is, strangely enough, Lucy Lane.
It’s not planned either but it goes smoothly enough for everyone to be comfortable. They’re with Carter when they run into the younger Lane at Noonan’s one Saturday morning and it’s a little awkward but then Lucy smiles and doesn’t push and Cat is infinitely grateful for that.
They sit around a table and Kara explains how it started, she also adds that Alex knows but she’s the only one and she shyly asks of Lucy to keep it secret for now. Lucy glances at Cat and then nods. She doesn’t look like Lois at all but sometimes, there’s a familiar flicker in her eyes that makes Cat remembers of the other Lane.
Cat hesitates and then asks about James and Lucy says she won’t say anything because James and her are not a thing anymore. She doesn’t elaborate on it but she doesn’t seem heartbroken and she’s smiling and asking Carter about how it is to live with Kara. Carter jokes about Kara eating too much food and it makes everyone laugh and it’s easy.
—
James Olsen is not as easy as his ex-fiancée and Cat doesn’t quite understand why it affects her so much.
He catches them kissing rather passionately, one late night.
He’s standing in the middle of her office, staring at her with anger and betrayal in his eyes as Kara comes to her sides. She welcomes the light touch of fingers settling in the small of her back but she doesn’t dare lean on it. James looks disgusted and mad but he doesn’t add anything, leaving the room without looking back.
It’s an accident, he wasn’t supposed to be working so late, he wasn’t even supposed to be in the building but then again, she always underestimates how good he is at his job, how much he loves it.
Which is why, when he handles her his resignation letter at the end of the week, she takes it hard. She doesn’t exactly consider him a friend but he’s been more than just her artistic director and it hurts. She lets him go, though.
The look of pure hurt in Kara’s eyes is back and she can’t stand it, she wonders if the worst is over. Then, Carter says something about Alex’s mother and she realizes it’s not.
It’s far from over.
—
When Clark Kent raises his voice at her, she knows it’s going to get worse than she first thought it would.
Kara is the one to scream back at him and it’s ugly, it’s resentment and bitter-sweetness and accusations. He’s pushing everything his cousin is saying aside to take it out on her and she stays silent. Cat knows that if she speaks, she’s going to take part in a battle that isn’t hers to fight and she doesn’t want to make Kara feels like she needs protection.
Superman had flown to National City after James’s return to Metropolis. Cat doesn’t know what her former employee said to his best friend but clearly, it didn’t sit well with the superhero because he’s here on her balcony and lecturing her about corrupting his young, sweet and innocent cousin.
Kara is burning with anger and she almost uses heat vision on her cousin when he tells her she’s not thinking clearly, that Cat is just toying with her. After that, Kara tells him to go back to Metropolis and to never, ever come back here.
Cat feels her heart break all over again once he’s gone because the look in Kara’s eyes is too painfully sad and hollow. It’s all because of her and she thinks she should put an end to their relationship before it drives all of Kara’s friends away.
Kara holds her tight that night and she swallows back a sob because now she doesn’t think she’s strong enough to let her go.
—
Winn, the ones she often calls the Cardigan hobbit, doesn’t react much to the new.
Kara tells him the day James is leaving and he simply shrugs and wish her to be happy. It’s too easy and Cat’s sure there’s a catch.
Sure enough, Winn starts to take his distances. He’s not cold, he’s not mean and he’s still around but it’s different and wounded and Cat knows it won’t be long before him too leaves CatCo.
It takes a grand total of two weeks before he comes to see her with a slightly apprehensive look and she lets him go. He tells her he’s going to work for the DEO and she smiles gratefully because it means he’s still going to work with Kara, in a different capacity.
Kara takes it a little differently when she’s the one to break the new of Winn’s resignation for CatCo. She closes off and Cat doesn’t push because she remembers something Kara said about Winn and her starting working at CatCo around the same time and helping each-other through the years. She knows Kara see Winn’s move like a betrayal and a revenge at once so she lets her deal with it.
Eventually, Kara adapts to the new dynamic.
—
That until Cat is invited over for Thanksgiving.
Kara tells her to bring Carter and she sounds so hopeful and happy, Cat doesn’t have the nerves to ruin her mood by refusing. She’s terrified Eliza isn’t going to accept her and she knows, she knows that after James and Winn’s reactions, Kara’s heart is vulnerable.
Vulnerable enough for her to feel insecure about this relationship and Cat doesn’t know if she can deal with Kara saying it’s over.
She had tasted a life with Kara Danvers as her girlfriend and she’s certain she can’t survive the aftermath of a break-up. The mornings without Kara beside her in their bed. The night when she comes home to a sleepy superhero on the couch, the conversations about life and art and everything and nothing, the domesticity of seeing Kara’s stuff all over her place, the way Carter is acting with Kara as if she’s always been there. She thinks it’s going to kill her if Kara puts an end to it but she can’t say she won’t understand.
The dinner is polite and civilized and Eliza is smitten with Carter, like all the Danvers women are. Cat is uncomfortable and waiting for the other shoe to drop but she tries her best to look unaffected and composed. Kara sees right through her though and she’s grateful for the small touches here and now. A hand on her tight, a kiss across her hair, a stroke against her forearm, gentle and kind and warm.
Then she’s all alone with Eliza and she knows it’s over before the older woman even opens her mouth.
The words are cutting deep in her soul and reflecting all of her insecurities. Eliza is almost gentle but she’s firm and she makes it clear she doesn’t approve at all. She does says that Kara looks happy and it pleases her to see it but she ends the sentence by saying Cat isn’t fair with Kara. She speaks about the age difference mostly, the fact that Cat has a child and Kara is still young and that she shouldn’t have to bear that responsibility.
That’s when Kara barges in the kitchen and comes to stand beside her. Her face is still and neutral and she simply asks for Eliza to go. Cat chokes at the words and she wants to protest that it’s not fair, that Kara shouldn’t have to chose her over her foster mother but Kara doesn’t let her talk.
Kara says, in a voice that is unwavering and so full of certainty that she loves Cat and Carter and that she wants a lifetime with them, she wants them to be her family and that if Eliza isn’t able to deal with it, then she’s not welcomed anymore.
Alex is standing in the doorway behind them and Cat can see the hurt and betrayal and sadness swirl in her eyes and she feels like the world is falling apart around her.
Kara slides an arm around her waist and holds her. Eliza gapes and there are tears in her eyes but she nods and she simply goes away.
Alex looks at Kara in the eyes and there’s understanding in the exchange, before she goes to help her mother with her things.
Later that night, Kara leaves the bed and it wakes her up. She waits a little before following her lover and she hears the sobs before she can put a foot in the living room.
It’s desperate and raw and when she comes to put her arms around Kara to pull her in a tight, tight hug, she sees the pain and the loneliness swirl in those baby blue eyes and she knows.
She knows that every single of Kara’s friends chipped her heart and made her feel like she was loosing everything and everyone all over again. She knows that right now, Kara feels abandoned and betrayed and hurt and it’s like she’s Kara Zor-El, trapped in a pod to witness the destruction of her world in a never ending loop.
She knows that it’s a matter of time before something breaks and Kara regrets everything.
