The Sweater Curse
Here's a little SuperCat fic as part of the Mods' collection of example fics for the Supergirl May-hem event!
AO3 Link!
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Kara closes her eyes, letting the relaxing clicks of her knitting needles lull her into a state of pure relaxation, her muscle memory taking over so she doesn’t have to fight her droopy eyes.
She’s almost halfway through the sweater. A lovely blue that she’s sure Cat will love. She spent hours scouring the internet for a pattern befitting of the Queen of all Media. She spent longer looking for a pattern than she’s going to spend on the damn sweater. After all, she can’t make a sweater for Cat that Cat will call “so last year”. That would be a crime. At least, Cat would declare her a criminal. Though, if it means handcuffs— no.
Letting the rhythm continue until she reaches the end of her row, she looks down at the sweater and sighs before giving up on the slow pace she set. Cat will be home in an hour or so and she doesn’t want to gift her a half-made sweater.
Speeding up and using a moderate amount of her superspeed so she doesn’t accidentally rip her working yarn or the stitches, she speeds her way through it, finishing the front and back in no time and starting on the sleeves right away, already dreading the end where she has to stitch them all together. That’s always her least favourite part. Cat is worth it though.
If there’s one thing Cat loves talking about when they’re having a relaxing day at home, it’s the new pieces she’s managed to snag online or from fashion shows. She’s always hearing the descriptor ‘one-of-a-kind’ thrown around, so Kara figures that if she makes a sweater for Cat, it’ll definitely be a one-of-a-kind piece. She should love it.
Laying out all the pieces in front of her, she looks them over with a careful eye, searching for imperfections so she can fix them before she puts them all together. Upon deciding that it’s good enough for her girlfriend, who hates being called that because it “doesn’t sound like something you should be calling a woman of my age. I’m your partner”, Kara starts the process of finally stitching it together, hating every moment of it but enjoying the feeling of making something for Cat.
Finally, she holds it in her arms, finished and carefully looked over one last time for imperfections. There are none. She’s going to love it. She thinks about wrapping it too. Cat has always loved a gift, but her phone rings, breaking her out of her train of thought.
“Hey, Alex.”
“Hey, will you be free tomorrow for a movie night?”
“Yeah, why? Is something wrong?”
Alex snorts down the line. “Nothing has to be wrong to make me want to spend time with you, you know that.”
“Yeah, but usually you plan a week in advance, not the night before.”
“Ok, I might have eaten all the chips in my apartment and would rather raid yours than go and buy my own.”
Kara flops back on the couch, one way too expensive for flopping onto, and cradles the sweater to her chest. “So the truth comes out, huh? You don’t actually want to see me. You just want to use me for snacks.”
“Hey, I prefer you over the store. Doesn’t that tell you something?”
“Yeah, that you’re an ass.”
Alex cackles down the line, and Kara rolls her eyes, grateful that Alex can’t see her smile. “I’m making you watch a musical with me.”
“Anything but that.”
“Two musicals.”
Alex chuckles. “Whatever you want. Now, what are you doing? I’m bored and Sam doesn’t get home for another two hours. She and Lena are caught up at L-Corp.”
Kara hums. “Yeah, Lena texted me earlier to say that she’s got to cancel brunch on Saturday because of work. It sucks that things are so hectic over there. I’m just waiting for Cat to get home. I made her a sweater because she’s so obsessed with owning one-of-a-kind pieces. I think she’ll like it.”
“You knitted it?”
“Uh-huh. Just like Eliza showed me.”
“Oof.”
Kara frowns, her lips turning down in time with her furrowing brows, crinkle on full display. “What’s wrong?”
“You haven’t heard of the curse?”
That doesn’t help her confusion at all. “What in the actual hell are you talking about? Have you been drinking?”
“No, it’s a real thing a lot of knitters believe in. It’s why Mom never knit anything for Dad other than scarves. Apparently, if you hand-knit a sweater for your partner, it dooms your relationship.”
“Alex!” Kara sits up straight, her eyes wide and her fingers clawing at the material. “Why did you have to tell me that? I can’t give it to her now!”
For a moment, she thinks she can actually hear Alex’s eyes rolling back into her skull. “Don’t be a dummy. It’s just a superstition; she’ll probably love it.”
“Alex.” Kara whines. “I don’t think I can.”
“Don’t be a baby. If your relationship is strong, then a damn sweater won’t get in the way.”
“I hate you for telling me that.”
Alex snorts. “Love you too. I’ll text you tomorrow when I know what time I’ll be coming over.”
“You’re just going to leave me now?”
“Sure am. Later Kid.”
Kara goes to shout at her sister again, but upon looking at the phone, she sees that the call has ended. Alex can be a real ass sometimes.
Standing up, Kara holds the sweater between her hands forlornly. She stomps to the kitchen, her pink, bunny-shaped slippers slapping angrily into the tile. Her foot slams down onto the pedal of the trashcan just as the door opens, revealing Cat wandering in from the hallway outside the penthouse.
“Please tell me we have wine hidden somewhere. We can’t have finished the last one yesterday.”
“No, we have another bottle,” Kara says, quickly hiding the sweater behind her back and taking her foot off the pedal, wincing as the lid slams down with a crash.
Cat eyes her curiously, dropping her purse onto the nearest barstool beside the island before pulling out her phone. “What are you doing?”
“Nothing,” Kara answers quickly. Too quickly.
Cat stalks over to her, and despite being significantly shorter, Kara backs away from her, ending up in the living room. “What are you hiding?”
“Nothing.” Kara tries to double down.
“What were you doing with the trash?”
“Just…tossing some paper I didn’t need anymore.”
Cat folds her arms over her chest, her lips pressing into a thin line as a single eyebrow raises in challenge. “Do you think I’m a fool?”
“No?”
Cat’s glare intensifies.
“No. Definitely not.” Kara tries to sound more confident.
“What’s behind your back?”
Kara curses inwardly. Of course, it’s easy to see when someone is hiding something behind their back when both hands are holding it there.
“Show me.”
Kara shakes her head.
Cat sighs, unamused. “Kara, I’m not mad. Just show me what it is. If it’s a puppy, I’m going to be madder that you were about to hide it in a trash can than I am about you adopting it.”
Kara perks up at that. “I can get a puppy?”
Cat shakes her head quickly. “That’s not what I said at all.”
“I’m going to go to the shelter tomorrow.”
Running a hand over her brow tiredly, Cat sighs. “Just don’t bring back anything with fleas.”
“Yes!” Kara throws her hands in the air in triumph, noting her mistake immediately as the sweater dangles above her head. “Oh, snap.”
Now, Cat just looks befuddled. “Is that mine or yours?”
“Uh…”
“Why were you throwing it out?”
“Uh…”
“Kara.” Cat deadpans, striding over to her and taking it from her hands. “It looks brand new.”
Kara goes to take it back, but Cat just steps away from her and bats her hands away. “Where’s the tag?”
“There isn’t one.” Kara offers up nervously, her hands falling to her waist, wringing nervously. “I made it.”
“What?” Cat looks a little impressed, warming Kara’s heart, but she can’t let her have it.
“I was just tossing it out.”
Cat holds it to her chest, protecting it. “Why?”
“I was making it for you but I didn’t know about the curse. You can’t have it now.”
Cat’s shoulders sag, and she heads for the kitchen. “I need wine for this, I can already tell. Explain it to me.”
“Alex told me that there’s a curse that means that you can’t knit a sweater for your partner or else your relationship is doomed, so you can’t have it. I didn’t know when I made it.”
Cat throws the sweater over her shoulder. “Well, I’m not throwing it out. That’s a dumb curse and I’d like to see the statistics of relationship breakdown over mittens rather than sweaters.”
Kara looks nervous, sitting down on a stool, her knees bouncing rapidly. “What if it comes true?”
“Then we can tell everyone that our perfectly stable and loving relationship has ended over a sweater, not you adopting a puppy behind my back.”
“It won’t be behind your back now.” Kara points out.
“So we won’t break up. Now be a dear and find me that wine.” Cat pulls her glasses off her face and drops them onto the counter. “I just want to have dinner, a couple of glasses of wine and a bubble bath with my partner before trying on this very comfortable-looking sweater. Can we do that and agree that it’s just a terrible superstition?
Kara doesn’t look convinced. “I don’t know.”
“Kara, we always dump my shopping bags on the counter, and you’re not meant to put new shoes on the counter. Nothing bad has ever happened from that. What makes you think that we’ll be affected by this one?”
Kara’s eyes widen. “That’s a real thing?”
Cat ignores the question. “Kara, darling. You’re an alien. What makes you think Earth superstitions would even have an effect on you anyway.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
Kara makes her mind up. “Can you try it on?”
Cat smiles. “You sure?”
Kara nods. “I want to see if I got the size right.”
Slipping off her jacket, Cat pulls the sweater over her head before casually strolling across the room to the nearest mirror.
“I love it.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.” Cat smiles softly, genuinely surprised that it’s not a lie. “It’s one-of-a-kind and definitely next year’s fashion.”
Kara’s grin is so wide and dopey that Cat can’t help but turn around, grab her by the collar and pull her down into a kiss.
“Thank you.”
Check out the Supergirl May-hem event, open for writers, artists and betas who want to collaborate and create art for any WLW ship in the Supergirl fandom! Sign-ups open Dec 1st!
