Work Text:
“Fuck,” Alex muttered, pulling open a second drawer on the off chance that she might find some reserve of clean socks and underwear in there. It was just as bare. Chancing a glance over at the overflowing laundry hamper, Alex tried to remember the last time she’d done laundry. It was…two weeks ago? Maybe three? Damn DEO hours. Regardless of how late work kept her today, she made a mental note to get to the laundromat.
Of course, some rogue alien just had to go attacking the city at 5pm, right when Alex had begun to hope that maybe, just maybe, she’d be home at a reasonable hour.
Instead, she found herself sweaty and dirty, trudging back up her apartment stairs at 10pm.
Laundry. Laundry. Laundry. She repeated it to herself like a mantra so that she had no way of forgetting.
Unless she wanted to go buy a pack of some high-waisted cotton Hanes underpants from the drug store, it had to happen. And, tempting as the option almost was, she wasn’t quite desperate enough to go for it. So she quickly sorted her laundry into piles: dark work clothes; very dark personal clothes; sort of dark personal clothes; whites. Once they’d all been bagged up, she grabbed some novel that Kara had picked up for her ages ago, throwing it into her bag along with her phone, a charger, and her bag of quarters. The separated loads of dirty laundry got shoved into her massive DEO duffel bag and hefted over her shoulder for the five-block walk to the sketchy 24-hour laundromat she’d found during her third week at the DEO.
Grumbling the whole way there, Alex resolved to do her laundry on a slightly less infrequent basis to avoid carting around what felt like her whole wardrobe on her back. At least going this late at night generally meant there would be enough free machines to do it all in one go without waiting for one to free up. Sure enough, when she shoved open the door, there were only two people inside: an older man pulling his clean clothes out of the dryer and a middle-aged woman perched on the counter to the left of the doorway. Alex couldn’t quite help the double take. She was used to dealing with the creepy men here and her old laundry nemesis who would throw Alex’s clothes out of the machines and onto the grimy counters the second they were done without waiting for her to switch them over, but this woman was new. Alex definitely would’ve remembered that jawline, and those cheekbones, and the tight spandex outfit accentuating every curve…
Suddenly, piercing eyes were locked onto hers.
“Uh, hey.” Alex forced herself to wave. Just because the woman was hot didn’t mean she had to turn into the laundromat pervert herself.
The woman’s brow furrowed slightly, as her gaze dropped to Alex’s bulging duffel bag.
“Let my laundry go for a little too long,” she explained with a laugh. It got her a nod, but nothing else.
Figuring there wasn’t much else to say, Alex dragged her bag over to a row of empty machines, carelessly dumping in each of the four loads, before tossing a laundry detergent pod into each and hitting start. Once they all whirled to life, Alex claimed a spot on the counter on the other side of the room from the mystery woman and pulled out her book. Except her eyes refused to stay focused on the page, drifting again and again to the stranger who, she noticed, was still perched in exactly the same position she had been in when Alex entered. She tried valiantly to ignore her, even mouthing the first chapter to herself to try to keep her attention on the story, but when 15 pages in she still couldn’t say what had happened, she abandoned the cause.
“What’s got you doing laundry so late?” Alex asked.
The woman looked back at her but stayed silent.
Alex wondered if she spoke English at all. She glanced around the room, trying to find the woman’s machine to gesture at—get some meaning across. Only, as she looked around, she realized all the other machines were empty. She narrowed her eyes. “Hey, uh, this might not be my place to ask, but are you okay? Do you have some place you can stay tonight?”
Without another word, the woman hopped off the ledge, almost cat-like in her movements, and strode out of the laundromat. Alex hoped she hadn’t scared her away from her shelter.
---
A valiant attempt to commit to her own not-quite-New-Year laundry resolution led Alex back for another midnight jaunt to the laundromat the following week, this time with a significantly smaller bag thrown over her back. A part of her also wanted to know if she’d spot her mysterious stranger again.
Sure enough, when she went back, the woman was there, perched on the ledge once more, though on the opposite side of the room, her gaze focused with a singular intensity on the back wall of the building. This time, Alex’s gaze lingered long enough to spot a shockingly white curl that twined its way through her otherwise dark hair.
“I like the hair,” Alex called out as she settled in for another late night.
The woman’s hand came up to cover the streak, but Alex shook her head. “No, I’m serious. It’s cool.”
“Cool?”
So, non-native speaker it was. That answered some of her questions, though not all of them. Alex narrowed her eyes at the particular lilt to her voice. There was a slight accent there that sounded so familiar, but she couldn’t put a finger on it. “Uh, yeah, you know, like a little edgy but in a good way?”
The conversation ended there, but once Alex’s laundry was going, she dared to sit a little closer. “I brought an extra book if you want to read?”
Silence met her question for long enough that she’d nearly forgotten about it when the woman cleared her throat and asked: “What options do you possess?”
“Oh, um, some new sci-fi novel.” Alex held it up. “I’m just finishing the last few chapters of this other one, though, if you’d prefer something with romance.” She wondered how the woman would react to her historical lesbian romance…nice cue on whether flirting would be welcome, at least.
“I will see it.” Alex handed over the sci-fi book, watching as the woman glared at the cover image, before flipping it open to the first page, her eyes flying across row after row of text. Alex wondered if she was taking any of it in. But then she scoffed and shook her head. “This is not realistic.”
“Oh, I mean, it’s not meant to be. It’s science fiction, so, you know, pretty out there, speculative stuff.”
“Hmm. I do not know that I care for it.”
“Er, do you want to try this one instead?” Alex fought to keep the blush from her cheeks as she swapped their books, handing over Tipping the Velvet to a woman she barely knew. Under the pretense of immersing herself in the discarded sci-fi novel, Alex buried her nose in the pages, peeking out every so often to track the woman’s reactions.
This time she turned the book over in her hands a few times, glancing through the short description on the back cover. She let out a little noise that Alex couldn’t decipher before flipping to the first page. From there, the pages seemed to fly rapidly, though every so often, she would slow down, sometimes even turning back a page or two and rereading whole sections. Alex longed to ask her about it, but she didn’t want the stranger to go running off again, so she stayed silent, eventually managing to get into the other book enough to quell the urge to stare at the woman opposite her.
By the time the washing machine buzzed for her to move her laundry, her mystery stranger had made it more than halfway through the book. Alex wondered if she were some kind of speed-reader. Or maybe she hadn’t wanted to admit that she didn’t know enough English to read a long novel and was simply flipping through the pages; Alex somehow doubted that, given her immersion in it.
About halfway through the dryer cycle, the woman put the book down beside her. “This one. Is it true?”
“Uh, it’s fiction too, so not really.”
“Ah. So women in your culture…they do not…?”
“Er, no.” Alex could feel her cheeks warming, and she rubbed at the back of her neck. “I mean, it’s not not true.” The woman’s brow furrowed. “Sorry, what I mean is that there were probably stories like that happening back in the day. The author does her research. But the characters themselves aren’t based on, like, real people or anything.”
“I see. This one was better than that nonsense.”
“Yeah.” Alex shrugged. “I’d agree. Sometimes you just pick up what’s on the sale shelf to see how it is, though.”
The woman didn’t respond, and that seemed to be it for the night.
---
On Sunday morning, only three days later, a very grumpy Alex found herself back at the laundromat after having coffee spilled all down the front of her favorite white button-up and the skinny jeans she knew made her ass look amazing. She’d soaked them at home and applied all the Stain Be Gone! solutions the grocery store offered, but now all she could do was wait and see what would happen in the laundry.
She threw everything in one load, figuring if she had to wash things on cold, she may as well get all of it taken care of in one go. It was only after she’d claimed a machine in the busy room that she had the chance to look around, finding her favorite laundry stranger there again.
“You come here often?” The moment the words left her lips, Alex hated herself. She needed to stop hanging out with Kara; apparently her dorky pickup lines were rubbing off on her.
“Not that often.”
“Oh. I just meant—I mean, I see you whenever I’m here.” Alex cleared her throat. “Which is a little weird. Since you’re never actually doing laundry.”
“I see.”
“Sorry, I don’t mean to—never mind, just ignore me.”
“Okay.” She turned resolutely towards the back wall once more.
“No, not literally. Unless you want to. I simply meant that I hadn’t said anything all that important.”
“Okay.” A pause. “You do not normally come here at this time.”
“No, work keeps me busy a lot of the time.”
“What do you do?”
“I’m a scientist. I work in one of the local labs.” She gestured vaguely in the direction of downtown.
“In that laboratory?” the stranger held her arm out alongside Alex’s, pointing directly at the back wall.
“What?” It took Alex a minute to place them. “Oh! You mean Lord Tech? God, no.” She shuddered at the thought.
“You have no desire to work there?”
“Nah, Max is…well, he’s kind of an asshole.” The woman’s eyebrows rose a little at that. “What about you?”
“I…I was a soldier.”
It made sense. Explained the ramrod straight posture and the lines of muscle Alex could see through the damn spandex she was constantly wearing. She wondered if maybe she had PTSD, took to the laundromat when she couldn’t sleep. Alex could sympathize with that.
They sank into a not particularly uncomfortable silence for a while, as Alex found her spot in her latest book and the woman resumed…staring at the wall. Ah well. She was weird, but still hot.
The book was distracting enough for Alex to miss her washing machine’s coming to a stop by all of 30 seconds, and when she looked up, she spotted Cheyenne, her old nemesis, already throwing the clean clothes onto the side bench.
“Hey! What the fuck?” Alex growled, storming across the room. “It hasn’t even been a full minute.”
“It’s a weekend. It’s busy. You know the rules.”
“There are no rules, Cheyenne! They’re in your fucking head.” Alex continued grumbling under her breath as she moved her now less-than-clean laundry over to a free dryer, finally storming back to her spot on the bench, only to find her silent companion staring at her.
“Are you…okay?”
“Fine. Cheyenne’s just my long-time laundromat enemy.”
“Ah, I understand now. This is not a first time offense?”
“No, she does it all the time. It’s just rude and totally unnecessary.”
“I see.”
“I’m Alex, by the way. I don’t know, it felt weird not introducing myself after all this time.”
“Astra.”
“Well, it’s nice to formally meet you, Astra.”
“You as well. I should be going, but perhaps I will see you again.”
“I’m sure.” And then Astra was gone, and Alex was left as confused as ever.
---
The next time Alex showed up, Astra wasn’t there. She tried not to be disappointed. The middle-aged man washing a large comforter was nowhere near as interesting of a companion, despite his over-eagerness to engage in conversations Alex wanted no part of.
---
If Alex chose to do her laundry a little more often than was strictly necessary, well, it was a good habit to cultivate. And if she was more than a little pleased to find Astra in her usual spot on the following Wednesday night, well, who was there to judge her?
“Hey, Astra.” Alex waved, receiving a nod that seemed a bit friendlier than usual in return.
“I too have laundry this evening.”
“Oh, um, that’s cool.”
Alex watched out of the corner of her eye as Astra followed her with a small bag slung over her shoulder. She copied Alex’s movements, dumping the full contents of the bag into the machine, heedless of the wide array of bright colors mixed in with darks and stark whites. Alex wondered if any advice would be welcome, but decided against it.
“Do you, uh, need some detergent?” Alex offered an extra laundry pod to Astra when she moved to shut the lid with nothing but her clothing inside of it. Her clothing, which was…oddly bright for a woman in an all-black spandex suit, now that Alex thought about it. When she opened the lid again, Alex caught sight of a few tags still poking out of the garments, all labeled with large discount stickers. Strange.
Once Alex convinced Astra to accept four quarters to do the laundry she’d brought with her, they settled in side-by-side on the counter, both of their machines whirring away across from them. For the first time, Astra was the one to break the silence. “Did you bring another book with you?”
“I actually brought two.” The fact that the second was brought on the off chance that Astra would be there went unspoken. The fact that she’d specifically brought more lesbian fiction was also wholly incidental. “Want one?”
“Please.”
Alex handed over The Paying Guests. “Same author as last time, but this one is her most recent book. Just came out last year.” Astra had already begun paging through it before Alex could say another word, and Alex pulled out her own book to hide the smile curling up the corners of her mouth. Once again, Astra moved through the pages at a rapid pace, and Alex’s growing suspicion that Astra might not be from the planet, let alone the country, niggled at the back of her mind. Her overly formal diction reminded her so much of Kara when she’d first arrived, and her lack of familiarity with things like laundry led Alex to believe she wasn’t just dropping in from Europe.
When the timer went off, Alex nudged Astra, watching as her whole body stiffened into an attack stance that confirmed for Alex that the soldier backstory was probably true, even if she’d been an intergalactic soldier.
“That’s us.”
“Oh.”
“Here are a few more quarters for the dryer.”
Astra held her hand out, then followed behind Alex, copying her movements again as she pulled open an empty dryer and emptied out the lint catcher, nodded intently as Alex grumbled about lazy people who didn’t do it when their load finished. Then they moved back to the washing machines together to begin the process of shifting their clothing over to the dryer.
Alex grimaced at the sight of once-white shirts now adorned with splotches of pink and blue from the cheap red and navy fabrics that had gone in with them, but Astra took no notice, throwing them all into the machine, one after another. Shaking her head, Alex turned back to her own two machines, slowly transferring everything over to the dryers as Astra watched her closely.
While traversing the few steps with an armload of damp clothing, Alex watched helplessly as something slipped off the side of the pile. Only instead of hitting the gross floor, it was plucked from the air by Astra’s hand. And there was another tick mark in the not-human column.
“You dropped your”—Astra held out the tiny black scrap of fabric, and oh god, of course it would be a thong that fell because she’d just had to go on an undercover operation this past week—“lace?”
“You can just—here—on top.” Alex attempted to gesture at the pile with her chin, much to Astra’s confusion, before dumping the whole thing into the dryer and snatching her underwear out of Astra’s outstretched hand. She could feel her whole face burning and wondered if it was possible to die of humiliation. It felt all too familiar to the moment when Kara, two weeks into her new life at the Danvers, had plucked a tampon out of Alex’s backpack while searching for a pen and asked—rather loudly in front of a group of Alex’s friends—what it was for.
“I apologize if I overstepped. I did not think you would want your clothing on the floor.”
“No, I don’t. I appreciate it. It was just, you know, embarrassing.”
“Ah, because it was what you refer to as lingerie?”
“Oh my god, please stop.”
Astra quieted again, and Alex tried to get her damn blush to go away while stuffing the rest of her laundry into the machines and turning them on. Luckily Astra had the book to hold her attention for most of the dryer cycle, but then she was carefully sliding it back across the counter to Alex, thanking her for it.
“How’d you like it?”
“It was enjoyable. The murder, I confess, I did not expect.”
Alex decided a Monty Python joke probably wouldn’t go over well with someone who didn’t know Earth culture, so instead she just asked, “Would you want another book like that for next time?”
“I would not want to be a burden, Alex.”
“It’s not a problem to carry a second book with me, really.”
“Well then, yes, perhaps another one would be enjoyable.”
“And just so I know what you’re looking for, what would you say were your favorite parts?” Alex wondered if she was telegraphing her interest, or if Astra would be as oblivious to things like Earth flirting as Kara always had been.
“The characters were interesting—not so predictable as that sci-fi book.” Her lips twisted into a grimace as she said it.
“Got it. Complex lesbians.”
Astra tilted her head to the side for a moment, brow furrowing as if trying to dredge information up from somewhere deep in her subconscious.
“Er, I mean, there are also plenty of books with complex protagonists who aren’t lesbians. If you’d prefer some, uh, heterosexuality in your reading. You know, boy meets girl kind of thing.”
“Oh. No, I see. No need to change that.”
Alex grinned. “Perfect.”
A few minutes later, the timer sounded on Astra’s dryer, and Alex followed her over, knowing hers would be done any minute now as well. Lifting herself up on top of a free dryer, Alex watched as Astra began pulling clothing out of the machine, the frown lines on her forehead growing deeper and deeper with every item.
“What’s wrong?”
“These shirts…they are smaller than when they began.” She held up a t-shirt that did, indeed, look as if it might best fit a toddler.
“Er, did you by chance dry your stuff on high heat?”
Astra glanced up at the dials and nodded.
“Right, so, um, things like cotton will shrink during their first wash, especially if you use warm or hot heat.”
“I see.”
Alex pulled out a now tiny neon pink t-shirt with a smiling monkey on it. “Somehow this one doesn’t really seem your style.” She held it up against Astra’s chest, unable to help the loud laugh that burst forth from her chest. “Who knows? Maybe you should try it on to see.”
Astra’s lips pursed. “Do you have need for such small garments?”
“Uh, I could use them as rags for when I work on my motorcycle, I guess. But you could also donate them. You know those big clothing donation bins in the back of the parking lot at the church three blocks over?” Astra shook her head, but motioned for Alex to continue. “Since all the stuff is freshly washed, you could go drop it off there.”
“I will do that.” She began stuffing the rest of her shrunken laundry into her bag with a quiet determination.
“And, Astra?”
“Yes?”
“Next time you don’t have to buy clothes and pretend to do laundry if you want to hang out here.”
For the first time since Alex had met her, Alex swore she saw the faintest of blushes staining Astra’s cheeks a light pink. But then she was gone in a flash of movement.
Definitely an alien.
---
A nasty surprise attack from a band of Fort Rozz aliens left Alex out of commission for two full weeks, even with the DEO’s high-tech regen meds, and it wasn’t until the third week that she managed to make it back to the laundromat with a bag stuffed with more old sweatpants and comfy pajamas than anything else.
Astra wasn’t in her usual spot when Alex got there, though she arrived only a few minutes after Alex moved her clothes over to the dryer. “You are injured,” were the first words out of her mouth.
Alex spun around, clutching the counter for balance. Damn leg.
“What happened?”
“Oh, uh, just a little accident at work.”
“In your lab?”
Oh god. Astra somehow went from hot to adorable when she was confused. Alex was so fucking screwed. “Um, yeah.” She flushed under Astra’s close scrutiny. “Should be fine in a few more days.”
“So fragile,” Astra muttered under her breath, shaking her head. Alex bit back a snort; she sounded just like Kara the first time Alex had caught a nasty bug after her arrival.
“Trust me, I’m tougher than I look.”
With that, Astra reached out, using only her pointer finger to knock Alex off balance.
“Hey!” Alex yelped, righting herself before spinning back around to face Astra with her hands on her hips and her most potent glare on her face—the kind she gave to perps and guys that tried to touch her ass in clubs. Only Astra was grinning of all things, and Alex had never seen her grin, and apparently it had some sort of special alien properties that made Alex forget all about her righteous indignation. Instead, she leaned over and pushed back, finding her hands hitting up against the equivalent of a concrete wall.
Alex pursed her lips.
“Oh.” Astra took the slightest of steps backward. “Ow.”
Alex couldn’t help the burst of laughter that bubbled up from somewhere deep inside of her. “You can cut the act. That wouldn’t have hurt anyone—not even a fragile human like myself.”
“Or like myself.”
“Look, Astra, I’m not judging you or scared of you or anything like that, okay? Trust me, I’m not—I have reasons to like some aliens.” Of course, there were lots of aliens she didn’t like, but those ones didn’t spend their nights reading gay historical fiction in laundromats.
“Give me your reasons.”
“Let’s just say someone who matters a whole lot to me isn’t exactly from around here.”
Astra’s eyes narrowed, and she took a much larger step back. “You are betrothed?”
“What? No. No, not at all. Why would you think that?”
“It is not as if you share blood with this person. Your relationship must be grounded in something else.”
“I—what? No, family isn’t just about blood, but that’s not the point. What I’m trying to say is that I’m not about to go turning on you or trying to attack you or something.”
“As if you could hurt me, even if you tried.”
Haughtiness had never done it for Alex before, but fuck if her heart wasn’t racing now. “That a challenge, Astra?”
While Astra was still laughing, Alex used her good leg to hook behind Astra’s knee, bringing her down to the ground with one quick movement. Before Alex knew it, she was on the ground as well, Astra’s having moved faster than she could see to pin her down.
“You are lucky I like you, or you might have paid for that recklessness with more than just your pride.”
And oh, Alex definitely wasn’t imagining the suggestive undertone to her words, the way Astra’s eyes seemed to be drawn to Alex’s mouth when she licked her lips. In retrospect, she’d blame the rush of blood to her head from having gone from vertical to horizontal in a split second for what came next. She looped her hands around the back of Astra’s neck and pulled her forward, pressing her lips to Astra’s.
For a long moment, Astra froze, her body preternaturally still. Just before Alex could pull back and begin rushing out a litany of apologies, Astra ducked her head forward, claiming Alex’s mouth in a kiss that erred a bit too far on the side of bruising. But after a few awkward moments, Alex managed to claim a modicum of control, easing back far enough that the kiss went from painful to pleasurable in an instant, drawing out a soft whimper that felt so out of place in the dingy laundromat with its graying walls and cracked linoleum tiles.
“I should not,” Astra mumbled, her words muffled in the whisper of space between them.
“I think you definitely should,” Alex murmured, trailing her lips over to Astra’s ear before dropping to kiss and nip along her neck and jawline.
But, even as her whole body shuddered, Astra was pulling away, a haunted look in her eyes that Alex recognized from a few too many moments in front of the mirrors in the DEO locker room. “I should go.”
“Astra, wait!” Alex called out at her retreating form as she struggled to pull herself back up from the floor. “I—I don’t like a lot of people, but I like you.”
Astra paused, her hand on the doorframe and her head turned firmly away from Alex. “Yes, but perhaps I am the one who does not like you.”
The words stung, but Alex shook her head. “I don’t believe you.”
“It would be safer if you did.” And then Astra was walking away, nothing more than a shadow as the door swung closed.
“I’m not giving up on you just because of who you are, Astra!” Alex yelled after her, groaning when her mysterious alien didn’t simply reappear.
---
Alex checked the laundromat every night for over a week to no avail.
On Thursday, she didn’t bother stopping by before leaving for her flight to Geneva.
As her plane shook and shuddered, the emergency masks descended, and for a split second, Alex wondered what might have happened if she’d gone to check the laundromat that night, if Astra had been at their spot. Would she have missed her flight trying to keep her there, to get her talking? Alex shook her head. It didn’t do to dwell in impossibilities. Instead she made a show of securing her oxygen mask and turned to the man sitting next to her, carefully helping him to affix his own even though she knew no one would survive a crash at these speeds. But it was good to enact the pretense of safety, let people die thinking they might have a chance. Hope and all that bullshit.
But then the plane was righting itself, and people were looking up to the heavens as if the prayers they’d been calling out had been answered. Alex turned to the window looking for the real cause.
There was Kara—caked in debris and oil but so obviously her Kara, that haunted young girl who’d shown up at her doorstep so many years ago, now smiling broadly over at Alex from the wing of the plane, looking fulfilled and proud and at home in her role as a hero in a way that Alex never had been, not even when she was the one helping to save the city.
---
The next few weeks passed by in a blur of fighting with Kara and sparring with Kara and reconciling with Kara. Alex barely had time to think about Astra, let alone household chores that might have brought her back in contact with the woman.
But then she was setting up the crystal hologram from Kara’s pod, and suddenly she was staring at the face that she’d been trying to push from her thoughts for so many weeks.
Holy shit.
Kara had only recently forgiven her for the lying and the secrecy and the DEO. Alex didn’t think it was going to get any easier when she started their next conversation with: “Here’s the thing: I kind of made out with your mom.”
As it turned out, she didn’t get around to that conversation before seeing the woman again.
After being bodily ripped from a DEO vehicle by their rogue Hellgrammite and dragged across the city, Alex felt all the air rush from her chest as she hit the ground. Hard. The whole room swam before her, and she blinked rapidly, trying to figure out where she was and what her odds of survival might be.
A click of boots sounded all around her, getting closer and closer but never approaching in a straight line.
“Where is the Kryptonian?”
Alex’s eyes snapped open at that. Astra? Or no, Alura. Because apparently she’d been lying for quite some time.
“She didn’t show,” the Hellgrammite growled. “But this is one of the human agents. Figure it’s enough to keep you off my back.”
Then he was gone, and Alex was left alone with the woman she’d come to…care for. In ways that she didn’t wish to dwell on now.
“Seems as if I’m not the only one with secrets.” Astra paced around Alex, her lip curling up into a sneer. “You did not see it fit to mention that you work for the people seeking to kill my kind while promising that you did not wish to hurt me?”
“Alura,” Alex gasped, pain lancing through her as she tried to sit up.
The clicking of boots stopped. Astra refused to turn around, even as she demanded: “How do you know that name?”
“I saw a hologram of you—a message from Krypton that you left for your daughter. Another thing you failed to mention.”
When the woman turned around, though, she didn’t look as if she’d been caught in a lie. Instead, she shook her head slowly, an expression Alex couldn’t name twisting her features. “Twins were rare on Krypton.” Oh. “When we were younger, Alura and I took great pleasure in confusing our teachers.”
“You’re her sister.”
“No. I am General Astra In-Ze.” As she pulled herself up to her full height, Alex recognized the regal bearing Kara had once displayed before the years of being taught to act normal, to slip under the radar, wore her down. “Tell me where I will find Kara Zor-El.”
Alex remained silent, not even whimpering at the pain that radiated through her thigh as she shifted her weight to follow Astra’s movements.
“You are very brave. Still foolish and reckless, but brave. Braver than most of your race.”
Alex refused to take the bait.
“Now tell me where Kara is.”
“Never,” Alex growled.
“She matters to you.” Astra’s eyes widened with the realization for a moment, before her face returned to a cool mask of indifference.
“Whatever you think you have to do, just—just think about it. You said blood makes a family? Well, there’s your blood. There’s your connection to the planet you both lost. But she won’t forgive you if you murder innocent people in the world she’s chosen to protect.”
“Murder you? Is that what you think I’m trying to do?” Astra let out a bark of laughter. “You are so very wrong. I am here to save you all.”
Before Alex could respond, Astra had zipped off to the other side of the warehouse. A moment later, Kara crept through a side entrance to the building, her whole face lighting up when she spotted Alex.
“Alex!” Kara flew to her, wrapping her up in her arms.
“Get out of here! It’s a trap!”
As Kara tilted her head to the side, absorbing what Alex had said, Astra barreled into her, and then all Alex could do was watch as Kara struggled—struggled to fight back years of emotions’ bubbling to the surface as ghosts from her past were resurrected in the land of the living; struggled to temper the anger and fear she felt warring with the love still there; struggled to hold her own with an opponent who had decades more training than her scant few weeks of sparring at the DEO.
Before Alex could finish a call in to the DEO for help, the damn Hellgrammite was back, and even if the distraction was only temporary—just long enough for her to knee him in the groin and send his own poisonous barb into his heart, the life flickering out of another set of eyes, all thanks to her—it took enough time that when she cane back, she found Kara, leaving herself open, her body streaked with dirt and grime.
But Astra didn’t land the killing blow, or even one that would severely injure her. No, she hesitated. And for the first time since that night had begun, hope flickered to life in Alex’s chest—an ill-founded, ill-fated hope, to be sure, but one that couldn’t be extinguished with cold logic and reason.
Then Hank was there with a glowing green knife that made Astra hiss. She staggered backwards, and Hank grinned triumphantly. Only, she was ripping the knife from her arm and throwing it close enough to Kara’s feet to make her stumble. Then she grabbed Alex round the waist and kicked off from the ground, flying them up and away at a dizzying speed that left Alex’s heart in her throat and her stomach churning. She barely registered her comms’ being pulled from her ear and crumbled into dust in the process.
Alex had lost all sense of direction by the time they arrived…wherever they were, Astra throwing her to the ground in what looked like a careless move but one that also kept her injured leg from catching any of her weight.
Still, Alex pulled out her gun, knowing it wouldn’t do much but hoping that perhaps Astra had been weakened by the kryptonite dagger—or weakened enough to worry about a gun.
“What happened to never turning on me?” The look Astra shot Alex was the face of someone who knew what it was to watch her loved ones turn on her, again and again, until trust became the only thing guaranteed to hurt her.
Despite everything that had happened, all the reasons Alex had for raising her weapon, the words and the look still felt like a punch to the gut. “That was—that was when you were the mysterious, brooding alien who kept me company while I did laundry and read lesbian historical fiction with me, not the Fort Rozz criminal attacking my—attacking Supergirl.”
“And what is she to you?”
Once more, Alex clenched her jaw and crossed her arms.
“It will be no hardship to learn these answers on my own.”
“She’s family,” Alex spat out. “You want to hurt her, you go through me first.” That old protective instinct first honed in the halls of Midvale High welled up inside of her, washing away any traces of guilt or affection. “And trust me, I’ll kill you before you get the chance.”
Astra leaned over and placed a surprisingly soft kiss to Alex’s cheek that left her reeling. “Goodbye, Brave One.”
Alex watched as Astra took off into the night, then she let herself thump back into the sand as she waited for the DEO agents to follow her sub-dermal tracker to her location. Or maybe Kara had been close enough to follow them. Surely someone would come.
It felt like mere minutes later when a DEO chopper descended—just far enough away to avoid sending waves of sand into her face. Then it was back to the base, med evaluations to be undergone, reports to be filled out, conversations to be had. She knew she should say something about the laundromat, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it—not yet.
---
Many weeks later, an exhausted Alex staggered into the laundromat on a bright Sunday morning. She brought no books with her, carried no expectations for a pleasant trip. It was crowded, the room buzzing with life, and Alex fought her way through to a machine the moment it opened up. After she’d set a timer on her phone—a full minute before it was set to be done, thank you very much—she settled in at the far corner of the room, back pressed up against a wall on either side of her, eyes constantly scanning the crowd. It made Astra’s arrival impossible to miss, even if she had thrown an oversized NCU sweatshirt on over top of that black catsuit. With the spandex material poking out from below, she looked like half of the women in there, fresh out of yoga class or finally starting her day after a lazy Sunday morning. Astra didn’t even glance Alex’s way before beginning to throw the contents of a washing machine onto the floor.
“Hey!” came a loud screech that made Alex wince. Until she saw that it was Cheyenne. Then she grinned wickedly. “That’s my stuff!”
Astra held a hand up in the air to silence her. “You should know the rules you enforce so often.”
With just about everyone’s attention focused on Cheyenne as she ranted loudly and picked her wet laundry off the floor, huffing at every piece of lint she was forced to pluck off of them, Astra glided over to Alex’s corner. She leaned forward, her breath hot against Alex’s ear as she whispered: “There is a threat to your family.” Alex started, but Astra stilled her movements with a solid hand on her shoulder, holding her in place with no effort. “Not from me. Your neighbors.” Her eyes flicked meaningfully to the back wall, and then she was gone.
Alex sent a message to J’onn, telling him that they might have a situation and asking to meet that afternoon.
---
The only good thing Alex could say about the alien raid on Lord’s facility was that it left enough holes in their security system for a federal agent to “accidentally” stumble into labs, finding enough evidence of potentially criminal activity that it called for a large-scale investigation not only of the break in, but of Lord Technologies itself. The downside was learning that Max was attempting to manufacture synthetic kryptonite and play god with young women’s comatose bodies and a bit of Supergirl’s DNA, as well as knowledge of the possibility that the Fort Rozz aliens were planning something massive thanks to whatever it was that had been stolen from or done at Lord Tech, and, oh right, the news that Astra had a fucking husband.
Still, Alex shuddered to imagine what might have happened if their investigation of Lord had been put off any longer. Astra had potentially saved Kara from horrors she didn’t even want to imagine.
It was with that knowledge in mind that Alex returned to the laundromat to leave behind her copy of Tipping the Velvet. On the first page, she’d underlined: Whitsable, England, dining-tables, makes, in, dined, native, I, the. Maybe Astra would see it. Likely, she wouldn’t be back. If she did, who was to say whether she would pick up the abandoned book, thumb through its well-worn pages, spot the randomly underlined words, make out their abbreviated code, and follow it?
On Wednesday night, Alex tried to keep her expectations low. Even if Astra showed, there was no proof to say it wouldn’t be an ambush. Nothing except the way Astra had looked at her after she kissed her. The knowledge that Astra had given them warning about Lord’s plans. The goddamn hope that kept surging up and interrupting all of her wary thoughts with a: but maybe…
At 12:01, Astra swept through the door, her eyes scanning Alex from head to toe. “No kryptonite.”
It wasn’t a question, but Alex confirmed it with a nod anyway.
“Will you grant me your trust one more time?”
Alex thought back to the kidnapping that wasn’t, the way Astra had hesitated over Kara’s vulnerable body, the tip whispered to her at this very laundromat. “Fine.”
And then she was back in Astra’s arms and flying through the air until they arrived at a…house. A suburban house.
“Do you live here?” It was oddly domestic.
Astra shook her head as she fished a key out from under a fake rock. “No, but you humans do not fear for your property in the way you should.”
“Oh my god, Astra, we can’t just break into someone’s house!”
“They do not live here any longer.” The lock clicked open and Astra ushered Alex in with a wave of her hand. The first thing Alex noticed were the little brochures from the real estate guy whose ad was plastered all over the bus stop by her house. Next was the too-coordinated feeling of the furniture, the lack of any and all dust, the smell of some vaguely pleasant candle that was probably focus group tested for years. At least they likely wouldn’t be discovered and arrested in the next few minutes.
“Why are we here?”
“It is safe here. For the moment.”
“And my laundromat isn’t?” Time to find a new place to wash her clothes, apparently. Maybe she could get Kara to fly her laundry across town to her apartment with its fancy in-unit washer and dryer…
“Too close to Lord Technologies.”
“Oh. Right.”
“You left a message for me.”
“I wanted to thank you for the tip about Lord.”
Astra gave a curt nod. “If that is all…”
“No! I…I see you hesitate, Astra. Every time you have a chance to kill Kara or someone close to her, you hesitate. You wait just long enough for them to recover.”
“You underestimate your sister.”
“No, I definitely don’t. You’re a soldier. And not just a soldier—a general. No general gets where they are by letting opportunities like that pass. Which says to me that you’re choosing not to hurt Kara more than you have to.”
“I have yet to hear a reason for this meeting.”
“You confuse me, Astra.” Alex couldn’t stand another second of stillness, so she paced, back and forth, from the doorway to the kitchen, again and again. “You’re apparently a hardened Fort Rozz criminal, but you don’t kill when you have the chance. You say we’re fighting on opposite sides, but you tell me you want to save us, come back and give me tips to keep Kara safe. You—you kiss me! But then I find out you have a husband.” Her voice cracked slightly on the word, and Alex hated herself for it.
“In name only.” The words were so quiet, Alex was half-convinced they weren’t real until Astra spoke again. “Non and I…our marriage was a partnership. Solid, strategic. It was not founded upon the romance you humans value above all else.”
“Oh.”
“Our goals have”—Astra paused for a moment—“diverged.”
“Oh?” Stupid fucking hope. Alex wished she could quash it down permanently, even though another part of her was screaming out that this was what she’d been waiting for—some sign that Astra wasn’t committed to whatever master plan was being implemented.
“Your planet is in danger, and I will not allow another world to die when I could stop it.”
“But…?”
Astra’s posture stiffened, and her gaze fell somewhere above Alex’s head. “But there is a possibility that I was incorrect in my assessment of how dispensable human lives might be.”
“Very generous,” Alex snarked back.
“Non believes so.”
“And when it comes down to it, when it’s Kara against Non, where do you stand, Astra?”
The muscles in Astra’s jaw flexed. “It will not simply be Kara against Non. Now that there is conflict among the ranks, Non will have loyal followers of his own—followers who do not respect my leadership even now and who will not hesitate to kill Kara.”
“So then I’m asking again: where do you stand?”
“Your generals have given me no reason to trust your men any more than my own.”
“The whole country doesn’t report to those generals, though. Don’t try to act like it’s the same thing.”
“You should not act as if this is an easy choice for me,” Astra snapped—one of the only times Alex had ever seen her close to being less than 100% in control.
“I’m sorry, I’m having a bit of trouble seeing what’s so hard. Standing with your husband, who you apparently don’t love, and a band of hardened criminals to kill a bunch of people, including your only surviving blood relative, or not.”
“Or standing by to watch another planet perish, Alex. This is my life’s work. This is what I can offer. This is what I can do to make up for failing”—Astra swallowed heavily—“for failing to save my home, my family, my world.”
“If you stand against Kara, against us? You’ll be losing your family and home all over again.”
“You are a soldier like me. What would you have me do?”
“I—I get that it’s hard. But the hard choices are the ones most worth making.” Alex took a deep breath. “When half of your troops are already defecting, is there honor left in trying to stay with them? Join Kara. Join…join me.” Alex stepped closer, until she was standing directly in front of Astra. “And when this is over, I promise that I will do whatever I can to help you by legal means.”
“There is no guarantee that I will survive turning on Non.” Before Alex could open her mouth, Astra’s fingers—soft, impossibly soft, and gentle—were tracing along her cheek. “You will tell Kara that, despite what she believes I am, I chose her? That I fought for her?”
Alex swallowed back tears. This woman shouldn’t have the ability to affect her as much as she did. “Don’t talk like it’s already too late.”
“It is for me.”
“No!” Alex surged forward, crashing her lips into Astra’s. She felt more than heard the startled gasp, but then Astra’s hands were curling around her and pulling her in closer. They matched each other, touch for desperate touch—all teeth and bruising kisses. As Alex backed Astra up against the wall, she felt her feet leave the earth for a moment, until suddenly she was the one pressed up against the real estate-approved eggshell-colored walls. A strong thigh found its way between her own, and Alex’s hips canted forward, her body seeking whatever it could, even as hot tears stung at her cheeks. As Astra’s breath grew ragged, Alex urged her on, pulled her in closer with a grip tight enough to have bruised anyone else. Quiet, gasping noises filled the air as they rocked together, finally collapsing against one another with a shudder and low, echoed groan.
It felt like a goodbye before they’d even really started.
“You have people waiting for you, Astra,” Alex whispered, her voice hoarse and thick with emotions.
“Know that I do not regret my choices. No matter what happens.” And then she was gone.
Alex managed to make it the full cab ride back to her apartment before breaking—the tears starting to flow as the first sip of whiskey burned down the back of her throat.
---
On Thursday, Alex decided that Kara deserved to know what was going on, deserved to know that Astra was fighting for them, with them, even if it wasn’t out in the open. The fact that Alex had no proof, no concrete plan, didn’t stop the sense of certainty she carried with her. She hoped that Kara would feel the same way, perhaps reclaim some of that old optimism that had vanished over the past few weeks.
Alex let herself in when no one answered, figuring Kara was probably trying to put out some metaphorical fire or other at CatCo. Maybe she should order their pizza now… If it got here before Kara, Alex might actually have a chance at getting her fair share of the slices.
Figuring there was no use standing around, Alex plopped down on the couch, craning her head over to look at the plant displayed on the coffee table. That was new. She’d had suspicions that Kara might have been dating someone, though for the time being Alex had kept those suspicions to herself. But if they’d gotten her a plant, and Alex happened to find the card…well, that hardly counted as snooping.
She didn’t get a chance to look before the plant was plunging into her chest. The last thing she remembered was pressure—so much pressure; unbearable pressure—and then darkness.
---
“Hey, lady, we’re here.”
Alex blinked slowly, trying to orient herself. “What?”
“We’re here. You fell asleep while I was driving.”
“Oh.” Alex looked around her. She was in the backseat of a car, the little Lyft logo sticker stuck to the windshield. “Sorry, I, uh, it’s been a long few weeks at work.”
“It’s fine. You were still easier to wake up than the Friday night crowd.”
Alex snorted. “I can imagine. Anyway, uh, have a good day.” She pulled herself out of the car and held her hand up against the bright sunlight. She caught sight of Kara’s building. Oh. Right. She vaguely recalled meaning to go see Kara about…about something. Everything was still a little fuzzy.
The lobby seemed nicer than she remembered its being, and that lingering smell of old takeout was gone. But otherwise it was definitely Kara’s place. Alex shook her head. She just needed a strong cup of coffee.
Of course Kara didn’t answer, so Alex let herself in, kicking off her shoes in the entryway. She padded around the apartment. It felt…different, somehow. She glanced at the photographs. There was one of Kara and her as kids with her mom and dad, then another one of them all in the exact same outfits as grownups. A memory niggled at the back of her mind, then faded away. Ah well. The photo must have been Kara’s idea; she loved those damn time-lapse pictures. Then there was a framed front-page headline from the Tribune announcing Supergirl’s arrival in National City with a glowing write-up about her penned by Cat Grant herself. Alex smiled at the sight; she was so proud of her little sister. She kept going down the row, the memories slotting more firmly into place with each photo. God, it must have been one hell of a nap. But there she was, honors cords draped around her neck, her dad half lifting her into the air on the morning of her graduation. And oh god, why did Kara possibly still have photos from her goth phase out on display? Then there was Kara, looking perfectly preppy with—Alex frowned—Astra. It felt…off. But they were right there. Alex trailed her finger over the glass of the frame, following the gentle waves of Astra’s hair, that one streak of white. But they didn’t…there was some reason… It felt like trying to grasp hold of water, details trickling away whenever she opened her hand to get a good look at them.
A rush of movement pulled her from her thoughts as a laughing Kara tumbled through the large bay window, followed closely by Astra.
“You cheated, Little One!” Astra called out, clutching her sides as she, too, was overcome with laughter.
“Fair and square. Now you have to make the pancakes.”
“You’re…you’re hanging out together?” Alex asked.
Astra and Kara looked at her in unison. “Of course,” Kara answered. “Ever since we found each other, Astra’s been helping me to hone my powers, remember?”
“Oh.” It felt right, Alex supposed.
“Poor Alex,” Astra cooed, stepping closer and wrapping an arm around her shoulders. She turned back to Kara. “This one has been so hard at work in the lab. I don’t think she’s gotten more than a few hours of sleep this week!” Alex damn near melted as a soft kiss was placed to her temple. “But now that she has her grant, I’ll finally get my girlfriend back.” This time the kiss was on her lips, and it felt more right than anything else had until that moment.
“Come on,” Kara grumbled. “You don’t have to shove the cuteness in my face.”
“It will happen for you too, don’t you worry.”
Alex latched onto the answering pink blush on Kara’s cheeks. “Oh my god, it totally already has! Kara, spill. Who are they?”
“No!” Kara bounded over the couch in a single jump, pelting Alex with a soft pillow and making her groan.
“Oh, it’s on. Astra, you make the pancakes. I’ll take care of getting answers from this one.”
Before Alex could get far, though, the door flung open, and…another Astra appeared? This one had a long cut across her cheek, and her movements were frantic as she cast her gaze all around the room.
“Alex!” the newcomer called out upon catching sight of her. “Alex, you need to come with me. Fast. I fear it has already been too long for you. You humans and your fragile, fragile bodies.”
“I just got here,” Alex mumbled. And there were pancakes to come.
“Please, Alex.”
Astra stepped forward then, standing between Alex and her lookalike. “You will not harm my Alex.”
“Your…” The woman’s brow furrowed for a moment, before her mouth dropped open. “Oh.”
Kara found her place next to Astra then, an easiness to their movements as they took up battle stances, as if they did this every day, fighting side-by-side. “You should leave.”
“Alex, wait! This isn’t real.”
“But it—it is,” Alex stammered. “We’re here. I can feel them.” She reached out to Astra, feeling the woman’s tense muscles grow pliant under her touch. Astra turned around and tangled their fingers together, pressing a soft kiss to her mouth once more.
A tear ran down the fake Astra’s cheek. “Alex, this is—something should feel wrong about this. You are under the sway of a plant called the Black Mercy. It has created a fantasy world.”
“I don’t—”
“If you stay here, you will die, Alex. But people on Earth still need you. Your sister needs you. The DEO needs you. I need you.”
“You’re right here. My sister is right here.” The two women flanked her, but they didn’t feel as right as they did before.
“You have to choose to leave; I cannot choose for you. But a very brave, very reckless woman once told me that the hardest choices are the ones most worth making.”
Something sharp seemed to tear through the seams of Alex’s thoughts. She dropped Astra and Kara’s hands.
“Come back and fight with me against Non.” Another tear. The woman wiped away a tear with her sleeve. “There are so many things I still want to do with you. There are more of your Sarah Waters books.”
“Don’t listen to her,” Kara hissed, grabbing Alex’s arm but too tightly, her grip pinching at Alex’s skin.
“You need to teach me how to do the laundry without making it tiny and pink.”
“She’s speaking nonsense,” Astra insisted, lunging at her lookalike. “Get out of here!”
“No!” Alex yelled.
“I have things—things I should tell you, Alex. But you need to come back to us first.”
As Alex took a step towards the woman, the floor shook.
Another step. The ceiling cracked.
A third step. The walls began crumbling, brick turning to dust.
A fourth, and her hand was right there, so close—
Alex woke up panting, her chest heaving and her stomach roiling.
There was a gasp from beside her. “You are alive!”
“Astra.”
“Put the cuffs back on her,” J’onn ordered.
“No!” Alex swallowed heavily, pushing past the knowledge surging back into her head—the knowledge that Astra was still maybe the enemy, that Kara didn’t have some close, special bond with her, and that Alex worked in the DEO, worked in the same place her dad had when he—when he died, when he was ripped from her life far too early.
“You need to rest, Agent Danvers.”
“Where’s Kara?”
It was Astra, rather than J’onn, who answered. “I tried to warn her that Non was planning an attack. He had left the Black Mercy to keep her distracted.” A pang of guilt flashed over Astra’s features, and Alex reached out a hand. “She will be fighting him and his followers now.”
Alex knew there were a 101 questions still to be answered, but none of them seemed to matter right then. “J’onn,” Alex pleaded, “If Non is attacking, let Astra go help. She’s—she’s on our side.”
“We have no proof of—”
“She just saved my life. And…and she’s saved my life before. That tip about Max? That was her.”
A string of emotions played across J’onn’s features. “And you’re only just now telling us?”
“I didn’t think she would be convinced by people like Lane and a team of DEO agents with kryptonite.” Astra scoffed, and Alex gritted her teeth. Definitely not the time for attitude. “I watched how she was with Kara. Sir, you saw all the moments when Astra could have killed her. But she didn’t.”
“Even still—”
“Please, J’onn, I am begging you. Keeping her locked up won’t help Kara to survive whatever is going on with Non. Astra knows his strategy. She’ll know what to do.”
J’onn glared over at Astra. “I will be at your side, and there will be a team of trained DEO agents ready with kryptonite should you so much as falter in your loyalties.”
---
Four broken bones, two bloody battles, one trip to space, a three-hour-long testimony in front of a military tribunal, and one long-delayed presidential pardon later, and Alex finally felt like she could breathe. The city was still standing, while Fort Rozz and the prisoners who had sided with Non were back in space. There had been casualties—Alex had learned long ago to stop hoping for battles without them—but there had been far fewer bodies to bury and lives to mourn than there would have been without Astra’s intervention. And the fact that Astra had personally saved the life of a high-ranking DEO agent with an uncle in the Senate probably hadn’t hurt her chances with the presidential pardon either.
The reality of it hadn’t quite sunk in yet. The weight of anxious anticipation no longer made Alex’s chest feel at risk of caving in any minute, but the idea that Astra was free…that her meetings with Kara would no longer have to be conducted in the DEO’s containment cells…that she and Astra were free to pursue whatever it was that had been growing between them…it all still felt like something that could be snatched away from her.
---
“Could you really think of nowhere else to meet, Agent?” Astra asked, a teasing lilt to her voice that was so far removed from the solemn, silent stranger Alex had discovered in the laundromat so many months ago.
“Well, ya know”—Alex shrugged, patting the weathered exterior of National Coin Laundromat—“it’s kind of our spot.”
“A romantic at heart, then.”
The toes of Alex’s boot dragged along the sidewalk. “I wasn’t sure, I mean—look, you’re a free woman now. You don’t have to—”
“Alex.” Warm fingers gently tilted Alex’s chin up until she met Astra’s gaze. “What was it your book said? When I am with you, it is like everything that came before has crumbled to dust?”
“Something like that.”
“Perhaps such a quote is too literal for someone like me, whose whole planet burned to ash, but you gave me hope, Alex. You showed me a way forward, a world with family and happiness and…and love.”
“You still want to be the other half of my oyster shell?” Somehow it was easier this way, easier to hide the rawness of everything she felt in the words of characters who had never been and never would be.
“Only we have no need for hiding now.”
A smile curled up the corners of Alex’s mouth as she reached out, tangling her fingers with Astra’s and dragging her forward for a proper kiss—one out in the open, the sun shining down on them, a new day breaking rather than closing. “But Astra?”
“Yes?”
“You’re telling Kara.”