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Kara has gotten pretty good at narrowing her range of hearing. She can’t save everyone, and if she hears them, she wants to. Instead, she’s learned to narrow her hearing so she can accomplish things other than flying around the city saving people. When she was Cat’s assistant it was harder; she had to do her work while also listening for that intake of breath that meant Cat was about to shout for her. Now she can focus solely on her office, though she does, admittedly, listen for Cat sometimes, just to check in.
She’s editing an article when she hears the click of her office door handle turning, no knock in advance. She looks up to find Carter Grant opening her door and grinning wide at her.
“Hey Kara!” he says. “You have your own office now!”
“Hey Carter,” she smiles. “I do have my own office now. It’s pretty sweet, huh?”
“Could use a window,” he says, coming inside.
“I don’t know,” Kara says. “I know your mom is big on glass everywhere, but in this office, no one can see if I just feel like taking a nap in the middle of the day.”
Carter giggles. “Mom would kill you.”
“Yeah, maybe don’t tell her that?”
“Deal.”
Carter drops himself into one of the chairs in front of her desk. He looks around, seemingly enthralled by the office.
Kara has no idea what he’s doing there—not that she minds. She likes him, and she’s kind of thrilled that he likes her enough to just show up at her office when she hasn’t seen him in months. She doesn’t have that much experience with kids. The idea that this teenager thinks she’s cool makes her feel pretty great.
“Do you like Halloween?” he asks suddenly.
Kara beams. “I love Halloween. There’s so much candy! And caramel apples and hot cocoa and—”
“And stuff that’s not food,” Carter says, laughing. “Like carving pumpkins and going to haunted houses.”
“I’m pretty much the queen of haunted houses,” Kara boasts. “I never get scared.”
It’s true. When you can hear the heartbeats of everyone hiding or use your x-ray vision to check the dark, it’s pretty easy to not be scared. She’s been going with Alex since they were kids. Kara always refuses to tell Alex where anything is and revels in her tough older sister screaming like a baby.
“I like haunted houses, but I definitely get scared,” Carter says. “Have you heard of the one the fire department is doing in an old warehouse?”
“Yes,” Kara drags out the word, because she wanted to go, but it’s sold out. The fire department’s haunted house sells out quickly every year, but it’s only the second week of October—Kara’s pretty sure it’s a new record.
“We have an extra ticket for tomorrow. You should come.”
She was going to go with Alex again but by the time they got online to check—”Wait, what?”
“Yeah, it’ll be great,” Carter says.
Kara stares at him. Her brain is still trying to catch up. “What?”
“My mom and I are going tomorrow. And now you’re going, too.”
Kara’s mouth opens and closes with no sound coming out. She’s so flustered she doesn’t realize Cat is in her doorway until she speaks.
“Carter, what have I told you about interrupting my employees while they work?”
“Not to do it, but you’ve also said that Kara gets more done in an hour than most get done in a day, so I figured I could interrupt her,” Carter says. Kara almost falls out of her chair, and Cat’s lips purse, but Carter continues apparently without noticing. “Plus I invited her to the haunted house with us tomorrow.”
Cat narrows her eyes. “You did what?”
“You said I could bring a friend, and Kara’s my friend. Right?” he asks with a timid glance at Kara that has her rushing to respond.
“Right. Absolutely I’m your friend, Carter,” she says.
“So you’ll come with us to the haunted house?”
Kara looks at Cat, who is leaning against her doorjamb, her arms crossed. Cat can’t possibly want her to come. Their relationship has been really good since her promotion, but this is a weekend night with her kid—why would she want a former assistant whose name she only recently started pronouncing correctly to be there? But Carter sounds hopeful, and it’s Kara’s one chance to go to a haunted house she really wants to go to, and one of the things Cat has taught her over the years is not to let opportunities pass her by. So even though she thinks she really probably should say no, she opens her mouth and says, “I can’t wait.”
Carter beams, and Cat makes no response whatsoever, and Kara thinks she might have made a horrible mistake.
-
Cat calls her Keira for the rest of the day. Cat finds excuses to interact with her—more than they usually do now that Kara isn’t her assistant, so Kara knows it must be on purpose—just so she can call her Keira.
Kara doesn’t mind, exactly. It is more than she usually sees Cat, and she actually likes seeing Cat, so it’s not a hardship. It makes her nervous though, makes her wonder what tomorrow night is going to be like. Makes her wonder what the hell she was thinking.
-
“What the hell were you thinking?”
Alex is not happy about the haunted house development.
“I was thinking I want to go!” Kara says for what feels like the hundredth time. “And Carter asked me and he seemed like he’d be sad if I said no.”
“Going to haunted houses is our thing!” Alex says. “I can’t believe you’re going without me. And I can’t believe you’re going with Cat Grant.”
“This way you can live vicariously through me,” Kara says. “I’ll tell you all about it and next year we’ll make sure to get our tickets early enough. I know you’re not mean enough to not want me to go just because you aren’t.”
“I’m exactly that mean.”
Kara rolls her eyes because she’s so totally not. Alex collapses on the couch, finally done pacing, defeated.
She sighs. “I can’t believe you’re going on a date with Cat Grant to a haunted house.”
“What? No! Alex!”
“You totally are,” Alex says. “You’ve had a crush on her for like a year, at least, and now her son asked you out for her.”
Kara pulls a pillow into her face so Alex can’t see how hard she’s blushing. “He did not ask me out for her.”
“Sorry, can’t hear you, pillowface.”
Kara throws the pillow at Alex’s head. “He didn’t ask me out for her! This isn’t a date!”
“Maybe not,” Alex shrugs. “But now that I’ve suggested it you’re gonna be freaking out the whole time.”
“I hate you.”
“You deserve this for going without me.”
-
They’re not meeting until eight, and Alex is right—Kara spends most of the day freaking out. She doesn’t know what to wear; she doesn’t know how she’s supposed to act. She doesn’t know how Cat is going to dress, or act, or anything.
It’s not a date, obviously; Alex just likes to tease Kara about her crush. Which, she doesn’t have that big a of a crush on Cat—who is completely unobtainable and not interested anyway, so it really doesn’t matter if being around her makes Kara feel like she’s stretched out in the sun.
So it’s not a date, but it’s not work either. Kara is going because she’s friends with Carter—and, okay, maybe a little bit because of the being around Cat feeling like sunshine thing. But Carter is what matters. She’s going to stop worrying and just go, and it’s going to be fun. She can handle whatever Cat does.
-
Kara sees Carter first, and starts toward him, waving. He waves back and then Cat, beside him, turns around.
Kara almost swallows her tongue.
Cat’s in light blue jeans, scuffed over her right thigh, with an actual hole over the left knee. Her button down is a style of plaid Alex could probably identify, but Kara can only say is red and blue and, like, really cute on Cat. Her sleeves are rolled up and her shirt’s tucked in in the front, the back hanging out. She’s wearing black trainers that probably cost more than anything Kara owns, but still—Cat Grant is wearing sneakers.
She’s gorgeous, in a completely different way than Kara has ever seen her before. And she smells different, which Kara doesn’t even want to notice, wishes she was too far away to notice, but superhero senses will do that to you. Cat smells like autumn leaves even though they’re in the desert in California. There’s a hint of her everyday perfume under it, too, and Kara’s head spins.
“Miss Grant, you look—” amazing, incredible, criminally good— “casual.”
Kara cringes as the word comes out of her mouth.
Cat furrows her eyebrows at her. “Did you think I was going to do a haunted house in heels?”
Kara hadn’t considered it, really. She’d thought about what Cat would wear, yes, but she’s never seen Cat in anything but heels, so she didn’t even think to imagine anything different. But here Cat is in sneakers, looking casual and not like her boss. She doesn’t look like the Queen of all Media. She looks like a regular person—a regularly, insanely beautiful person—and Kara doesn’t know what to do. She hasn’t managed to put one foot in front of the other since she saw Cat; she’s still standing in the same place, staring.
“I believe you have to actually move in order to go into the haunted house, Keira,” Cat says.
“Right, yes,” Kara says, and takes the last few steps to join them. “Hey, Carter.”
“Hey, Kara,” Carter says. He emphasizes her name and gives his mom a look. Cat rolls her eyes.
“Do we have to wait in that?” Kara asks, pointing to the line of people wrapping around the corner and out of view.
“Those of people hoping reservations have been cancelled,” Carter says. “Since we’ve already got tickets, we just go over here.”
Carter leads the way toward a much shorter line. Cat follows, and Kara follows behind her, too used to being the deferential assistant to even consider walking side by side. She notices how nice Cat looks from behind, wishes her shirt didn’t hang down quite so far so Kara could see how her butt looks in those jeans.
And just like that Kara decides maybe she’ll go walk with Carter instead. Cat huffs at her as she passes.
“Are you excited?” Kara asks once she reaches Carter.
He nods but doesn’t smile.
“Nervous?”
“A little,” he says, and Kara loves that he’s comfortable enough to be vulnerable with her.
They reach the line and Kara makes sure to stand on the other side of Carter, not close to Cat, like that will prevent her from getting distracted.
“Kara says she never gets scared at haunted houses,” Carter tells Cat.
“Is that so?” Cat gives her an appraising look.
Kara blushes. “Well, you know, they’re not legally allowed to touch you,” she shrugs. “So I just remember that nothing can actually hurt me and it’s easy.”
Cat hmms at her. Kara tries not to worry.
She thinks Cat might know she’s Supergirl, is the thing. Kara usually doesn’t think about it too hard, because when she does, she becomes sure Cat knows. Kara’s office is five steps from a fire escape—a distance she can easily make with no one seeing her. It’s windowless, the perfect place for a quick change. Cat has stopped asking where Kara disappears to during the day. Part of that is with the new job, Cat doesn’t know where she is all day anyway, but she’s missed entire meetings without so much as a batted eyelash from Cat. Kara can only think of one reason for that.
And maybe she’s imagining it, but it seems like Cat always checks on her after Supergirl has done something. Kara will get back to work, get herself put back together. Anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour later, she’ll be summoned to Cat’s office for a question about layouts or an article she submitted earlier in the week or a critique of Erica, the new assistant Kara hired for Cat. She’s summoned to Cat’s office a lot, Supergirl activities or no, so she can’t say for sure that Cat is checking on her. But Cat always looks at her when it’s after Supergirl has done something. She looks Kara up and down, every time, and regularly she’s too busy with her email or her phone or putting two pairs of glasses on her face. It feels different, and good, if she lets herself think about it too much. So instead Kara just tries not to think about any of it at all.
When they get to the front of the line, an employee explains the rules. He’s good at his job, makes it sound terrifying even as he’s explaining nothing can actually hurt you inside the warehouse. Kara fiddles with her glasses as he talks, checking the first few rooms. It looks like it starts pretty easy—someone in a coffin, a few people hiding behind doors, that sort of thing. She grins; this is going to be fun.
She listens for Cat and Carter’s heartbeats, wants to get a base level before they get inside so she can monitor how scared they are. It’s something she’s always done for Alex, because there’s fun levels of scared and then there are decidedly not fun levels of scared, and she likes to be ready to step in before it crosses the line. Cat’s pulse is already a little higher than what Kara is used to—two years as her assistant and she knows the sound pretty well.
“So what do you think, are you ready?” the employee asks.
“Yeah!” Carter exclaims, and Kara catches herself smiling at him in the same way Cat does.
“Good luck,” the worker drags the words out ominously.
They head inside.
When the door closes behind them, it’s pitch black. Cat shuffles closer to Kara.
“Remind me why we’re doing this, again, honey,” she says to Carter.
Carter laughs. “It’s going to be awes—”
A door flies open. Strobe lights flash, and for a moment Kara doesn’t notice anything else except Cat’s fingers curling around her bicep. The door slams closed and Cat’s grip tightens and oh, Kara loves haunted houses.
“See, Mom?” Carter is still laughing. “This is the best!”
Cat lets go of Kara’s arm. It’s still almost completely dark, so Kara doesn’t have to hide her grin as they move toward the next room.
The second room is eerily lit—a blue lightbulb flickering on and off above them. There are two coffins. From one there is a scratching, getting steadily louder, more desperate. Inside, someone moans help me. Carter shuffles past the coffin, keeping his eyes on it but keeping his body as far from it as he can. Cat does the same. Kara, who’s already seen the person in the other coffin, knows they’ve fallen into a trap.
The lid to the second coffin bursts open and the person in it sits up and screams.
Cat screams louder.
Kara steps closer to her so Cat’s flailing hands have something to hold. They catch on her scarf then immediately let go as Cat tries to calm herself.
“How many rooms are there, Carter?” she whispers, like if the workers can’t hear her they won’t scare her.
“Forty-seven,” Carter says, voice breathless. “And some hallways, too.”
Kara checks the next room—empty. There’s creepy music, and screams of other people in the haunted house filter through the vents. Carter and Cat tiptoe through the room.
“Did you—” Kara starts and Cat jumps at the sound of her voice. “Sorry, Miss Grant. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
Cat only spares her the quickest glare before going back to scanning the room for danger.
“Did you not want to come?” Kara asks quietly.
Kara figures it’s okay to ask because Carter is moving faster than Cat and probably can’t overhear.
“Is now really the best time for small talk, Keira?” Cat sputters. Then louder she says, “Carter, if you end up dead because you went too far ahead on your own I’m not even going to mourn you.”
“Maybe you’re gonna die ’cause you’re too slow!”
Kara chuckles as Cat picks up the pace.
The next room has clowns, and Cat rolls her eyes so hard Kara can hear it. Both Cat and Carter are thoroughly unimpressed by the clowns, and Kara is glad Cat gets a break from being scared. Her heart is already going really fast. Kara figures maybe she just needed to settle in and she’ll be fine.
-
She is not fine.
The clown room is the only room she makes it through without screaming. Kara wants to put Cat out of her misery, warn her when jump scares might be coming. She wants Cat to feel safe. Except every time she’s scared, Cat reaches for Kara. She clutches and squeezes and Kara feels bad about it, really, but she lets herself be selfish. She lets herself revel in the warmth of Cat’s body close to her. The tightness of Cat’s grip, her fingers wrapped around the bare skin of Kara’s arm. About halfway through the warehouse, Kara takes a risk, pushes her palm gently against Cat’s lower back as they move down a hallway.
“Are you okay, Miss Grant?” she asks gently.
“No, I am not okay, Kara,” Cat snaps. “Can’t you see where these demons are? Why aren’t you warning me?”
“What?”
This is why Kara really thinks Cat knows she’s Supergirl.
Before Cat can respond, there’s maniacal laughter from the front of them. Cat steps closer still to Kara, and reaches out to keep Carter close, too.
Kara wants to be worried about Cat knowing. She used to think she should be worried, but she can’t quite convince herself of that anymore. She no longer thinks Cat would expose her. With that fear gone, the only thing to be scared about is enemies using Cat to get to Supergirl, but that’s already happened. So no, Kara can’t bother being worried about if Cat knows. She’s much more focused on memorizing the feeling of Cat next to her.
And maybe she uses her hand on Cat’s back to steer her away from anything that’s going to scare her. Kara can’t help it. It makes her feel chivalrous, and she likes that.
The haunted house gets scarier as it goes on, so by the time they’re nearing the end, even with Kara steering her toward safety, Cat’s pulse is through the roof. She won’t let Carter, who, thankfully, is having a blast, out of arm’s reach.
Then there’s the guy with the chainsaw.
Kara knows it’s either a prop or at least doesn’t have the chain. She knows it can’t hurt them. But it’s loud, and Cat flees, which lets the guy chase them. Instead of an easy way out, though, they’re in a maze of hallways. They end up cornered against a locked door.
Cat doesn’t just clutch at Kara, She turns her whole body into Kara’s, buries her face in her neck. Kara’s heart leaps, and so does that protectiveness streak.
“Hey, Cat, I’ve got you,” she murmurs, just loud enough to be heard over the chainsaw. Carter is flat against the wall, and Kara puts a hand on his shoulder, her other arm wrapped around Cat. “No one can hurt you.” She talks right into Cat’s ear. “I won’t let them. You know if you were actually in any danger, I’d get you out of here. You’re safe. I promise.”
It’s maybe a little too obvious, a little too close to just saying “I’m Supergirl.” But Kara has never seen Cat Grant afraid of anything before tonight. She’s seen her nervous, maybe, worried about a merger or a board meeting or the Trib’s sales numbers. But now Cat is afraid enough to press her body against Kara’s like Cat could disappear inside of her, and Kara is not going to let her down.
Cat eases herself back to look up at Kara. The guy with the chainsaw is still waving it around, barely more than five feet from them, but Cat does nothing but look at her.
“I’ve got you,” Kara says. It’s a lot harder to get out than when Cat’s head was burrowed against her neck. She manages to hold eye contact, though. She’s not sure what goes through Cat’s mind, but she thinks it might be important.
Then Cat gives a nod and turns to her son. “We’ve been through forty-six rooms and four hallways, Carter. The next is the last?”
Carter hasn’t looked away from the chainsaw. “Yeah,” he mumbles.
Kara squeezes his shoulder. “You know for haunted houses they take the chains off chainsaws so they can’t hurt anyone, they just make noise,” she says. “It might not even be a real chainsaw, just a prop. So I’m going to lead the way past him and to the last room, and then we’ll be done, okay?”
Carter doesn’t look at her, but he says, “Okay.”
-
As soon as they’re out of the warehouse, Carter has forgotten all about how scared he was.
“That was awesome,” he says. “Wasn’t it awesome, you guys?”
Kara’s hand is still on Cat’s lower back. “It was pretty great.”
“I think I have an ulcer,” Cat says.
“C’mon, Mom!” Carter laughs. “You didn’t have any fun?”
Cat moves out of Kara’s reach. “I suppose I may have had a tiny amount of fun,” she says. “But it’s outweighed by my new ulcer, which can only be cured with hot chocolate.”
Carter laughs loud and bright and leads the way toward the vendors selling food and drink.
“You didn’t seem like you had fun, Miss Grant,” Kara says. “Not even a tiny amount.”
“There were aspects that weren’t completely terrible.”
Kara doesn’t think it’s fair, how easily she blushes. Shouldn’t superheroes be immune to that sort of thing? She feels ridiculous, red-faced over not completely terrible. Cat might not even be talking about her, maybe some other part of the night wasn’t completely terrible. But Kara follows Cat to where Carter is standing in line and feels like it’s a midsummer day instead of a cool October night.
Cat tells Carter he can get a drink and one thing to eat, and Carter looks studiously at the menu.
“Oh man,” Kara says, because engaging with Carter is way better than obsessing about not completely terrible. “How are you going to pick?”
“Well, we’ve already had pizza, so I don’t need that.”
Kara glances at Cat. “Cat Grant ate pizza?”
“It was even thick crust with regular cheese instead of the weird stuff she usually gets,” Carter says.
“Sweet,” Kara says instead of commenting on it, instead of grinning about it. “So if not pizza, what?”
“I’ve got it narrowed down to caramel apple, maple cotton candy, and kettle corn.”
“All very fall-oriented. I like it.”
“Caramel apples get stuck in your teeth,” Carter says like he’s talking to himself, figuring out his choices.
“Yeah, but they’re so good it’s worth it,” Kara says.
“But you can’t share them.”
“You can, too,” Kara says. “You just pass back and forth every bite.”
Carter and Cat both look at her like she’s crazy.
“What?”
“Germs,” Carter grimaces. “I don’t want to put my mouth where someone else’s mouth was.”
“Oh, right,” Kara says. Sometimes she forgets to pay attention to things like germs. “Though I don’t really get why people care about germs in times like that and not like, when you’re kissing someone. Because you’re gonna swap way more germs kissing than sharing a caramel apple.” Kara makes eye contact with Cat, and panics. “I mean, not that any of us are going to be kissing, obviously. It’s just like—it’s just true it’d be more germs but no one worries about it then. But yeah, okay, so you can’t share caramel apples, but you know you can get whatever you want and you don’t have to worry about sharing, right?”
“Right,” Carter drags the word out, and Kara stares hard at the menu so she doesn’t have to look at him or Cat. “Anyway, Mom, can I get the big bag of kettle corn so there’s enough for everyone?”
“If that’s what you want, sweetheart.”
Carter nods firmly. “It is.”
Kara thinks maybe she loves him for changing the subject, even though she still can’t look at either of them. Talking about kissing wasn’t the problem—that could have been a normal conversation, but she looked at Cat, who had one of her little smirks, and Kara wanted to kiss it off, and it all kind of fell apart from there.
Cat orders for Carter when they reach the front of the line. At the end, she tacks on, “Add a hot chocolate and what would you like to drink, Kara?”
Kara finally looks at her. “Oh, Miss Grant, you don’t have to—”
“Make that two hot chocolates and a cider,” Cat tells the vendor, apparently getting Kara one of each. She pauses, then says, “And maple cotton candy and two caramel apples.”
Carter says Mom and Kara says Miss Grant at the same time in the same reverent voice. Cat rolls her eyes.
“You two were so obnoxious trying to figure out what to order I couldn’t take it,” she says.
As Cat pays, Carter leans toward Kara. “Sometimes my mom says mean stuff when she means the opposite,” he whispers.
“She doesn’t think we were obnoxious?” Kara whispers back, fully aware Cat can hear them.
“Obnoxiously cute, maybe,” Carter grins.
“You are most definitely obnoxious, young man,” Cat says. She’s holding both caramel apples. “The only reason you’re allowed to have this is because I don’t have enough hands to carry everything myself.”
He’s still grinning as she hands him one. Kara takes the other and stumbles over thank you as her fingers tangle with Cat’s for a moment around the stick.
The parking lot at the warehouse is lit by bright lights and filled with picnic tables, enticing anyone who has finished the haunted house to stay for a while and spend more. Carter slides onto the bench of a picnic table, sits right in the middle. Cat takes the other side, just the edge of the bench, and the only place for Kara to sit is beside her. She thinks not completely terrible, thinks obnoxiously cute, maybe. She doesn’t sit close enough to touch, at first, but then Cat moves farther onto the bench and their elbows brush. This whole night, Kara’s had trouble holding back her smile.
But then she doesn’t have to, because Carter and Cat are fighting over the maple cotton candy, Carter trying to keep it away from Cat—”You always say cotton candy is too sugary!” “I also always say listen to your mother and look how much you pay attention to that!”—and it’s impossible not to laugh at them.
Cat ends up with a big handful that she licks off her fingers, and Kara determinedly looks away.
“Have you had a good weekend so far, Carter?”
“Oh yeah,” Carter beams. “The haunted house was great, obviously, and earlier we got pumpkins.”
“For carving or pie?” Kara asks, reaching for a handful of kettle corn.
“Both!” he says. “We always go to a pumpkin patch out of town. It’s kinda far but it’s so much better than trying to find a pumpkin at a grocery store. Plus, there’s a corn maze. Mom always tries to beat her time from the previous year, even though the maze changes so you can’t really compare times.”
Kara looks back at Cat, who is thankfully finished with her cotton candy. “How fast did you do it this year?”
“Seven minutes and twenty two seconds,” Cat smirks. “My third fastest time.”
Carter rolls his eyes at her. “You weren’t fast in the pumpkin patch, though.”
“Well, it takes time to pick out the perfect pumpkin.” Cat doesn’t look at all embarrassed.
Kara can hardly believe she’s getting to see this. At the beginning of the night, Cat Grant in jeans and sneakers surprised her, but this is so much more. Cat is domestic and nonchalant. She’s not putting on a show for anyone. Kara’s not sure she’s ever seen Cat this much herself—she’s always the boss with Kara or the journalist with Supergirl. Even when she’d get too tipsy and give Kara life advice, she was the mentor. Now she just seems like Cat. She’s not that different from any of her personas—her edges are still a little sharp—but she’s calmer here. There’s a tension that’s disappeared now that she’s not putting on a performance. Her smile comes easier, and Kara wants to curl up in it, wrap it around herself like a blanket.
Carter pauses before taking a bite of his caramel apple. “Hey Kara, what are you doing next weekend?”
“Carter,” Cat says, her voice a warning Kara doesn’t understand.
“Right,” Carter says. “I’m not supposed to ask like that because it’s manipulative because if you say you’re not doing anything then you don’t have an excuse not to come. Sorry. What I meant was: I’d like it if you came over next weekend and carved pumpkins with us.”
Kara blinks. “Like. In your house?”
“Yeah, we put down newspaper or cardboard so the guts don't get everywhere. It's fun.”
Kara smiles, for a second, because it sounds awesome, but then she swallows and glances at Cat.
Carter notices and says, “She’s already said it was okay. She’s the one who told me how I should ask, since apparently I didn’t give you a chance to say no to the haunted house.” He takes a bite of his apple and doesn’t look at her.
“Hey, Carter,” Kara says immediately. “I never would have said no to the haunted house, no matter how you asked.”
He still doesn’t look at her, but Kara sees him smiling as he chews. Cat smiles at her, too, actually smiles at her, and Kara doesn’t know how she got in this situation, but she really doesn’t mind.
“And, uh, I'd love to carve pumpkins with you, if I'm free next weekend,” she says, scratching at the peeling paint of the picnic table. “I gotta check with my sister and stuff, but it sounds awesome.”
Carter’s grin grows. “Sweet.”
Kara left herself an out because she's not sure if she was supposed to say yes. She came tonight without Cat’s approval, really, and even though it feels like it's going well, what if it's not? Maybe Cat is hoping she’ll leave soon. She’ll have to ask Cat about next weekend, to be sure it’s all right. She’s had such a wonderful time tonight but she doesn't want to do anything that would make Cat uncomfortable.
Kara stress eats almost half the bag of kettle corn before realizing what she's doing and slowing down. She takes a sip of her cider instead, blows on it first like she’s supposed to.
When Carter has finished his caramel apple he says, “Hey Mom, how’s your ulcer doing?”
Cat narrows her eyes at him. “Why?”
“You said it could only be cured by hot chocolate, right?” He smiles innocently at her. “I thought maybe I could go get you some more, you know, to help. And maybe I could get myself another cup, too.”
Kara turns her snicker into a cough.
“You're trouble, you know?” Cat says.
“You raised me,” Carter grins.
Cat rolls her eyes but Kara can see the corners of her mouth turn up. She pulls out a ten dollar bill.
“Thanks, Mom!” Carter says, grabbing the money and racing away before Cat can respond.
Kara chuckles a little, watching him go. Once he’s out of earshot, though, she turns seriously to Cat.
“Miss Grant,” she says. “I know I told Carter I'd come carve pumpkins, but if you'd rather I didn't I can just—”
“Can just let my son down?”
“Well, no, I—”
“I'm not opposed to having you in my home, Kara. If I were, I wouldn't have allowed Carter to ask.” Cat looks bored with this conversation. “If you don't want to, you can let him down yourself, but you're not using me as an excuse.”
“No, Miss Grant, I’d—I’d love to.”
She would love to. The thought of getting to spend more time around Cat like this is intoxicating. It makes her think that maybe this could be a date, like maybe Cat isn’t as unobtainable as Kara thought. She can’t believe Cat and Carter talked about her. Carter wanted to invite her and Cat not only said yes but instructed him in how to ask. It feels like a lot.
A breeze blows through the parking lot, and Kara fakes a shiver. She hunches her shoulders and scooches toward Cat on the bench. She wonders if this is what Alex would call game.
Cat looks at her, doesn’t move away. “Can you even get cold?”
Kara tries not to flinch. “Miss Grant…”
“Don’t you have some kind of 20-something metabolism that prevents that?”
Cat looks smug, and if this were something Kara wanted to deal with, she’d say Cat definitely knows she’s Supergirl. But Kara doesn’t want to deal with it, so she just shrugs and stays huddled, closer to Cat than necessary.
“I guess you were smart to go with long sleeves, Miss Grant. You look—”
“Casual?” Cat arches an eyebrow.
“Nice,” Kara says. “Really nice.”
Cat has a lot of different smiles—smirks and grins and smiles that are no more than a twitch of her lips. Kara’s favorite smile is when Cat looks pleased , looks like Kara has done exactly what Cat wanted her to do. That's how she looks right now. Kara bites the inside of her lip to hide her own smile.
“Give me a bite of that caramel apple,” Cat says.
Kara’s smile comes out, whether she likes it or not. “I thought there were too many germs, Miss Grant.”
“If I wouldn't worry about germs when kissing, why should I now?”
“Well, um, we’ve never kissed, Miss Grant.”
Cat smirks at her and Kara adjusts her glasses.
“I just mean it'd still be more germs than otherwise.”
“Are you going to argue with me about this or are you going to share your apple?”
Kara hands over the caramel apple. She pretends not to notice when Cat bites in almost the exact same spot Kara had bitten first.
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