Work Text
One day, they are just there. Kara still tired shuffles towards her kitchen. She notices on some level that her steps feel oddly light when a blinding pain races through her body. When she whirls around there is a noise and then there is pain again. That’s when she realizes that it is them and they hurt because they are too high for the door frame.Kara stares at them wild eyed and reaches for her phone. “Alex? I think I need help.”
*~*~*
“Yepp,” she says. “It’s still me.” when Alex brings her in. The DEO staff all stare at her and Kara has the distinct feeling that things will never be the same again.One man steps forward. His name is Pat. Kara remembers him as an analyst. He always wears a tiny gold chain with a cherub around his neck. “But how?” he asks.“Whatever it is, we’ll figure out,” Alex assures.Kara locks eyes with J’onn and Mon-El and they all think Thanagar, but when Alex compares the samples, it’s not the same material. Besides Thanagarians don’t really do blinding white wings and they also don’t have the kind that come and go.“Do they hurt,” Mon-El asks and snags the tip of one of her feathers. “Fuck you,” Kara blurts out and glares at him, her wings trembling.“Sorry, was just asking.”
*~*~*
When they take the sample, directly from the bones of her wings, it hurts so much Kara thinks she’s going to puke. She breaks the backrest of the chair she’s sitting on with her hands. Mon-El slides into the chair in front of her and offers her his hand.She stares at it in confusion for a sec, before she gets it. Kara takes it into hers and squeezes it so tight she might be able to break even his fingers, while she screams like a woman giving birth.
*~*~*
Afterwards the DEO staff bring in cameras, spectometers and the whole shebang.Kara feels nauseous popping the wings out and retracting them over and over again, as they study the process of how they fold out of her back. She can hear what they say, apparently dimension shifting is involved and just a hint of magic. It makes her feel nauseous and exposed, to have them all staring at her, at an act that feels like it should be very private. “Please, Alex,” can I go? Don’t you have enough? She asks as she looks at her sister with silently pleading eyes. Alex comes over and hugs her, calling off the test battery.“We’ll try to work with what we have.”Later she comes to report. Best guess they have is that it’s an alien virus, except not from any species they know of. Kara racks her brain, going through everyone she has thought recently or anybody who could be capable of this, but she comes up empty.
*~*~*
The first hard call is to Clark. She calls him from the meeting room at the DEO.As always, his smile is so bright and earnest cheerful it almost hurts.He’s concerned, naturally as she stutters and tries to explain that they have a situation here and that he shouldn’t worry, but maybe he should clear of National City for a while, clear of her, just in case that it is contagious.“What’s up”, Mon-El says, peeking his head in the door. Zzap and, of course, they unfurl themselves.“Mon-El!” she yells angrily.“Sorry,” he says and disappears. She turns back to Clark, her face red. Yeah, she says lapidarily and points at them. “That.”
*~*~*
The first time she tries to take off with them out, she wobbles. She’s not used to them, they throw off her balance.She feels self conscious in a way she hasn’t felt since high school?This is going to be hell.“Kara, why don’t you stay and … ““No, I’ll figure it out.”“We can send J’onn and Mon-El to take the alert.”“No!”“You are not well.”“I can do this, Alex, I swear I can.”
*~*~*
The first time she lands it leaves everybody stunned. Even the robbers lower their weapons, unprepared and she sweeps for them and has them locked in before they’ve caught their breath.Normally, she stays to chat with the people she’s saved. She’s used to the amazement she inspires, knows how to resolve it with a smile or a deprecating joke. Only this time, it’s different. There is a different quality to how they look at her, speechless, tears in their eyes.She doesn’t want to think of it, and so she takes off, with barely a wave goodbye this time.Later, there is a guy called Firefly, with a jetpack on his back. He catches her, with a dropkick right between her wings and it knocks the air clean out of her. There are spots in front of her eyes and Alex worried voice over the comm.Thankfully Mon-El is there, jumping to catch Firefly and pull him to the ground by his foot. She ignores the pain to barrel down and slam down on him and once more the city is safe again.
*~*~*
Alex pulls her aside.“We have to talk.”Kara feels a worried rumble in her belly, because she can see that Alex is nervous. It’s never a good sign when Alex is nervous on a topic that doesn’t involve dating women.“What is it? Have you found something?”“We are working on it.”Kara’s face falls. “So you haven’t figured out a way to get rid of them.”“Kara, we are just at the beginning and for now, we are at a loss, but I’ll find it. I’ll find it for you.”Kara crosses her arms in front of her chest. “Cut them off.”“What?” Alex recoils.“I meant what I said, cut them off.”“We can’t just… That’s not what… ”“Alex, they don’t mean anything. Just cut them off.”
*~*~*
She knows her sisters hands are shaking as she wields the buzzsaw. Alex asked her whether she wants the windows darkened, but Kara has denied it. Let them see, let them see how little she cares. And so J’onn and Mon-El stand there, arms crossed, with worried eyes. Winn has gone pale and doubled over the moment he saw Alex uncover her tools.At the worst moment, they start to flap, fanning out. Alex jumps back, just before Kara almost hits her in the chest.“Maybe we should … ““No, just do it!”“Then stop!” Alex cries out, her hands still clutching the buzzing saw.“I can’t!” The wings still beat, like an animal defending its territory.Mon-El can’t stand it and comes in and stands before her. “You are serious about this.”Kara looks him straight in the eye. “Yes, I am.”
*~*~*
And so Mon-El holds them, holds them in place, so Alex can approach, wrestling them in place. They twitch and strain against his grip, but they are weaker than Kara’s body normally is.“Kara,” Alex asks. “Do you...”“Yes!” she cries out, tears in her eyes. “Just do it.”There is the sickening sound of whirring blade against solid bone and Kara screams and screams and screams.Alex takes just the right one, blood spurts all over and Kara can see that Alex eyes are full of tears as well. “It’s gonna be okay,” her wonderful, sister doctor agent mouths to her and tries to give Kara a smile as she rushes in to cover up the bloody stump.For a second, Kara is convinced that her sister can do anything.Behind them, the wing slides down, discarded, but it dissolves into nothingness before it hits the floor.
*~*~*
“Just go,” she says, her voice raspy.“No, I’m not leaving my sister when she’s in a state like this.”“Alex, I’m fine. I’m just tired. Let me sleep already.”Alex frets and pouts, but eventually she complies, letting Kara breathe more easily.Curled up on her side on the gurney, she breathes more deeply now, pain radiating from her back. The left one still twitches as if searching for his second. Kara rests her eyes and smiles a satisfied smile. She’s gonna thank Alex, assure her again that it’s fine. They can figure out what it was and where they came from afterwards.There is a metallic taste in her mouth, which she decides to ignore. Instead she sucks in a deep, calming breath and so the remaining one withdraws, as does the stump.She feels her heart beating loudly.She opens her eyes, focuses and they unfurl from her back.Large. White. Majestic.Both of them.That’s when she quietly starts to sob.
*~*~*
She has to be reasonable about this. Has to, if she wants to carry on with her life.Truth is, she can’t fully control them. They seem to be linked to adrenaline, popping out, flapping majestically, loud and most of all: visible. She knows there is only one option, because she knows Kara Danvers can’t just be sick with the flu forever.“It’s no big deal,” she says.“I’m an adult,” she says.And so Kara Danvers takes a sabbatical, one year in Europe, maybe less. (Hopefully less) It’s hard enough to hide being Supergirl already, she can’t really do it when suddenly big white wings burst out of her back every time there is a sharp noise, while at the same explaining that Supergirl seems to be only other person with the same problem.So she makes the calls, sends the letters, goes in to hug everybody goodbye, smiles through her goodbye party and afterwards she cries in her sister’s arms.“I worked so hard. So hard for this.”So hard to be Kara Danvers, to be accepted among humans, to get this job, to get their respect just for what she can do, for her words and not her strength.“I know, I know, it’s gonna be alright. I don’t know how, but we’ll find a way. I’m not gonna stop.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Of course the humans have to be weird about it. There has always been this unsettling undercurrent in the way they look up to her, but now it’s gotten worse. Now when she lands to take on a robber, people start crying when they see her. Some have started to come to National City just for her. They hold sign with tear stained eyes and beg her to tell them when the end of this world is coming. She wishes she could explain to them that what they worship is a hindrance to her rather than a blessing. That they are an alien virus she wishes she could get rid off. When they come out and flap in the wind, it actually makes her slower. And they are vulnerable, unlike the rest of her body. Even Alex … Kara knows that her sister loves her unconditionally. But she’s seen the way Alex looks at her from the side. Sometimes. And it’s hard to talk about it without, well, being insulting. “It’s not real.”“What?”“What you are thinking of. It’s a virus. We agreed on that. It’s not a sign from your God.” Because, unlike Rao, your earth God probably isn’t real, she adds mentally. “And it’s not there to send you a message for being gay.” “I, I wasn’t thinking about that.”Kara tilts her head, but doesn’t dare to challenge that.
*~*~*
She sorta likes how chill Mon-El is about it. Yeah, he is still kind of fascinated by them. When he likes to tug and ruffle her feathers with an inquisitive look on his face. But he treats it like they are a particularly oddly shaped mole. Then again, it probably helps that he too is from a place where seeing humanoids with wings didn’t mean a blessing of the Gods rather than just that Thanagar was trying to stage an invasion again. So she lets him hang around. Telling herself, it’s probably a good idea to get used to him, get used to his presence.Because one of the things she doesn’t like to think about is that they really, really like coming out around Mon-El. She figures, it must be any kind of agitation, that triggers them and whether she likes it or not, Mon-El is really good at getting under her skin. Doesn’t make it any less embarrassing that they pop out like a giant girl boner every time he walks into the room. That too is an uncomfortable thought and she realizes that she has to test her theory, for the sake of her peace of mind. And so she settles down on the couch. Her panties rustle as she slips her hand inside and sure enough, out they burst, beating the air nervously. Well fuck. As if her love life didn’t suck enough already. How is she supposed to do anything if she can’t touch herself without knocking over every vase and picture and pot in her apartment?
*~*~*
She takes a silent flight out into the night. Finds herself on her skyscraper, looking down on the city. She settles down, with her back against a red brick chimney. A light smile plays around her lips. Kara loves her city. Loves it. Likes watching it in peace. She picked this spot for a reason, abandoned no traffic cameras in sight. Here she can see and listen without being seen. So she listens inward, listens to her city. The insulted cry of a baby. Tiny insect feet rustling across a sheet of paper. The bubbling of a stew on somebody’s stove. She needs these moments, to remind herself why she loves doing what she does. The cool night air caressing her face, around all the smells and sounds of the city she has decided to made hers. Her hands start working on their own, stripping off her clothes. Here she is loved, here she is save from prying eyes, here she can touch herself without breaking everything in her wake. So she sits naked, wings flapping, hands trailing down her sensitive belly. Her hips cant forward to meet her fingers, as she makes love to herself and the air against her bare skin feels like freedom. She twists and moans, rubbing her back against the bricks, their harshness turning into sparks. “Kara?”She screams. Her eyes tear open, meeting confused blue-grey ones.
Mon-El.
Of course it has to be Mon-El.
Her wings slam shut in front of her, covering her nakedness like a para-vent. He whirls around, turning his back. “I...I...”“What are you doing here?” She yells, trying to navigate from underneath her feather cloak, fingers feeling around for her clothes. “We were worried. You turned off your comm and this was your last known location. I wanted to check up on you.”
She’s gonna kill him. Murder him with her bare hands.
*~*~*
And so she lives with them. She decides, she can’t let them unravel her life even more than they already have. With no more Danvers, no more CatCo, she throws herself into Supergirl. She has to do this. Has to retrain. They are a liability, that she has to work around. Has to study, learn them, the way they react, how to move with them, fly with them, fight with them. Countless hours in the training room, learning how to take the pain when they get hit, how draw them back instantly after they explode outwards, sweat dripping down her back. “Again," she says over and over again, disregarding the concerned look in Alex and Mon-El's eyes. “Again.”
*~*~*
“Guess they are not going away, huh,” he says and joins her on the balcony. “Looks that way.” He frowns at her wings and then ducks under them, to he stand beside her. “There’s something I wanted to talk to you about.” He clears his throat. “Before those things, I feel like there was kinda something happening.” He looks her straight in the eye. “I was wondering if you would like to go back to that.”She stares at him and isn’t sure whether he has the best or the worst timing. “Something happening... You mean like me, yelling at you, because you were endangering civvies, because you couldn’t keep your emotions in check?”Mon-El grins, relieved. “Yeah, like that.” It’s probably a terrible idea. She probably has other things to worry about. But right now, to feel, even if it’s just a little bit, like before seems like a tempting idea. And so she says: “Yeah, let’s do that.” He leans in for a kiss, her breath gets caught in her throat and her wings quiver. She smacks him on the arm. “Not here,” she whispers. His smile widens. “But somewhere.”“Yeah.” Kara finds herself grinning. “Good,” he says and turns to leave. She thinks she can see an extra swagger in his walk. “Maybe we should go on a date first,” she calls after him and then quickly covers her mouth and wonders how many people have heard that.
*~*~*
They meet on a rooftop, her bringing the chairs and the table, him bringing the food and table cloth. And so they sit across each other, at a table that feels way too small to prevent their hands from bumping into each other as they eat and chat and laugh about how the wind is gonna blow their food away. For a moment, it’s like she can forget that she has wings, when he jokes like that and laughs like that and smiles like that.Somewhere in the middle Kara puts her chin on her hand and finds herself composing inwardly already composing her message to Alex. Went on a date with Mon-El. Her heart beats faster. I think I like it.Afterwards, he offers her his hand and pulls her up. They dance, lightly swaying to non-existing music. When he leans in to kiss her, she halfway expects something awful to happen, an alert, an emergency, lasers zapping through and painting the sky behind them. Instead, there’s only his lips and her wings, batting up a storm.
*~*~*
The first time she takes him home, it’s a total mess. Stumbling, cursing, her lips glued to his mouth, thinking she might die from how strong and sexy his fingers feel pressing against the back of her neck. Her wings fan out crashing into the ceiling, into walls, the fridge, the tv as she groans into his mouth. Realizing that they are not getting anywhere like this, he hoists her up on the table and kisses her, long and sultry and Kara could swear the wings go nuts for him. She tangles her hands up in his hair, pulling it. He should feel some of her frustration too. The bastard just smiles against her lips, his hands cover hers and slowly persuade them to let go of his head. He drags his finger along her cheek and backs off. Kissing her and then leaving her behind with his stupid, sexy, horrible, awful, no good, obnoxious, seductive, infuriating, killworthy little smile. “See you tomorrow, partner.”
*~*~*
“So, tonight.”“Yeah, tonight.” She grins as they both lean against the wall at the DEO, trying not to look at each other, her wings subtly quivering. He’s grinning too. “Just so you know, I’ve got an idea.”
*~*~*
They meet in a clearing in the woods. He’s brought a blanket and some food, but Kara is way too nervous to eat when he offers her a slice of orange. She sits, kneeling, with her hands on top of her thighs. She tries to play it cool when he leans in to kiss her again, but it seems he can tell that she’s freaking out. Her wings beat hard enough, Kara could swear she could power a freaking turbine. Mon-El sighs. He backs off and lies down on his back and beckons her in with his hand. Kara swallows hard. She hasn’t come this far only to back down now. And so she straddles him, holds down his arms and kisses him. Her knees tighten against his body as her wings beat the air, as if she’s fearing that they might cause her to take off. The kiss is sweet though and she melts into it as her wings strain like they want to touch the sky.
*~*~*
They stand proud and wide as she rides him, rides Mon-El. And even she has to admit, that it feels fucking glorious. Her hand is intertwined with his as she steadies herself and the wings do the rest. Seems like there is at least one use for them. She rolls her hips and squirms, back and forth, side to side as she tries to figure out what angle, what motion works best. His hand snakes up her thigh and she slaps it down before it can reach her crotch. “It will help,” he murmurs. “I have to concentrate.” She hears the sound of nature around them, feels every rustle of air. A strange, pulsating heat fills every limb. She bears down on him harder, faster and he grins. His hand wanders further back to grab her ass. “You’ll figure it out,” he assures her. Her entire body is one great, insulting itch and she doesn’t know where to scratch first. And fuck yeah, she's gonna figure this out. Figure it out in detail.Below her Mon-El’s glisten mischievously in the dark and she decides the likes the way he stares at her face and chest and never at wings.
*~*~*
Afterwards they lie together and Kara drapes her wing over both, covering them like a blanket. Underneath, where nobody can see, she kisses him, again and again till her lips feel bruised and happy.
*~*~*
They go to work the next morning. Walk of shaming as they say. Only he doesn’t seem to feel much like shame. “Kara and I are....” She smacks him in the face with the tip of her wing and that’s the end of it. Of course he still gets to come home with her and make up for it afterwards.
*~*~*
It makes her feel good. So was worried what she would do with all that free time, but not it's filled with all the sex and the cuddling and the watching of movies.It keeps her sane, because it means that there are other things in her life than just having turned into a six-limbed freak. Like how Supergirl has a boyfriend now. And there’s a lot of boyfriend things that come with it, like their first argument as a couple or the second toothbrush in her bathroom. Or how having a boyfriend also means that Supergirl now has other things too.Like a favorite sex position for starters. It’s her straddling him on a chair, kissing him with obscene intensity. One of his hands is on her ass, the other resting lightly between her wings, providing just the barest tease to her nerves. She doesn't like to admit it, but that is the best part.It takes her a while to let him, really, truly touch them, but when he does, he carefully licks the part where they join into her flesh. She gasps and writhes, drooling embarrassingly on her pillow, while he works them and she thinks she must be the first person alive to be the object of a ‘wingjob’. Later he fucks her from behind, holding her down with one flat palm between her shoulder blades and as her wings rustle she comes so hard she can see stars. “Maybe you should give them names,” Mon-El ponders afterwards, while curled up beside her. “Like what,” Kara snorts. “Karl and Bob?”
*~*~*
If they have a life on their own, she ponders, then she’s pretty sure that Karl must be in love with Mon-El. Because right now, she is lying in bed, gazing on her sleeping boyfriend next to her and Karl is lightly stroking across Mon-El’s face, tickling his brow. Suddenly, Mon-El’s eyes pop open. “Do you think I’ll get it too?”Kara frowns. “What?”“If it really is a virus I mean. Our physiology is pretty similar and we’ve been spending a lot of of time together.” “I hadn’t really thought about that. Why,” her heart sinks. “Is something wrong?”He shruggs. “Dunno.”
*~*~*
“The vatican wants to talk to you.” “The what?” Alex shruggs. “They’ve been petitioning the government and apparently at least somebody is listening. We had to send them all our medical data, but they still insist on meeting you face to face. Looks like they have have the ear of a senator or two. They have created a synode with the other confessions.”“Like the Superfriends of organized religion?” “Something like that.”
*~*~*
To their credit, they have at least somebody who seems like he might be a doctor. She stands still as he checks her back. She respects other people’s faith and the comfort it gives them, but it’s hard for her to look at them and not think of them as the people who would look down on her sister just for who Alex loves. They ask her questions that she has no answers for. The room is heavy with incense as a group of them circle her, in prayer, rosary beads sliding through their fingers. They hope that, if she has no message for them, their God will contact them in her presence. But all they get is silence.
*~*~*
Afterwards, she stands in front of the reporters and has to forcibly remind herself that she loves these people, loves this planet. That it’s not their fault they are scared and worried.
*~*~*
“You,” she says and drops her purse on the floor. “Couch. Now.” She dashes out of her clothes and kneels down in front of him, immediately freeing him from his pants and briefs. One quick look and then she’s wolfing down his cock with her mouth. Her eyes close and she relaxes. She likes doing that, particularly when she is pissed at the world. She sighs contently around his penis. Her hair is open and her locks tickle the spot between her wings. She kneels with her hands flat on the floor between her legs and focuses just on the feel of Mon-El’s cock in her mouth. Loves him, suckles him, drools around him. Part of her wishes that they all could see her like this. See what she’s really like, that their perfect little savior has her own life, that their Supergirl has a boyfriend and right now she is dripping on the floor of her own apartment just because of how much she loves sucking his cock. His fingers weave through her hair and pull her back, so he can kiss her, only to guide her right back onto his dick and that too is stupid, sexy, hot. She moans and pleads with him with her eyes. She knows that she is not that good as taking all of him, but she wants him to make her take him deeper. Her blowjob messy and imperfect and she pulls back every time he’s close to coming, wanting to make him suffer just a little bit. She loves to watch him be so close to losing it, loves that she can do that with her mouth. He groans and his grip onto her hair tightens, while she thinks of herself as smiling around him like a chesire chat. Then, his hands suddenly travel downward to her cheek, one hand grabs her chin in an iron grip, while his thumb forces itself into the corner of her mouth. Kara looks up at him in confusion. There’s determination in his eyes as he leans forward and rakes his fingers over her back and she explodes in pleasure, with her lips still wrapped around his cock.
*~*~*
His wings pop out in the middle of sex which in retrospect Kara finds oddly appropriate. He is braced on top of her, working her over, simple missionary style. She has her hands dig into his shoulder as she fidgets, trying to rub her sensitive wingstems against the mattress while her clit is hot and tense and yearning to be touched. Suddenly, his eyes fly open and they burst forth just as he comes.
*~*~*
She paces up and down as they check him. His are a bit darker than hers, but it appears other than that they are the same thing. Normally she isn’t for PDA at work, but when they go to take a tissue sample she grabs his head and kisses him roughly to distract him. “It’s okay, babe,” he says. “I knew the risks.” She nods, but keeps fussing over him, like a mother over a child.
*~*~*
It’s different for him, because he couldn’t fly before he got the wings. So they test it out together. It’s kind of like she expected, a lot less flexible and practical from how it works for her. The expression on his face is kind of adorably miserable, the first time he manages to pull off a hover. But some flight is better than no flight and so they keep at it.
Plus she gets to show him what she has figured out about using them in combat. It does something weird and kinky to her when she gets to order him around and teach him something new. Maybe it’s an intriguing reverse of how they are in bed, where he tends to know about what they are doing, no matter how easily she can overpower him.
*~*~*
She takes him home afterwards. They kiss hungrily, like it was the first time. She throws him down in the couch and flips him on his belly. Mounting him from behind she suckles the back of his neck. Kara tears off the remainders of his shirt and grinds her hips against his ass, as she tugs on his wings, close to where they join into his back. Mon-El hisses and she knows from experience she knows that it probably hurts quite a bit. But she doesn’t stop. Instead she licks them angrily, scratching, gnawing. It’s as if in a weird way she wants to punish them for how hers have messed up her life. Thankfully Mon-El it okay with a little pain in his sex and he comes into his pants with a groan. She still humps him, whining, keening, unsatisfied till her turns around, rolls them down on the floor and fucks her there, swallowing her annoyed noises with his mouth.
*~*~*
Kara feels nervous the first time she takes him. He flaps unsteadily. It works, but it is slow, compared to how she flies. She offers her his hand and pulls him after her, up, higher and higher. Her heart beats faster as she takes him closer to the edge of the stratosphere. The air around here is thin, making him even less steady. “It’s okay, babe,” she whispers. “I just wanted you to see.”He nods and holds on to her, using his wings for balance. They still there up in the sky as she waits for the sun to rise.