Meeting New People and a Talk

"How are you guys? You didn't invite me to watch Netflix after that little drunken episode," Barbara spoke with an embarrassed face which soon switched to an apologetic one as she turned to me, "Sorry about that, Kars. Kara told me how uncomfortable you were after that," she said and I suppressed the urge to raise my eyebrows, my eyes glancing over at Kara quick enough that no one else saw but slow enough for her to catch it.

As they say on Earth, she looked like a kid caught with their hand in the cookie jar.

Looking back to Barbara before even a second passed, I just smiled and shook my head, "Don't worry about it, Barbara. You were quite drunk, so I won't hold you accountable for your actions," I added a wink that seemed to grind Kara's gears.

Serves her right. Barbara was one of the only other people I'd grown to become friends with over the last few months. I'm...Well, I'm not dense. I can tell the feelings both Kara and Barbara hold for me but at this point it's nothing more than a crush for the both of them. So, basically it's not something worthy ruining friendships over.

You'd think I would be dumb and socially dumb because I was a soldier, right? Wrong. Public relations is the job of every soldier of Krypton. Knowing people and how to keep them entertained and how to speak to them without aggravating them is a vital skill. Especially for a Royal Guard.

What was I going to do about it, anyway? Continue as normal and see what happens. Though I will stop things and talk to either of the girls if it goes a bit far. Lying about my opinion of things people do being one of those things that goes a bit too far.

It could snowball into much more...extreme behavior.

Anyway, hearing my response, Barbara's face lit up in a smile as she came over and hugged me, "You're the best, Kars!" she said, wrapping her arms around my body.

She...looked different when compared to Kara. Not just that she had bright auburn red hair, or the fact she was slightly taller. But she held herself more confidently. With a bit more grace. Which felt weird knowing that one was a relatively normal human and the other was someone who could lift mountains.

It gave her a more mature air and made her attractive in a different way to Kara. Kara was cute and cuddly and a little ball of energy that usually ended up doing something heart-warming or adorable. But Barbara was cool, calm and sexy.

She was similar to Diana in that way.

Though the Amazon Princess was obviously miles ahead of Barbara in that department.

"Yeah, yeah, I know," I smiled as I rubbed Barbara on the back before separating from her and turning to the three other people who'd arrived. They were just looking at the three of us - Me, Kara, and Barbara - with amused eyes. Stepping forward I put out a hand to the nearest man, a dark-haired guy with blue eyes not too dissimilar to my own, "Hey, nice to meet you," I greeted in a rather informal way - Kara had told me this is how I should speak to people our age on Earth.

Quite different to Krypton where formality was practically the way of life most of us lived.

While he was quite tall, this guy was quite lean and slender despite obviously packing some muscle. He was more like an acrobat than a bodybuilder, if I were to put it in any way.

The 20-something year old guy opposite me just smiled before clasping my hand with a firm grip. Firm for a human, at least. "Richard Grayson, nice to finally meet you, Kars," he said as we released the other's hand before he seemed to come to some sort of realisation, "Though I'm called Richard most people call me Dick," he added and I raised my eyebrows in alarm.

"People call you...dick? Isn't that rude or something?" I asked with a confused look, looking to Kara and then Barbara who was already looking like she was about to burst out laughing.

"Uhh...No, it's just short for Richard. It's not meant to be rude or anything," Dick, I suppose, answered my question with an awkward yet expectant expression on his face - like he'd gone through this before. Good to know I wasn't the only person to question it.

"Ah, okay," I said with a nod before looking to the next person. He was somewhat similar to Dick, in that he was lean and very lightly built. Like a runner who was built for streamlining through the air. He was a bit on the short side at around 5'8" and quite narrow shouldered when compared to mine or Dick's. But he still looked masculine enough that I could easily tell he was a guy and from the freckled cheeks and cheesy grin, I had the feeling he was...well, somewhat annoying but in an endearing way?

Taking an extraordinarily fast step forward, the ginger put his hand out in front of him, "Wally West, nice to meet ya, big fella--You really are massive, you know? Even bigger than Superman and he's, like, you know, really big," he began to speak at speeds I could make sense of, sure, but it proved to be too much information to take in with my newly enhanced brain.

Even after 2 months, getting used to my senses and new mind had been quite the predicament.

Learning was fine but processing information quickly was still quite a hassle on my mental stamina.

But before Wally could go on for too long, the mature-looking blonde woman behind him slapped him up the backside of his head. Looking at her hair, I could easily see that it was bleached blonde and from the roots that were barely showing even to my eyes, I could tell that she had black hair in the past - I wonder why people dye their hair here on Earth? - and aside from that, she was short and curvy while also having a toned and athletic figure.

Quite attractive but the ring on her finger took away any thoughts I had on her appearance. It's okay to think things, sure, but I just don't feel good about myself looking at someone's partner.

It's odd. That's how I'd put it.

Anyway, the blonde reprimanded Wally with a frown, "Are you an idiot or something Wally? You meet a guy for the first time and you start speaking about how big he is...Do I need to break some very unfortunate news to Artemis? That her boyfriends interests fall a little away from what she thought--" she was cut off as Wally flashed away from me and her, and just stood a meter or two away while whistling as if nothing had happened.

The blonde woman just shook her head with a smile before turning to me, "Hello Kars, it's good to meet you. I'm Dinah, by the way," she put her hand out and I took it, "I'm going to be your landlord for the next few years."

"Oh, okay...well, please, let's get along with each other for the next few years then," I said with a slight bow of my head, feeling a bit of my Kryptonian etiquette slipping through.

And with that, I'd met my new roommates and my new landlord.

. . .

"Kara...Why did you lie?" I asked with a patient expression. Looking over at the fidgeting Kara, I sighed before adding something, "I'm not mad or anything Kara. I'm just curious to why you lied."

Hearing what I said she just bit her lip before muttering, but of course, with my hearing I heard it, "Because I didn't want her around you," she knew I heard her from how her eyes side-glanced at me as she averted her face from my view.

Sighing, I rubbed my eyes before opening them and giving Kara a serious look, "Don't do this that way, Kara. Don't drive a wedge between me and one of my only friends. I understand what you're feeling, I'm not an idiot, and I'd be an idiot to say that I didn't feel the same way myself...but," I added to the end as I saw her blue eyes lighting up with so many emotions that it was hard to pin-point the exact ones, "I don't want to rush into something that could put a wedge between me and one of my only friends. One of the few remaining people of my race. You should understant that, right, Kara?" I asked with a somewhat vunerable tone to my voice.

Kara just looked at me before she turned away and her shoulders slumped. Then they began to shake. Then...I heard her soft sobs.

If this were a lie or a manipulation, I would've just left. But the fact I was still here should tell that this isn't either of those things. This is real.

Getting up, I moved next to Kara on my bed and sat next to her hunched figure, her legs crossed as she faced the wall to my bedroom. Sighing, I pulled her back into my embrace with ease, wrapping my arms around her soft and supple figure. "Kara, I...I really don't know what to do in this type of situation. I know how to deal with social situations but that only goes as far as the training I was acually given," I admitted with a weak chuckle, "Comforting girls? Feelings? How to deal with them? I...I have no idea about any of it. But please know that you're someone of immeasurable importance to me, okay? No matter what happens, I want to be able to eat junk food and sit around watching your cheesy rom-coms with you. No matter what, Kara," by now her sobbing had stopped and she just looked up at me with her red-rimmed blue eyes which seemed to sparkle more and more as I spoke.

"Kars..." she whispered to herself and to me and lifted her hand, laying it across my cheek before smiling a smile much more beautiful than any star or planet I'd ever seen, "Don't be silly, of course I'll get you pizza and force you to watch my brilliant, not cheesy, rom-coms with me," she said, her voice trailing off the more she spoke.

Her eyes darted down to my lips before coming back up to meet my eyes. Despite what I'd just said, I did the same to her making myself feel like the biggest hypocrite alive. But right now, my body seemed to have a mind of it's own.

She slowly floated up to eye-level with me, slowly having flipped herself the right way up so her eyes were looking up at mine as her lips were parallel to mine.

Before I knew it, we'd both collided together. Her lips on mine. Mine on hers. Her arms wrapped around my neck and my arms wrapped around her waist.

Her lips were...so goddamn soft. So gentle yet so hungry, that it was the perfect oxymoron.

Though I had no idea what I was doing, the positive hums and mewls I was getting back from Kara were telling me all the good things I was doing, so I focused on doing them. But when I say focused, my body was practically running on instinct and auto-pilot at this point. However, something knocked me out of that mode pretty quickly.

Kara's hand rubbing up against my crotch and 'stealthily' trying to get into my pants.

...Yeah, she was like a bull in a china shop and my pants would have been ripped off if they weren't made of super-durable material.

"Kara!" I got out, forcing a gap between us. Kara just looked up at me with dazed and confused eyes.

"What?" she blinked a few times before clarity came back to her eyes, "What's wrong, Kars? What is something I did...?" she looked up at me like a deer in the headlights and I just shook my head in reply.

"No...No, it's not you, Kara," I said before sighing, "I'm sorry if I'm confusing you. Honestly. One minute I'm saying I don't want to rush things and the next, we're kissing...but I'm being serious. I don't want to ruin anything between us over a crush. You get what I mean?" I asked and she just bit her slightly swollen bottom lip before averting her eyes and nodding. Letting out a slight sigh of relief, I continued, "I want to do that sort of stuff with you, Kara," I admitted and her eyes instantly shot back to me with a slight anger building in them.

"Then why don't you let me--" she tried to get out but I just covered her mouth and looked at her with a gentle gaze, meeting her fiery one.

"Because I don't want to rush into this for the wrong reasons. When I finally decide to take the next step, I promise you, I won't refuse any of your advances. I'll probably end up being the one who's going after you with a sheer determination you've never seen. Like that movie about that killer robot--Yeah, I'll be like the Terminator. Just minus the killing and adding me kissing you," I joked, knowing Kara loved the older Earth movies for some reason. She said they were just better and never gave an actual reason. We'd just watched Terminator about three or four days ago.

Anyway, Kara just nodded before she stood up and left. I didn't stop her. She needed time to think just like I did.

What I wasn't expecting, however, was for Diana and Kal to enter my room soon after Kara left.

Ah. Shit.