4

Chapter 4 Notes:

Sup!

Chapter Text

Winn Schott stared, mouth slightly open as Kara greeted the opposite of her person. Because the woman who'd just walked in was not the sort of person Kara usually interacted with. Alex, sure, but Kara? The woman was unabashedly cool in an effortless way that made every insecurity in his soul tingle in alarm. She was all dark eyeliner, leather jacket and jeans and what were boots of some kind under those jeans, silver rings, and chain-like necklace. Grown-up rock band bass guitar player aura for days. And there was something…dangerous about her, in how she moved that made Winn think of Alex or the DEO.

He got up from his desk to approach and see if Kara needed help? Sure she looked happy, but Kara didn't really have friends outside of him and James. And Kara hadn't mentioned anyone new, she would mention someone new, right? With that in mind, he cautiously approached.

Just as he was reaching them he heard the woman's words, they were laced with teasing, but it felt like the nice kind. "Do I get a sticker for this?"

A question that made Kara flush out of sheer awkwardness as she was clearly unsure of whether she should have a sticker for the woman or not. And also barely keeping from setting upon the bag of food like a deranged raccoon.

"Hey Kara, who is this?" He cleared his throat, it was hard not to shove his hands into his pockets.

Kara essentially bounced, a brilliant sunshine smile in place that eased any worries the woman was bad news. "Winn! Yes, this is Daisy, she's---my new neighbor!" Her voice pitched up at the end almost like a question.

He blinked, that was, it sounded weird. "You have a new neighbor?"

"Just arrived in town." The woman cut in neatly holding out her hand. "Daisy Johnson, Kara here has been advising me on the best places to eat in the city and what company to get internet from."

Which sounded like Kara. Winn smiled, shaking her hand. "Oh, welcome to National City, I'm Winn Schott, and I do tech support. Are you new to the West Coast or just the city?"

She smiled, her grip firm. "Yeah, grew up on the east coast around Metropolis, figured I could use a change of pace and you guys get a lot of sun."

"She brought tacos!" Kara gleefully informed them as she started pulling out food from the bag like the ravenous alien she was. She beamed as she shoved the first one in her mouth.

Daisy's eyes softened as they rested on Kara, which was the expected reaction from most people before her attention turned back to him. "So, are you a disciple at the altar of potstickers like Kara here?"

"No," Winn laughed, a smile growing on his face. "I don't think anyone likes potstickers as much as Kara."

Kara made a sound of disagreement, but the third taco she'd just started chewing on meant she didn't actually manage to say anything.

"It's nice to be able to eat things that aren't field rations." Daisy gave a theatrical shiver. "MREs have nothing on potstickers. I think I almost entered a chopstick fight to the death with Kara over the last potsticker the other night."

Winn's head tilted slightly. "You're army?"

"Air Force, just got out, hence moving to a new city and all that. I don't have any kitchen anything yet so Kara's been letting me use hers." Daisy shrugged. "I've only ruined one pot so far. I think Kara's generosity with pots and pans is mostly self-interest in the apology takeout."

He nodded along, which made the faint whisper of danger about the woman make sense. That made a lot of sense, of course, Kara would help out a new neighbor. She shouldn't be letting the woman into her apartment that much though. "Are you liking the city?"

"I am, the vibe's low-key, so I'm enjoying that." She agreed easily, but her eyes narrowed faintly as her attention was pulled to the dozens of screens showing various programs, most of them discussing Supergirl's latest failures. "There has got to be something else to report on?"

Kara did manage to speak up then. "Supergirl terrorized the city, it was a really big deal." She absolutely sounded miserable about it.

"Yeah, that's some bullshit," Daisy said with utter certainty, eyes still trained on the screen. "I'd get it if it was just one channel, but all of them? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize something was really wrong with Supergirl."

Winn shot Kara an excited look, cause holy hand-grenade this was an actual person not in the know being supportive of Supergirl! "Right? I think the internet theory she was drugged is onto something."

"Probably, too sporadic for mind control to be likely." Daisy replied easily, before looking at him with an evaluative look. "But really, do all the screens have to be tuned into this?"

He shrunk slightly, "Ms. Grant wants all the news on 'her' hero to be up to the minute."

"Because daytime talk shows blathering about 'Terror in the Streets' because civilians can be dumb is up to the minute news?" The sarcasm was thick, and holy shit, Kara's new neighbor was just short of outright criticizing Cat Grant's media strategy in the middle of her office. Sure, Ms. Grant wasn't in at this exact moment but that was crazy.

Winn was so steering them to safer waters. "It'll blow over, everyone has jobs and something else will happen…eventually."

"Speaking of jobs," Daisy looked to Kara, seeming to shake herself out of her dislike of the news, "I should probably head out. I have a couple of job opening leads to hunt down, and paperwork to fill out. And apparently, I need to talk to our landlord."

Kara managed to swallow before stepping right into the other woman and hugging her. It was kind of funny actually. Right before Kara got a hold of her, Daisy's eyes widened ever so slightly, looking slightly tense for a moment before she hugged Kara back, expression fond. Kara seemed oblivious, it was definitely on purpose, to the fact the woman hadn't been expecting a bear hug. "Thank you!"

"It's fine, I probably owed you for bringing up depressing stuff before you'd had coffee. I'm sorry about that, it's new, having a civilian friend." Daisy actually looked the faintest bit uncomfortable then.

Kara released the woman from her bear hug, which Winn knew from experience was just a bit too tight. "You don't have to apologize, thank you for the tacos though. I'll never say 'no' to food."

"I'll keep that in mind." Daisy smiled, taking a step backward. She raised a hand. "Nice to meet you, Winn."

Winn waved awkwardly as the woman turned and headed back for the elevators. He waited till the elevator door closed before turning on Kara. "New neighbor? Scratch that, she was in your apartment before coffee? Alex is going to kill you, and then me, and then me again."

"Daisy's nice, and Alex won't kill us, probably." Kara defended, it sounded weak to both of them.

Winn was going to argue the point when he heard the ding of Cat's personal elevator. And well, if he was going to be alive long enough for Alex to kill him, he had to survive Cat. He mouthed 'talk later' at Kara as he quickly retreated back to his desk.

////

Kara started babbling the second she was through the door and into her apartment. "I'm so sorry for saying you were my neighbor! I didn't even think, it just came out. And you were being so nice and I just said that and now…I don't know, did I mess everything up for you?"

"You're fine," Daisy laughed from where she was looking up over the top of her laptop. "And more important than that, I successfully made lasagna. Side note, did you know your landlord is Italian? Also, using Airbnb for like half the rooms in the building."

She breathed in, and oh, yeah she could smell that. And it felt like just relief breathing out. It was nice, to not be alone. "That smells amazing?"

"Wow, if I didn't know how not great at cooking I was I'd be hurt by the shock." Daisy closed her laptop, setting it aside. "But yeah, got some cooking tips from your landlord's mom."

Kara set her purse down, pulling her glasses off. "You met Drew's mom?"

"I did, also he thinks I'm into something illegal, but retroactively you were not lying. I'm your new downstairs neighbor." Daisy slid to her feet and headed for the kitchen. "I'm not above bribery for you helping me with furniture this weekend." Daisy stilled. "Where do you buy furniture?"

Kara lit up as she realized what Daisy had just said. "You got an apartment?!" She bounced, hands raised in a cheer. "That's amazing!"

"Yeah, it's pretty awesome." Daisy's eyes were soft as she smiled. It mattered to her. "I got conned into agreeing to repaint it, change the counters, and replace the locks on the door. The last tenant trashed the place and Drew is only like halfway through fixing it."

"A lot of stores sell furniture, we can go to Ikea and Target on Saturday if you don't mind the couch for another night?" Kara pulled out her planner. "And we'll need to go to the hardware store for the supplies for fixing the counter and paint." This would be great! She was really good at this stuff too.

Daisy set the lasagna down from where she'd pulled it out of the oven and leaned against the counter looking at her. "You know you don't actually have to help me, right?"

She looked up at the woman, a niggling doubt sprouting in her head. "Friends help friends, and we are friends, right?"

"Yeah, we're friends." Daisy smiled like she thought Kara had missed something that was funny. "And as my friend, you're helping me eat this so we can decide if I actually managed something that didn't come out of a box."

Kara beamed and used just a little superspeed to set the table. If Daisy had managed to cook something nice it deserved to be eaten at the table and not on the couch. She paused as she held the bottle of wine from game nights. "Do you like wine?"

"I…don't know actually." Daisy had paused where she was halfway to the table, holding the lasagna with oven mitts, a slightly confused look on her face. "I like champagne, cocktails, and beer? I don't think I've ever actually had wine."

Kara zipped the cupboards pulling out two glasses. "You can try some and if you don't like it I still have some of Alex's beer in the fridge."

"Thanks, wine always seemed kinda fancy?" Daisy said as she set the lasagna down. "And fancy parties I was in for spy work usually had champagne."

Kara didn't exactly forget that Daisy was more James Bond than Super, but it was funny to think of her as a spy. "There were so many wine jokes at the office I thought I was supposed to drink it. It tastes nice sometimes, though some of the reds are really bitter." Her nose scrunched at the thought of some table reds she'd tried. The sweet wines were better.

"How old were you when you got to Earth?" Daisy asked curiously while cutting the lasagna into thirds.

Her voice was a bit quieter, more hesitant as she answered that. People didn't usually ask about her alienness that often. "I was thirteen when I landed."

"How'd you end up with the Danvers?" Daisy served for both of them, a larger slice on Kara's plate, which was nice of her.

Kara passed her a glass of wine. "My cousin, Kal-el or Superman found me. But he was just starting at being a hero and had enemies so he brought me to the Danvers."

"The new home thing is never easy, did you even speak English?" Daisy looked at her with a painful amount of just understanding.

She shook her head. "It took me two weeks to learn."

"Two weeks?" Daisy huffed, raising a brow. "You're a crazy alien super-genius aren't you?"

Kara felt a warm bubble in her chest, so she dared, Daisy was alien too. "I was the youngest initiate into the science guild in Krypton's history." It was a thing she hadn't been allowed to be proud of for long, and then...she hadn't been allowed to like science here.

"Wait, on your whole planet?" Daisy stilled looking at her in surprise. "Holy shit, how old were most people admitted into your science guild?"

She flushed at the praise. "Twenty."

"So like super genius wasn't underselling you at all. What are you doing working for Catco and not revolutionizing science somewhere?" Daisy was clearly listening and interested in the answer.

The familiar lump at the reminder of what she'd not been permitted. "Krypton was too advanced, I would have made people notice me, it wasn't safe."

"That's…did you just give it up?" Daisy was biting something back.

Kara nodded and shoved a forkful of lasagna into her mouth. It was delicious. She didn't get a chance to tell Daisy before Daisy kept talking.

"That's terrible, science had to be really important for you to be that good at it that young." Daisy was looking at her with just…kindness.

Kara watched Daisy cautiously as she replied. "I was born for the science guild, we didn't choose our professions as humans do."

"So like, baby you was really interested in the magnifying glass and bugs as a kid and you got slated for science?" Daisy took a bite of her own dinner, curiosity lighting up her eyes.

Kara shook her head, a slight smile starting on her lips. "No, we were designed for our assigned roles as embryos. I was designed to follow in the footsteps of my father and his House, the House of El."

"So what, traits that make good scientists just got bio-engineered into you?" Daisy asked.

She nodded, "Yes, and from childhood we were then trained and educated for our future guild."

"Does that mean families or government or something else picked people's roles for them?"

Kara straightened at the questions, the lack of panic about pre-determining kids. "The matrix selected roles for children, but the priority was given to allowing trades and guilds to run within certain bloodlines. It allowed everyone to have a place and a purpose. Whatever guild you were in was because our people needed you to be in that role."

"Did people ever change roles? Or was it a one-and-done thing?"

Kara was on her third glass of wine, had finished off two-thirds of the lasagna, and was cozily curled into one corner of the couch by the time she'd managed to explain the entire guild system of Krypton to Daisy. She hadn't talked about Krypton for this long…maybe ever. "Not that Krypton was perfect, we destroyed our own planet, but our society was beautiful in some ways too."

"I get that." Daisy nodded. "I mean, I really wouldn't have done well on Krypton, but I can see why it'd be nice not to have to worry about finding the right job, the right everything." She waved a hand absently. "But do you really not do any science? Like even just as a hobby? I mean you could have a robot monkey or something."

Kara sipped at her wine trying to put it into words. "It wouldn't be safe, if anyone finds out about me they find the Danvers, Winn, James, Cat, anyone who has helped me but doesn't have invulnerable skin. I wouldn't be able to have a home or friends here. I couldn't just go to a store and buy a coffee. I'd just be Supergirl."

"And nobody can just be a symbol." Daisy hummed, turning her empty beer bottle around between her fingers. "You know the Inhumans believed that whatever power you got was because it was what our people needed to survive. I'm not sure I believe in that, sometimes our gifts just got us killed. I mean if I'd had a less terrifying power would SHIELD and Afterlife have ended up at war? Or would there have been more time to find just…any other path? But sometimes it's…nice to think what I've done did help even if I'm not really sure I did."

Kara reached out and touched Daisy's foot since that was all she could reach of her. "What did happen? Between your people and SHIELD?"

"That's…complicated." Daisy blew out a breath. "You have to understand Inhumans, we were designed to destroy. We're people, but we're biologically meant to be slave soldiers. Our powers reflect that they're almost exclusively meant for violence. There are exceptions, but they're few. And up until an Inhuman is exposed to terrigan, we're just people. I was just a person and then suddenly it was like I had hundreds of bees under my skin and I couldn't control it. I almost brought a military base down because I was scared."

Kara listened quietly, her horror at what the Kree had done wasn't important.

"One minute I was just an agent, and then Tripp my field partner was dead, two other agents were murdered by Raina, Mack had been mind controlled, the whole temple was shattered, Coulson was injured, and just me, in the center of the wreckage. I understand why they were scared, that they didn't understand. It didn't help SHIELD was still piecing itself back together after we'd found out we were infiltrated to the gills by Nazis. So it just happened at a terrible time, and I was dangerous. To myself, and anyone around me. And government agencies that believe in bagging, tagging, and keeping track of anyone with powers and have a history of murdering powered people? Afterlife and my mom weren't wrong to see SHIELD as a threat. It all happened so fast, everyone was scared and doing things that were making it worse and then my mom led our people towards attempting genocide of the human population."

Kara choked on her wine.

"I know." Daisy's face tightened. "So I picked a side and, obviously genocide is never the answer, but it destroyed our community, our ability to be safe." She tipped her head. "And preventing the terrigan being turned airborne meant it got into the food supply, no dead humans, but suddenly Inhumans were just popping up everywhere and it was a mess. Then it wasn't the humans everyone was talking about genocide for. I just…I can't see how that could be what our people needed."

The thing was Kara could hear how this mattered, and it did, deeply to Daisy. "Why did you leave?"

Daisy blinked, but then set her bottle aside, before sweeping her hair back and tipping her head showing the sizable scar left on the side of her neck. Her gaze was distinctly on the wall. "The Kree put in a slave chip, we escaped, but I couldn't risk it, that I'd become what they thought I was, The Destroyer of Worlds. I kept it in, no powers, but I was still an agent. It should have been enough. My best friend cut it out of my neck so I could solve our problems with my powers, no matter the risk."

"Daisy-" Kara started not even sure what to say to that.

"I screamed." Daisy straightened her neck, the scar still there, but no longer brandished towards her. "I screamed, I bled, and no one cared. I don't…I don't know when but they were my family and I was alone. I wasn't useful to them if I didn't have powers. Not enough to matter anyway, it was the end of the world and I was just laying in a crater, I saved us, and I was just there…alone. So I tried to leave, but I wasn't allowed to. So different universe was kind of the only way out. I wasn't going to survive being told to go and win or die for them. No one survives every time." Her expression was bitter.

Kara didn't care that it was awkward, she just leaned over and hugged Daisy. Because that was wrong. It shouldn't happen, but it had and she couldn't make it better.

Daisy stiffened for a second before returning the gesture. "All things that aren't really important in this reality."

"It still happened, that makes it important." Kara protested though she did pull back.

Daisy's head tilted slightly. "You do know that if I was going to hurt you, then spilling the sob story on you would be exactly what I'd do right?"

"You don't have to keep saying that." Kara huffed in exasperation at the recently often-repeated statement.

Daisy just sighed. "I know I'm not going to hurt you, but you really should know how to spot a con."

"I can spot a con." Kara ignored the dubious look on Daisy's face. "I'm good at telling what kind of a person someone is. And you are a good person."

Daisy's lips pulled up. "See, you say that, but as your new downstairs neighbor I'm just going to have to stick around to make sure that's true."

"Good." Kara re-settled on her end of the couch. "You could come and do heroing with me? You're probably better at it than me."

"Uh, better at shooting people, and my powers are designed to be destructive. You're definitely a better hero than me." She shifted, her brow raising. "Was a plane really the thing you started with?"