For The Safety of Our Stars | Kara Zor-El and Mon-El

Chapter Nine: Looming Inevitability

CHAPTER NINE: Looming Inevitability

The droplets of rain were hitting hard on the pavement around him. He didn't know why he stood in the rain, but he was grateful he had a big umbrella and a coat to keep him warm while he waited for the door of the building before him to open.

It took a while for the person he was waiting for to get out of the building. And when they did, their hair was kept into a low bun, a pair of glasses with a dark frame on their nose and a fluffy maroon cardigan above their over-the-knee beige dress.

Kara wasn't aware of his presence at first but when she saw another man that looked out of the ordinary in Kryptonian clothes sitting on a bench, she knew that she was in the presence of the Daxamian King. She turned around and her tired eyes met grey ones from behind a similar pair of glasses as hers.

"What are you doing here?" she asked in Daxamite, coming closer to him and pulling the pullover she wore closer to her frame. He urged her to come under the umbrella.

"I came to see you," he answered. Their faces were now close and he could feel the warm air coming out of her nose.

"We saw each other two weeks ago," she told him while moving from one leg to another and she looked at the paved yard of the college building. Bushes and trees made the cold stone that covered the whole place warmer, more alive.

"I am very aware of that, but I have something planned for the two of us in the next few days. Do you have any classes tomorrow and the day after?" He pulled the hem of his jacket over his cold hand that held the handle of the umbrella. While the woman before him was accustomed to the cold weather from Krypton, he wasn't, he preferred the warm winds of Daxam City. For him the less amount of clothes you had to wear, the better.

"I am free until Monday. I have classes first thing in the morning then though." She replied and this time her eyes moved to his face and eyed the shadow that covered his chin.

He hadn't shaved since he arrived on Krypton, almost three days ago. His meetings with Kryptonian companies that were interested in expanding to the sister planet and more discussions with engineers from the Science Guild kept him occupied. He didn't even have time to ask for someone to wait for him in his penthouse, when he came back late at night, after dinners with powerful Kryptonian men and women. He just face-planted in the sheets, not as soft as the ones he had on his bed back home and fell asleep in his underwear, grateful to have even thought about throwing his suit on a nearby chair.

"I am finally seeing the famous Kryptonopolis this weekend." He confessed, she saw how his eyes shone in pure joy.

"Good for you! I have a hill of homework on my desk waiting for me. So if you will excuse me." She only took a step before the daxamite caught her elbow and said to her softly:

"You're coming with me."

She turned, confusion filled her face and just shook her head in reply.

"No, I'm not."

"I assume you are aware that we have to be seen more for this whole thing to work smoothly."

"Why do we need to be seen as being in love? That's what I do not understand! Everyone knows that arranged marriages are still a thing. Why do we have to play a part?"

"For the peace of our worlds! There will always be protests, but if we were just thrown together then the chaos would have been even worse, would be even worse. We need to show that peace could happen and that Daxamites and Kryptonians could understand each other without wanting to slit each other's throats."

She didn't know what to say, she had realised from his tone that the subject was a sensitive one for him. A Kryptonian general killed his father in cold blood, after all. No one else needed to die. And this pretending could be the only thing that could calm the seas.