LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 37.2
After he’d washed up and changed into a new set of clothes, the pair walked back towards the teleportation room, Kon still moving his limbs with newfound wonder. Finally, when they reached it, Kara paused and asked with some hesitation. “Say, what do you think about helping me out with something?”
“Sure, what do you need?” Kon quickly answered and asked back.
“You know I’ve got a contract with WayneTech, right?” Kara waited until Kon nodded in agreement. “Well, do you think that, if I send you some study material and blueprints, you could help me fine tune what I designed?”
“… You sure about that?” Kon asked after a second. “I’m… not exactly an expert, Kara.”
“Well, I might have been making small-talk before, but I really did hear that you have a talent for this,” Kara was quick to explain. “I’m not asking you to solve the problems or anything but, oftentimes, it helps to have a different set of eyes to look at things, and really, if you can point out even a single problem it would save a lot of time when building a prototype.”
“I guess I can look at it?” Kon shrugged and, hesitantly, accepted her request.
“Thanks, I’ll send you the latest project tonight. Don’t worry if you don’t find anything, I mean, I designed and went over things myself so I don’t expect any mistakes, but, sometimes, you can miss some pretty obvious things when going over your own work.”
Saying goodbye, Kara watched Kon teleporting directly to Smallville, then took her own teleport back to Fawcett City. The sun was still out so Kara decided to just… take a walk around the city.
Fawcett City was actually great. Smaller than Metropolis, but still a large city, extremely clean and very friendly; it could almost be called idyllic. Captain Marvel had been a hero here for more than a year now and Kara couldn’t help but compliment him, the city felt… safe.
People walked the streets without fear and, everywhere she looked, Kara could see and hear them cheerfully talking, interacting and helping each other out. It had been more than a month since she had come to this Earth and, now that she thought about it, Kara realized that the city had become home.
It wasn’t anything like Krypton, but it did remind her of her previous life and Kara took a moment to just… enjoy it without thinking about superheroes, supervillains or plots.
Reaching a public park, she got herself an ice cream cone and found a spot between the trees where the sun still hit her skin. Sitting with her legs crossed, relaxing and watching the kids playing around her she enjoyed her frosty treat.
It was nice, unlike anything she had experienced on Krypton, but still nice. It brought to mind her older memories of living a normal, everyday life as a human. She allowed herself to drift within her mind a little bit until she felt herself being watched. Kara opened her eyes to see a little girl looking at her from a few steps away. Taking another lick of her cone, she greeted the rugrat. “Hi.”
“Hi,” The little girl said back, lifting a tiny hand and waving at her. “Are you a homewrecker?”
Kara choked on her ice cream, almost dropping her cone and getting some melting cream on her chin. Quickly cleaning it with a hand, she chuckled. “What?”
“Mommy said you’re a little homewrecker. But I don’t understand, you’re not little, you’re, like, really tall, as tall as Papa.” The girl nodded with a serious face, hugging a little Wonder Woman doll to her chest. “Hey, I like your braid,”
“Thank you, my friend braids it for me. You’re Anna, right?” Kara snickered, finally recognizing the girl as the one she had, oddly enough, shared an ice cream queue before fighting Mr. Mind.
“Uhum, I like doing Wonder Woman’s hair, but I can’t do braids.” Anna commented, showing Kara her doll, complete with brushable hair and armor ornaments.
“Really? Want me to show you how?”
“No, silly. I know how to do that, but Wonder Woman doesn’t have braids so I can’t.” Anna gave her a look as if she was stupid.
“Honey, there you are,” suddenly, her father came running, lifting her up in his lap and releasing a relieved breath when he saw she wasn’t hurt. “Honey, how many times do I have to say to not leave my side?”
“But Papa, look, I found the pretty ice cream lady!” Anna pointed her way and Kara gave the disgruntled man a little amused wave. “See, I told you she was just like Wonder Woman.”
Her father gave Kara an exasperated look. “Sorry about her, did she bother you?”
“Nope, she’s a cute kid,” Kara said, enjoying their little mundane interactions, it really made her feel human again. No, more than that. It made her feel connected.
“Really? I dare you to say that after you’ve had to search the entire park for the third time, she’s a menace,” all the while, Anna had been pulling on her father’s shirt and furiously pointing at Kara. With an apologetic face, the young father turned towards his daughter and sighed. “Yes, honey, she does have muscles like Wonder Woman, you were right.”
The young girl gave him a satisfied smile, and the man finally released her back into the ground, quickly grabbing her by the wrist so she couldn’t run away again. “Well, thanks for keeping her occupied, the name’s Jonathan Fortune.”
“Kara Danvers and don’t worry about it,” Kara quickly said and took a huge bite out of her melting ice cream. “Nice meeting you.”
“Well, honey, say goodbye to the nice lady, we’ve gotta get home soon,” Jonathan told his daughter and waved at Kara, having little Anna wave too.
Kara waved back and watched the pair leave for a few seconds with a large smile on her face. Rao, Kal-El was right, she really did need to relax a little. It was nice to get out, meet new people, to think about why she was doing things instead of just how she was gonna do it.
In the distance, Kara still heard the little girl turn to her father and couldn’t help snickering at the poor man. “Papa, I wanna be a homewrecker when I grow up!”
“Somehow, I don’t doubt that,” Jonathan said with a tired voice. “Honey, just do Papa a favor and don’t mention it to your mother. Papa doesn’t want to be your first victim.”
Finishing her ice cream, Kara watched the sunset in the park before finally making her way back home. Suddenly, she realized she had just had a good day.
Rao, how long had it been since she last had one of those? She really couldn’t remember. After getting back to Earth, she had moments where she was having fun, and had even been able to smile and laugh, but this was the first time she had spent an entire day in a good mood. Even meeting Doctor Spencer had been more of an annoyance than something truly bothersome with Kon by her side.
Pausing in the middle of the street, Kara looked up for nearly a full minute, just waiting for the sky to open up and spew out a cataclysmic meteor, alien invasion, a demonic army or evil Justice League… But nothing happened. Well, two cars had to swirl aside to avoid her, loudly honking in complaint, but Kara was still close to the park so they weren’t going very fast.
Arriving home, she found Dexter sleeping on top of her cleaning drone; the cat lifted his head and gave her a loud meow as a greeting. Slowly getting up, he stretched his back, digging his claws into the robot’s padded back and giving a huge yawn.
Grabbing him by the middle, Kara lifted him in front of her face and touched his cold nose with her own. The cat tolerated this degradation for a second before starting to squirm in her arms so she released him on top of the table and decided to settle in for the evening.
Getting her computer out, she quickly sent a copy of one of her projects to Kon and then spent some time checking once again how to integrate the wind manipulation device into Danny’s chest.
As night arrived, she decided to take another bath before going to bed. Kara had only rinsed herself at Mount Justice and she didn’t want to lie down without really washing herself.
Entering the bath, she pulled out her phone and gave it a command, causing her outfit to dissolve into a cloud of micro robots. A second later, it moved away from her and reformed on top of the sink in the shape of a cube, leaving her in only her underwear.
Turning on the water, Kara quickly undid her small braids and stepped under the shower, letting the hot water run down her face for a solid minute. Out in the apartment, she heard the main door opening and quickly glanced at it with X-Ray vision, seeing that it was just Kori finally getting home.
Dismissing it from her mind, Kara closed her eye and continued to enjoy the water, letting it run down her body before getting the soap. Suddenly, she heard the bathroom door opening, her hand tightening on instinct and squeezing soap into a mess that squished out between her fingers.
Opening the shower door a little, Kara poked her head through. “Rao, Kori, wait your turn will… you…” Kara trailed off, words escaping her as she stared at the Tamaranean princess.
Dropping her panties into the ground, Kori stepped out of them, revealing her fully nude body. A seductive smile on her face as her bare feet brought her closer to Kara. “No, I have waited enough.”