There are no more birthdays, after.
Kara is aging, albeit glacially slow. They just donât celebrate her birthday anymore. She misses the cakes, she wonât lie, and Alexâs gag gifts, but birthdays were never a thing on Krypton anyway. Her people rather focused on the milestones of a life. The day a child was judged mature enough to choose their guild. The end of their apprenticeship. The first time a Kryptonian went off-world. The moment the creation matrix matched them to another, so that they could further their line.
In a way, sheâs going back to her roots.
With college being so busy, immortality is easier to forget. Somehow, itâs also harder to ignore, especially after Leslie.
Kara doesnât mean for them to become close, sheâs not even sure about the how.
It happens, though. Leslie kisses her and they fall in bed together, and Karaâs not able to stop it. She will reason with herself later, with Leslieâs question ringing in her ears (do you want to go on a date with me, Kara?), that itâs natural to crave the normalcy of going to class while holding hands. The want for the thrill of secrets whispered against a pillow in the dark. Taking each otherâs clothes off, hands roaming unhurried.
To get lost in the sounds Leslie makes, in her scent, when Kara kisses at the crux of her thighs â doesn't she deserve that?
Theyâre together for an entire semester, the happiest seventeen weeks of Karaâs life this far, except perhaps for the month-long high of mastering flight. Leslie is nice. Caring, if a bit bossy. Kara doesnât mind letting her lead. One night over drinks, their small circle of friends starts to tease them about marriage, about the life that they could have together after their college years are done.
âAll Iâm saying isâ isââ Theyâre well past the third round, which means Siobhan sounds a little slurred, and Leslie get more than a little handsy. âShit, everybody knows that if a couple lasts this long in college they end up married.â Kara makes a face, and Siobhan shrugs. raising both hands. âLook, itâs the rules.â
Kara laughs it off. Leslie doesnât, though.
Leslie doesnât and thatâs enough to remind Kara she canât have this. Even if it made Leslie happy to get married, maybe to have kids, Kara canât go through with it, not when the knowledge sheâs going to outlive them all bears down on her shoulders with the weight of a slab of concrete.
Kara breaks it off with Leslie later that night, telling herself that the fact she at least waited until everyone had left means sheâs marginally less of an asshole.
Getting close to girls is dangerous for her, Kara decides.
Girls love softly. They love with their whole heart, and deeply from the start. Everything about loving girls is pure euphoria, a marching battalion of butterflies in the pit of Karaâs stomach.
It is the kind of love found inside books or seen in movies, star-crossed and meant to be. The sort that makes her want to dance and sing and stop strangers on the street to tell them how truly in love she is. More than once Kara catches herself thinking that immortality is not so big an obstacle for such a love as this.
With boys itâs not the same; Kara makes sure to seek out those who are only interested in sex. She gets a reputation. Sheâs easy. She sleeps around. She brings boy after boy after boy to her dorm room, sleeps with them in her cramped bed. Sheâs aware, although remotely, that they say unpleasant things behind her back, but doesnât care.
The crippling loneliness gets worse, and eventually she stops sleeping with others altogether.
Getting close to people is dangerous for her, Kara amends.
She takes this new rule in stride, something she doesnât necessarily understand but that canât be disputed. It simply is, and Kara stores it with the other things about herself she canât really explain. Files it next to the fact that it icks her if the veggies in her plate touch her other food, or that she canât wear anything made out of wool since it feels like a million and one ants are walking on her skin.
Kara has found out her life is better if she doesnât question things like these much. Itâs best not to think too hard and simply follow.
It even works, for a while.
She graduates, moves to the big city, gets a job at CatCo. Kara is alone, yes, and that can be unbearable, but she is also happy.
Until, one day, Lena Luthor enters the picture.
Cellular Memory - Kara has got things well in hand when it comes to her powers. She can deal with being practically immortal, as long as she doesnât get attached. It works. for a while, until meeting Lena Luthor messes up her plans. Read it on Patreon