#inze

“You can’t recharge at a reasonable pace if you’re still heavily using your energy.”

"Are...are you calling me old?" Astra asked, her arms folding. "I know that I'm older than you, but that doesn't mean that I can't keep up." Her brow furrowed as she tried to understand his meaning. She was trying to understand both him and Kara, but sometimes they were both so human in their expressions that she didn't think it was possible.

“You.”

Rhea eyes the Kryptonian, giving her a brief onceover, and then settles.  It’s a feigned relaxation; she knows better than to relax in the Kryptonian’s presence - in the presence of any Kryptonian survivor and even less so in the presence of the general.  Still, she forces herself to appear to do so.

No need to let her think she’s intimidated by her.  (She isn’t.  Definitely not.  A queen should never be intimidated by the opposition.  Just aware of the level of threat.)

And yet, a smirk smooths across her lips.

' PROTECTIVE STARTERS '

@inze​ asked:   “ come here, you’re bleeding. ”

Yielding the breath she’d been holding behind the purse of her lips, the laser focus she’d maintained on staunching the blood flow in question from trickling all the way down the plane of her forearm, Alex turned to face Astra without any real thread of animosity;  nothing but stoicism, nothing but a tired, transparent frisson of resignation that, in spite of her unwillingness to let go of the mistrust she’d held over her, the innate skepticism and apprehension that still coloured every sparse second of attention Alex afforded her, Astra wasn’t without some strain of compassion, no matter how tenuous.  Astra wasn’t exclusively the monster she’d determined she was. ( The monster she’d almost succeeded in slaying on that rooftop. )

If she had been, had Kara not caught a glimpse of something in her that she’d deemed worthy of a second chance, maybe all of this would have been easier to reckon with.  Maybe Astra wouldn’t have stayed;  Maybe Alex wouldn’t have barrelled headfirst into the first sting op to have come her way, just to detract from the persistent guilt that chewed at her insides every time Kara looked her way.  

Maybe the Fort Rozz escapee she’d been chasing wouldn’t have sliced straight through her shirt sleeve with its claws.  Maybe she would have been better prepared.

She’s silent for a moment, letting those words wash over her. They seem so strange, so unfamiliar, and she’s not sure what to say in response. Instead, she leans her head on Astra’s shoulder, a hand resting hesitantly on the other woman’s, and whispers, ‘and you? If you think I deserve better, then isn’t it logical that you do, too?’ She tilts her head up so that she can look at the woman without lifting her head from her shoulder, her gaze gentle as she watches her. She reaches up, fingers brushing along Astra’s jawline with a tenderness she didn’t think she possessed for so long. ‘And what if I hear such things inside my own head?’

‘That’s not true!’ She can’t help the distress that colours her voice as she reaches for her sister, taking her hands in her own and squeezing them tightly. ‘Don’t say that’, she whispers, her voice gentler, stepping closer as she tries to catch her sister’s eye. ‘Astra... you made everything better. Without you I... you were the only person who ever loved me. I would’ve been lost without you’. She tugs at her hands, wanting to pull her into a hug but worried her sister won’t allow it. ‘I needed you. I still need you’. 

Faith couldn’t contain her smile, even as she ducked her head slightly to try and combat the swell of warmth in her chest from the reminder that she wasn’t alone in the world anymore.