milliways_bar | (no subject)

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Once Kara got out of the cells and only kind of bolted for the Door, she couldn't get back to the Bar for a few days. She was sort of surprised she missed it, but hey, here it is. Coolness.

First things first - she leaves a long overdue note with Bar.

I turned myself in and did cell time for the fight in the woods. You don't have to, because I worked that out with the girl who took me in, so I'm hoping that you're satisfied with that.

I know it probably won't matter to you, but I am sorry. I hope you're doing okay.

- Supergirl

After that, Kara heads outside to study for Claire's math quiz. One small, blonde, cross-legged levitating girl in an entirely seasonable crop top and shorts is hanging out by the lake as she pours over her mostly borrowed notes.

This, she reflects, would probably be easier if she'd ever taken a test she could remember before that didn't involve hitting things with cars or identifying the silhouettes of weaponry.

Distractions will bring her grade down, but she'll be grateful anyway.

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Walking, that's a good idea, a good way to clear the young Guildmaster's head. Take it slow. No decisions yet.

Hey look, there's Supergirl.

Darn.

Now her mind's pretty much back to square one, but she should know. Should know a lot, really.

"Are you busy?"

"Nope!" Kara responds instantly, against all evidence to the contrary, slapping her books shut as she looks up.

She's happy to see Mia until she remembers the associations Mia has with her, and then it's more 'oh fuck I don't need this right now'.

But she smiles a little anyway, because she's working on the whole calmness and forgiving thing.

Mia gives a little sigh.

"There's a lot that's happened that I need to talk to you about. I owe it to you. I'm sorry that you're joining the ever-growing number of people to hear my problems, but I should be honest with you."

She sits down.

Kara's still floating, so hello looking down on Mia!

The expression on her face implies that there is very, very little in the world Kara would like less than liatening to Mia's problems, but Kara does manage to not be entirely bratty when she says, "Okay, then. Shoot."

"First off, I should tell you that I know Draco Malfoy. I hope you don't get the wrong idea about me from that. I had met Will first and didn't know about Draco until Will told me about him. I didn't really expect to talk to him, much less take the time to get to know him. I really should have told you sooner."

She waits for Kara's reaction.

She hopes it's not utter hate.

Well, no. It's more utter confusion about why, exactly, Mia thinks she'd care.

"Okay?" Kara offers, doubtfully. "Iiii...really should point out now that me and Will are not friends anymore and I don't care about Draco, before you continue here. Because...yeah."

"I only bring it up because Draco had told me about the fight. And I sort of gathered that you and Will weren't friends anymore."

She's probably not going to say specifically how she gathered that.

"Draco has been a bit confusing to me as of late."

She almost smiles. Not quite, but almost.

"He told me he loves me."

"No," Kara says, shortly, because even if she only sort of knows Mia?

Draco is a bastard.

"Please tell me you're now avoiding him like the plague. Please."

"I haven't seen him since he told me, but I can't just avoid him. For better or worse, he is my friend."

As unlikely it may seem to Kara, Draco and Mia have a lot in common.

And Draco and Nash have a lot in common.

"He is very much like a friend of mine at home. Someone I love. I may very well be falling in love with Draco too."

Hey, the ground looks pretty interesting!

"..." goes Kara, because. What. The. Hell?

"Are you on crack?" She manages, eventually, giving Mia a look which is mostly confused and disdainful...and just a little bit disgusted, too.

"I know. I have bad taste in wizards. You sound a lot like the people at home who still don't trust Nash. And like the people at home who don't trust Nash, you have a valid reason for not trusting Draco."

This never gets easy, no matter how much she hears it.

"A lot of Draco seems to be his circumstances growing up. His upbringing isn't too different from mine. I could have turned out like him."

Mia doesn't know it, but she's stumbled onto the perfectly wrong way to explain Draco and the liking of Draco to Kara.

Maybe she can tell, because Kara's body language goes completely, unapproachably closed.

"No, see, because he's a jerk, and I'm under the impression you're not," she says, flatly, though...that impression could be changing, right now.

"I know!" she cries, sounding very much like she's heard this all before.

Because she has.

"He hurts those I care about, people are out for his blood at home, and I have absolutely no good reason to like him. No one does."

She's not even sure which one she's talking about now.

"Okay, so...look, I'm lost. What are you trying to do here?" Kara asks, still leaving most to all inflection out of her voice.

"Do you want me to enable you or something? Go all 'sure, Mia, it's okay to like Pompomous Moron McTorturer'? Because, um...I won't do that, no matter how much his daddy didn't love him. Or is there something else you want out of me?"

"I only thought you should know," she says quietly. "I don't want anything from you. I just didn't think it was right to leave you in the dark."

It's just like being at home again.

In a bad way.

"I'm sorry if you would have rather not known, but then there would have been no chance of us getting along at all. There would have been dishonesty between us."

Okay, Mia has established herself as a moron.

But Mia is still nice. Mia is still the girl who let Kara paint her nails. So maybe Kara softens a little.

"Well, um, yeah. Well...good of you to tell me. I'd probably have been ticked if you hadn't," she admits, rubbing her wrist.

Moron?

Not really, just someone who has seen enough to know that honesty and kindness are better, even when they hurt.

There's a short time when Mia does nothing but softly cry. Because let's face it: when someone reminds you that your sweetie's gotten death threats, it hurts.

"I don't know why I do this," she finally says. "Why I don't agree with everyone who says Nash and Draco would be better off dead. I have plenty of reason to wish it myself, but just thinking about it hurts."

Mia cries, and Kara's face falls like that.

"Hey," she says, gliding down to sit on the ground in front of Mia, "Um, it's...don't cry, please?"

"I'm just tired of hearing that they should die. When was the desire to take another's life ever a good thing?"

Her tears are slowing a little, though.

"I don't think he should die," Kara says, wrinkling her nose, "What, did he say I said that or something? Mia, I'm a superhero. I'm not even actually allowed to want people to die."

"No, Draco didn't say that you want him to die. He gets the threats at home. They want to imprison him in a place where the guards rob you of everything but your misery, where they can actually take your soul. I know what it's like to feel nothing but pain and torment. In fact, if Will had not helped me, I might still be sick with it."

Kara never did hear about Mia's curse, did she?

Vaguely. And the misery thing -

- she's not allowed to want him to die. That doesn't mean she can't kind of secretly want anyone who actually uses the poor upbringing excuse to torture people to hurt. Maybe not that much, but she can't summon up any actual sympathy for him, either.

"Well...I just..." Kara runs a hand over her hair, because she does kind of feel sorry for Mia, still. "I'm sorry?"

Mia just sort of nods.

"I don't really expect you to feel anything for Draco. Perhaps I'm just in such a mess about him because he's been able to find the words to make me feel like I'm worth something. Even when I was mad at him, when I slapped him and he was crying on the floor, he actually told me that I'm perfect. He had every reason to hate me, but he said I was perfect."

Oh, so he's a manipulative bastard, too.

Kara was honestly starting to regain neutral feelings about Draco, but now she's heading right back to wanting to punch his stupid little face in.

"Mia," she says, "Okay, look, Draco? Is a douchebag. Just because he says nice things to you for whatever twisted little self-centered reason he has doesn't mean he's secretly nice or even actually thinks that. I'm pretty sure he has the capacity to lie."

"I understand that he has every reason to lie to me. Why wouldn't he? He told me himself that he originally was interested in me because of my money, position, and his need to continue his family name. Vane is being repaired, so there won't really be much money for a long time. I'm living off of the money my friends were kind enough to give me for my birthday while I'm here. Position he doesn't have a chance for unless he becomes a citizen of Vane and even then he could never have as much power as me. And while I'm sure I would be the perfect wife to provide the Malfoy family another heir, there's a problem: I have to carry on my family name too. And unlike Draco's society, I'm expected to keep my last name and any child of mine will have it as well. He has no reason to want me."