WHO Steph, Eddie and Kara (Part Deux) WHAT Picking a Christmas tree. WHEN Recently! WHERE Some tree farm outside Gotham. WARNINGS Stupid amounts of cute.
Kara started out as the sole listener to the story - well, her and Krypto and Matilda - and she was admittedly surprised to have an audience with her by the end, because she'd been trying so hard to make sense of what Eddie and Stephanie were saying that she didn't even notice. That, in itself, was kind of amazing, since she still couldn't control her superhearing completely. But when they were done, she looked around to see people walking away, and she looked down at the dogs before looking back at her friends.
Kara had known that Christmas was about religion to some extent, and she'd already promised herself that she wouldn't go around telling everyone that religion didn't exist. It always got everyone angry when she explained that religion was the coping mechanism of a less scientifically advanced people. And she could understand tradition. Despite their very modern way of living, Krypton had still held onto some things that were old and didn't make a lot of sense. But the story Stephanie and Eddie told was confusing, and she didn't see a way to understand without mentioning religion.
The ugly little tree drew Kara's attention, and she looked at it for a moment, before finally looking over at Eddie and Stephanie again. They looked so happy, especially Stephanie. Maybe the story and the tree didn't matter, since that was the case. But she was so curious, and she just wasn't any good at keeping her mouth shut; she never had been, even back home. "But the smart boy's speech was about religion, not about goodwill," she finally said. She had understood that part, at least, even if she had no idea who Snoopy was or why nines would be decorated, or why Charlie would think a tree was dead when branches fell off. Trees were dead as soon as they were chopped, weren't they? Dying, anyway. And a bad looking one, like this one, was even closer to being useless.
Finally, Kara huffed, and just asked the question she wanted to ask. "Isn't a pretty tree better?" Because she loved bright, bright pretty things.
Eddie was fully wrapped up in the spirit of storytelling and the holiday season. Seeing Stephanie so enthusiastic and happy as they were publicly the silliest people at the tree farm made his heart feel like it was trying to break through his ribcage and beat out of his chest in full adoration for her. “Bravo, bravo!” He exclaimed at the end of her Charlie Brown story and pulled her into a messy swaying hug. PDA haters be damned. His arms wrapped around her shoulders and he buried his nose into the crook of her neck. She wasn’t the only one feeling lucky this holiday season.
Kara’s voice made him turn, arm moving to wrap around Stephanie’s back. His smile was still warm even in the face of Kara’s confusion. It wasn’t the daunting magical story of baby Jesus that moved Charlie Brown to enjoy Christmas. It was that feeling the angel brought the shepherds of hope and peace that no one could really completely grasp. “Christmas and religion make people feel goodwill, Kara.” Eddie said gently, patiently, in a way he never afforded anyone in Gotham. “The point is, everyone here gets tired of Christmas eventually. The bright lights, the overpriced eggnog. Sometimes it’s a little too much and we all feel like that ugly tree.” Eddie glanced over at Stephanie, the next part said directly to her. “So, you have to pull back and find the simple things that make you feel really happy. Like friends, and goodwill and being together. Then all the bright lights are nice to look at again.”
He paused and resisted the urge to touch Stephanie’s face or kiss her. Eddie thought about the day he came back from Arkham and threw a fit in his suit closet and he knew that Stephanie was thinking about that day, too. The both of them had superficial things that they held onto, most people did. But, what mattered was them and he wasn’t going to lose sight of that. “You’ll understand after a couple years. This year, though...” Eddie’s dark eyes brightened and he gave Stephanie a signal to go ahead and help Kara find a good tree. “We’re going to go all out. We’ll get a nice tree.”
Stephanie grinned like an idiot when Eddie lauded her performance, and she turned into his messy hug with a sort of grace saved for those silly romantic comedies starring a beautiful buxom blonde and her hunky leading man. Cinematic romance and grace from Gotham’s sweethearts even if they were just complete goofballs bouncing around a tree farm. She didn’t even pay mind to the dissipating crowd or Kara’s confusion for a moment, just concentrated on the feeling of his arms wrapped around her and his nose buried in the crook of her neck. Smiling widely, she closed her eyes for a split-second and scooped her arms up his back to hold onto his shoulders. But soon he was moving away and she made a little whine just for him before directing her attention back to Kara.
“Yeah, that,” Steph confirmed, spent on articulation after her grandiose little story about Charlie Brown, his friends, and the tiny tree that could. She slipped her hand around his back and tucked it in the back pocket of his jeans. Not caring about faux pas like touching Eddie when Kara was around or not acting like jackasses in public. That was them, Stephanie and Eddie, and she didn’t feel like hiding their love or apologizing for it right then and there. She’d been deprived of this for months; Gotham couldn’t tell her to bury her fondness for him after all that. That wasn’t fair, right? And so when Eddie spoke to her, she turned and looked up at him with blue eyes unabashedly in love with him. “Yeah,” she agreed, unable to muster up a snappy comment when her brain was buzzing with the affection for the green man coiled around her.
After a moment, after realizing she doesn’t give a shit about what others think, she pressed her lips to his jaw before capturing his mouth in a kind of lingering kiss. Before she could get too lost in him though, she pulled away and stepped towards Kara in one quick movement. “Let’s go find the prettiest tree a gal’s ever seen, huh?” Steph offered, grabbing Kara’s hand to entwine their fingers so she could tug the Kryptonian towards a line of full, pretty pines. “Sorry,” she said lowly, when they were just out of reach from Eddie, “I couldn’t resist.” With a rumbling clear of her throat, she raised her voice again. “So, we need a tree that’s gonna hold up all the stuff you wanna put on it, right?” She smiled easily over at the other blonde and pulled her towards one of the trees to test the branches. While she inspected the pine, she sipped on her hot chocolate, hummed thoughtfully, and chewed on one of the marshmallows from the overflowing mug.
Kara watched the hugging and kissing with wide and unblinking blue eyes. No one - no one - on Krypton ever did that. Not in public, and she didn't think they did it in private either. Maybe they did, but they didn't talk about it if they did, and she couldn't imagine her parents doing it. It made her remember the sounds she'd heard when Stephanie and Eddie were locked in together at the Manor, and her cheeks went red, red blush. Politeness was lost on her, and she was like a girl who had stumbled on something risque on late night television; she couldn't look away. There was a silliness to it that was surprising, and she wondered if everyone here was like that, or if it was only Eddie and Stephanie. She already thought they were different, what with the age differences, but maybe they were different in other ways too. But it didn't matter, because they looked so happy. She wanted that kind of happiness, she decided there and then. It looked even better than a party with all her best girlfriends back home.
And while Kara wasn't sure about religion making people feel goodwill, she did think that bright lights on pretty trees could make people feel cheery. And cheery people were much more likely to be nice than cranky people. And maybe that was really all that mattered about this holiday. People made things pretty, and they bought things for others instead of themselves, and they all got together and spent time with one another. She thought maybe the whole religion thing wasn't really important, but she didn't say it. She just dipped two fingers into her cocoa and sucked them clean, and she laughed a childishly giddy laugh at their infectious happiness. It was a good thing Eddie was home. Gotham had felt sad while he was away, and she thought that had a lot to do with Stephanie being sad. Stephanie's family tended to be very morose without people around to cheer them. When she'd arrived, it was Helena that made everyone happy. And then Stephanie had taken over the job. And with no one doing it, it had been very quiet. But now things would be different again, and that made her smile too.
Kara went willingly after Stephanie grabbed her fingers, careful not to let momentum catch up with her, and willing to let the cocoa slosh onto the snowy ground as she concentrated on making sure Stephanie's arm stayed in its socket. "You do not need to apologize," she said when Stephanie whispered. "You are cute together." Dimples and a bright smile, and a blush as she remembered the affection she witnessed. "I want to have that someday," she admitted. "Maybe things here are not all bad," she conceded playfully, dipping her fingers into her cocoa again and tugging a branch clear off a tree without meaning to. Ooops.
Stephanie Brown wasn’t a particularly religious person. Her mom and dad were Christmas-Easter Christians at best and only said anything about God when it was in anger. She didn’t really go to church regularly or pray every night, but she respected the origin of Christmas and the idea of what religion could do for people. It fostered kindness and charity in the best people, and even while it caused so much heartache and pain in the world, there was always good, too. Look at what the church had done to Eddie and the support given to him over the last few months. And so, while Steph would understand Kara’s doubt, she’d just have to let her find out on her own that she might just be wrong.
But, that wasn’t the matter at the moment. Just showing Kara that Christmas was about happiness and loved ones and pretty lights was more than enough. It was all Stephanie really wanted to focus on this holiday season, too. Appreciating her friends, her family, her life, her man. Remembering that even in the bleakest moments, she had sources of light in her life that could break through the shadows of doubt or sadness or pain. She glanced at Kara, whose ruddy cheeks and bright grin had a grin of her own blooming across her lips. She missed her friend a lot; she missed being happy around her friends.
“I’m glad you’ve finally come to your senses,” Steph teased, letting go of her hand to brush some of the snow off the branches. Kara’s embarrassment amused the blonde bat immensely, and she fought the urge to roll her eyes. In good nature, of course. “PDA is totally taboo, but I don’t care right now,” she said softly so Eddie couldn’t hear, then stuck her tongue out of the side of her mouth playfully. Watching the broken branch fall to the ground. “But still, most people wouldn’t care if we’re cute.” A blonde eyebrow arched high, and she tried so very hard not to smirk, but ultimately failed. “Oh, reeeaaaally? It’s wonderful,” she started, then strolled over to the next tree. Eyebrow still quirked and smirk set across her mouth. “Having someone love you like he does. Coming home to that every night.” She glanced over her shoulder to Eddie and smiled at him. Then, she glanced to set a knowing look on Kara. “Anyone in mind?” She turned back to the tree and tugged on one of the branches with a hum. Stephanie knew Damian and Jason both had a thing for her, and the blonde bat was curious on Kara’s feelings towards them. Because though they were family, the Kryptonian was her BFF. She didn’t want anyone toying with her feelings.
Without Sanctuary to help, figuring out something like PDA was impossible for Kara, and she gave her friend a questioning look that made it clear she needed the acronym explained to her. "I did not think many things here were taboo," she said honestly. The way Jason talked, she couldn't imagine what was taboo here. Even by earth standards, she knew he had a filthy mouth; Kal had explained it, while he'd been begging her not to repeat some of the things that came out of Jason's mouth. And she thought her friend might be joking about everything being okay if they were cute, but Stephanie and Eddie were cute, and Kara decided to just believe it. After all, if trees and sweet chocolatey drinks were part of Christmas, maybe hugs and kisses were too. Kisses made her blush, and she swatted so very carefully at Stephanie's hand when the other blonde voiced that elongated reeeaaaally. "What is it like?" she asked in a whisper that carried to where Eddie was, but she whispered anyway, even if she knew her voice was too loud to really hide anything. "Living with a boy- er, man?"
Kara had lived with her parents and, now, her cousin. But she couldn't imagine living with a stranger. She knew genematched couples that opted for commitment ceremonies lived together on Krypton - like her parents - but they had separate rooms and very separate lives, and she didn't think that's what Stephanie and Eddie were like at all. She tugged at branches as she examined trees, getting the hang of not completely tugging the branches off after a few fallen tree limbs. She looked back at Stephanie at the question about whether or not she had anyone in mind, guilty blue eyes and bright red cheeks. "No. I- Damian has asked me out, but it has never happened. But Jason kissed me," she said, the end of her statement a hurried and rushed little thing. "I think he kisses lots of girls. He talks about sexing all the time," she said with a roll of her eyes that was maybe too exaggerated. "He is older," she added, ducking her head close to Stephanie's in order to whisper more quietly. "Do they want it more when they get older?" she asked, because Eddie was really old. If anyone would know the answer to that question, it was Stephanie.
“Public displays of affection,” Stephanie answered to Kara’s confused expression with a wicked glint in her eyes as her finger jutted up like a certain green man. Her voice dropped a little for dramatic effect. “Totally taboo. All that touchy feely stuff you just saw? Most people would probably puke at the sight.” She raised an eyebrow, an almost wiggle in the way Kara surely had seen Eddie do it countless times before, before she grinned brightly. Steph was hardly the person in Gotham to find anything taboo, after all. She had the mouth of a sailor, the crassness of a teenage boy, and the frankness of a seventy year old man without a care in the world. Taboo wasn’t a word in Stephanie Brown’s dictionary. So, she answered Kara unabashedly and with a mixture of affection and good humor. “Living with Eddie? It’s wonderful. I get to wake up to him every morning. We make each other breakfast or dinner. We know how to give each other space when we need it or be all up on each other when we want.” She paused for a moment, and her voice dipped down into a low whisper that she hoped wouldn’t carry to the riddled man behind them. “After not having him around for so long, it’s so good to have him around. But it’s still scary. I’m still scared that I’m gonna lose him again. I wake up in the middle of the night and have to make sure he’s still there sometimes.”
For a brief moment, she looked down and worried her lip. It was the first time she’d said anything about how afraid she felt about losing Eddie again. It woke her up every couple nights, but when she turned over to see him, everything was okay. She didn’t think he noticed yet, but Eddie always noticed everything. She should know better.
Regardless, she brightened up again and laughed loudly. “Damian is a jackass. Do you want to go on a date with him? Either of them? You’re allowed to ask them too, Kara.” A wide smirk spread across her lips when she stuttered out that Jason had kissed her. “Did he?” She wasn’t about to break bro-code and tell the Kryptonian that Jason had actually contacted her for advice, too. “Did you liiiike it?” Stephanie asked, eyeing the red cheeks with the amusement a girl had when her best friend was getting some. “He might,” she responded with a shrug of Jason kissing other girls, but she didn’t think that was true anymore. He seemed to really have a thing for Kara, beyond just wanting to get in her pants. Hopefully.
“He likes you,” Steph continued, bro-cod be damned. “Jason, he likes you.” The blonde bat giggled at sexing and giggled even more when she asked if it was because of his age. “Are you assuming Eddie wants to have sex all the time?” She tried to look astonished, but failed miserably. Instead she flashed the other girl a soft smile. “We don’t say sexing, Kara. But yes, he does. It’s normal, sweetheart. And it doesn’t have anything to do with age, I promise. They’re boys. They want in our pants. But we can own it, too.” She looked back at him again before back to Kara. “I want in his pants all the time, too. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”
Kara didn't understand what made Stephanie different, not when it came down to the parts that made up the blonde girl that had been kind to her when no one else had. She didn't know, and she couldn't find words for it, but she knew it was something, some fearlessness that she didn't have, maybe. At fifteen, on Krypton, there hadn't been a need to be fearless. She'd always been too loud, too bright, but there had never been even a hint of danger or darkness in her life. And it had been her birthday when everything changed for her, and now she was older, but she still felt like that girl she'd been. If she thought about the fact that she'd been floating in space for thirty years, it made her head hurt, so she didn't do it much. But she knew Stephanie was different, and maybe Gotham had made her that way. It didn't matter to Kara; she was just glad to have Stephanie for a friend.
Kara listened with rapt attention to Stephanie's clarification of the acronym, not wanting to forget the lesson. She didn't actually need to listen as hard as she did, because she could hear every last thing on the tree lot, but she paid close attention, while trying to understand why someone would be physically ill from watching kissing. "It is not weird?" she ask unnecessarily of Stephanie's life with Eddie, because it obviously wasn't. But Kara couldn't imagine someone being around all the time, and it showed on her face. She crinkled her nose a little, but there was curiosity in her bright blue eyes. She wanted to ask what happened if they wanted to do different things, or if they didn't want to sleep at the same time, or if they didn't want to wake up at the same time. But she didn't, because Stephanie started talking about being scared, and that was something Kara could understand without any need of translation or explanation. She reached out and she squeezed her friend's hand carefully, not wanting to break any fingers. "We will not let anyone take him," she said of Eddie being lost. Maybe it wasn't a promise she was sure she could keep, but she would try. And she was sure all of Stephanie's family would try too. She could not imagine Batman letting it happen.
"I like Damian," Kara confessed. "But I think he is not very interested." She said it with a shrug, like she'd come to terms with it, and she was young enough that things stung brightly, but briefly. She lowered her voice into a whisper again. "I think Jason only wants sexxxx-," she admitted, dragging out the x to avoid pronouncing the ing. But she was curious about what it would be like as herself, and not as some boything at a party that so wasn't her at all. Stephanie's comment about boys wanting in their pants, that made Kara glance down at the pants she was wearing, furrowed brow, but she looked up almost immediately. "You do not mean that literally," she said. Nothing was literal here. That was the new rule she was going to employ when she didn't understand something. That decided, she glanced around, looking for Eddie, trying to imagine anything happening in his pants.
Eddie had wandered off the second he saw Stephanie and Kara huddle together in what he assumed was girl talk time. He didn’t mind. So much of all this holiday cheer was an attempt to make Stephanie as happy as possible and if she needed time with her friend, he’d give it to her. “Matilda.” He called just loud enough that the little copper-haired dog would trot over to him. Despite how eager she was to stick with Krypto, Eddie was still a priority to Matilda. Like any adopted dog that was carefully trained and nurtured by a new caring master, the long absence of her owner made her think that he’d never come back. And when she pushed her cold nose into her hand while wiggling her whole body in excitement, it occurred to Eddie that life might have turned out a little differently if he had a dog when he was Stephanie’s age. If he wanted one.
But, a young Eddie was a rough one. Someone that wouldn’t see the simple beauty in a row of Christmas trees or smile at a happy dog. Someone that was too busy thinking up a creative way to play a new game with someone worthy. Now it was a pursuit of real happiness instead of trying to stay in that smog of ego.
He caught a few looks from Stephanie and Kara while he was actively proving he wasn’t listening or all that interested. With his violet shades repaired that scrolled words and numbers so fast it’d make a normal man’s head spin, he drifted off into his own world as he strolled through the trees with Matilda at his side. Finally, he looped back around and caught Stephanie’s attention with raised eyebrows over reflective glasses. A silent question to ask if they were done talking before pointing to a nice looking tree as if he had found their solution single handedly.
“It’s weird, but I’m not scared of it anymore,” the blonde bat admitted of living with Eddie. “I used to be really scared about all that crap, but him being away made things different.” So very different, and it was easy to tell how relieved she was to have him back in her life again. Arkham was another test in a long line of tests for the two of them, and she was simply glad that it was finally over. For now, at least. Stephanie saw Eddie edging closer slowly through the rows of trees as Kara assured her that they wouldn’t let him get taken again, and she smiled at the blonde again, reaching forward to squeeze her hand lightly in gratitude. Some days, she wasn’t so sure that her family would help keep Eddie out of trouble. But, she had Kara, who would help, and she had herself, and that would be enough at the end of the day.
“Damian is going through a lot,” Steph told the Kryptonian as she caught the brow raise from Eddie. After a moment, after he pointed out a nice tree not to far off, she tugged Kara’s hand to bring her towards the proffered tree. “He blames himself for Helena still, and he’s really goddamn angry about it. But, he’s always angry.” She tilted her head towards her friend, blonde hair spilling in her face for a second before she blew it away quickly. “If you like Damian, you should go for it.” Oh, how Steph had missed the geometric entanglements of Gotham City, and Kara was the perfect victim for its drama. The blonde bat knew that things could get ugly in the love department, but Kara needed to learn for herself. It was the only way she would understand anything about that sort of Earth relationship.
While still holding Kara’s hand, when Steph reached Eddie, she slipped her hand into his and squeezed. “Estrogen hour is over, I think. You’ve suffered through enough,” she told him, pressing a kiss to the corner of his jaw unabashedly. She tugged Kara’s hand once more before letting go and pointing to the tree as well. “What about that one?” she asked the other girl as she rubbed her thumb on the back of Eddie’s cool hand.
Kara believed Stephanie's admission that she wasn't scared of living with Eddie. It showed on her friend's face, how happy she was. And after seeing her cry so much while Eddie was in prison, Kara was glad of anything that made Stephanie brighten up. "I am so happy that you are happy," she said honestly. Gotham was not a very happy place as far as she could tell, but maybe there were small pockets of really bright happiness, like this. As for Damian going through a lot, Kara understood. She knew Helena was sick, and she wasn't sure the other girl could get better, not until she stopped blaming everyone else for her unhappiness. Kara had firsthand experience with that; she'd done the same thing when she'd ended up alone on a strange planet, but it hadn't done her any good. It wasn't until she'd started to let people in that things had gotten better. Being lonely made people mean, and no one knew that better than her.
"I think Damian is very cute," Kara admitted with a blush, and she looked up when Eddie approached them again. Krypto barked, sad at losing his friend, and Kara tugged on his leash so he didn't chase Matilda. "He is not used to people being everywhere - or dogs. There was no one for him to play with at Sanctuary. He is not used to couches either," she admitted, because the couch Kal had purchased was currently missing all the fabric from its legs and arms. She smiled when Stephanie tugged on her fingers one last time, and then she looked at the tree that Eddie and Stephanie were pointing at. It looked a lot like the others to her, and she was more interested in the way Eddie and Stephanie's fingers tangled together. It was cute, she decided. She would try it someday. "I think it is a perfect tree," she agreed, with Krypto barking on the heels of her statement, which made her laugh. "Krypto agrees."
Eddie took his glasses off and rolled his head to look down at Stephanie, dark eyes missing her blues as he smirked at her. “Good, any more girl talk and I’d have to find the highest tree to jump off of.” He teased, no sharpness or actual threat of tree assisted suicide in his voice. Another look at the tree, hands curled into fists as he propped them on his hips and looked up. “The symmetry leaves something to be desired, but I think it looks nice. Plus, you can always turn the bad side towards the wall.” Eddie nodded wisely and then glanced at Kara. Normally he’d like to see a Kryptonian yank a tree out of the ground, but here wasn’t the time or the place. And, the idea of putting an axe in her hand (while hilarious) could lead to clear disaster.
“I’ll get someone to chop it down for us.” He pulled Stephanie close for a quick kiss on her cheek and then her lips with a look to tell her this was nice. His large eyes cleared of that stormy worry in exchange for some warm holiday cheer. It wouldn’t last. Before they knew it they’d be diving into the next problem together or fighting each other all the way down. But, for now this slice of normal happiness was enough to keep Gotham from swallowing happiness whole.