Title: On Eggshells
Fandom: Supergirl (TV)
Rating: G
Length: ~ 1000
Summary: Losing a planet, her family and all she ever knew is hard enough, but now she also has powers and despite all the things she can do, it doesn't make adjusting any easier.



“No, absolutely not!” Alex shouts. “She breaks everything!”

Kara wants to hide away somewhere. Mr. Danvers – and he still is that in her mind – has a hand on her shoulder, while his wife talks in hushed tones to Alex. Kara can hear every word and it's distracting and even more embarrassing.

“She doesn't know her own strength yet. It's disorienting.”

“She broke my favorite cup and she broke my hairbrush...”

“Kara didn't mean to, Alex.”

“I didn't mean to,” she whispers in agreement.

Jeremiah gives her a hug and she lets herself be hugged, but keeps as still as possible in his arms. “We know, Kara.” He pats her hair soothingly.

Gratefulness overwhelms her and she wants to show it somehow, but she doesn't know how it's done here. She's sad and awkward and Earth is so confusing sometimes. Her mother had told her about the yellow sun, but living like this is so different; so dangerous. Everything she touches breaks.

She was a normal girl like Alex and to her it feels like that was just weeks ago.

Alex still looks upset.

That evening Kara sneaks out onto the roof. She doesn't want to make trouble, she just wants to be alone and think. Eliza is talking to Alex again, somewhere downstairs in the living room, explaining how Kara needs her, needs all of them, how much she has lost, how important it is to help and protect her.

Kara wants to cry.

She knows she's not alone, but it hurts to know that despite people wanting to help, none of them can walk a mile in her shoes. She broke the sink yesterday. Touching things has become something she's afraid of more than anything.

At home she had never been a force of destruction.

It makes her want to cry.

She sleeps on the roof and doesn't even feel the coolness of the nightly breeze. Everything is so different for a Kryptonian girl on Earth. It's still night when she wakes up and she thinks for a long time about just flying away. But where? She has no idea where to go. This planet is still strange and new to her.

Instead she hops back inside and picks up the phone Kal-El has given her and picks it up, oh so very carefully, like it is made from the finest and most breakable Tandurian glass. She knows how to text Kal-el – Clark. He's Clark now, she reminds herself. And not her sweet little baby cousin any longer.

He's an adult and she's just a kid and he's trying to protect her. Everything is turned upside down.

“How did you learn not to break things?” she texts and it's still night here, but as far as she knows it should be very early morning in Metropolis. So she waits.

To her relief Clark texts back minutes later. “I had time. My powers didn't come all at once. They came as I grew. I had parents and they helped me through. You're not alone either.”

“Did it scare you?”

“Yes, Kara. Still does sometimes. But I could do it and you can too. Step by step.”

It makes her smile. Clark is right, she can do it. But she won't manage if she doesn't try.

She walks out and thinks of apologizing to Alex for having upset her, but thinks better of it, because Alex probably won't appreciate being woken in the middle of the night. She tries to listen for the breathing of everyone in the house, tries to concentrate and identify which heartbeat belongs to whom. Which is why she realizes that someone is awake. There are soft shuffling steps in the kitchen.

Carefully she gets off her bed and sneaks down the stairs and down the hallway.

It's Alex, shuffling around in the dark kitchen.

“Alex?” Kara asks softly and her voice gets stuck in her throat. English is still sometimes strange to her. She knows how to apologize in Kryptonian, knows the appropriate body language. It's awkward.

“Hey,” Alex says and lowers her eyes. Clearly, she didn't expect someone to find her here at this hour. She probably doesn't want to talk. So Kara stops inside the door and watches as Alex takes out something from the fridge.

There are different things on the table, plates and glass figurines, as if she'd been linig up stuff. “I'm glad you're awake,” Alex whispers. “I thought we could try something.”

She holds up an egg.

Kara frowns. She's not sure what that means or what's going through the other girl's mind.

Apparently she looks suitably confused.

Because Alex shrugs and walks over, takes her hand and holds up her palm. “Let's start with this,” she says as she slips the cold egg into her hand. “Hold on to it. Gently. We'll figure out your strength step by step. Get you used to it.”

Even the words scare her, but she closes her fingers around the egg gently and doesn't crush it.

“See?” Alex asks.

Kara feels sheepish and smiles.

“Step by step.”

“Step by step,” she agrees and suddenly she's beaming.

Alex smiles back.

“Thank you, Alex.”

“Thank me when we got you as far as not breaking the sink in the morning, klutz,” her new foster sister shoots back.

“We can do it.” Perhaps she has just started believing it.

And Alex face lights up. “Of course, we can.”

Kara laughs and the egg is crushed between her fingers. They can't stop laughing, both of them; their first shared laugh.

“That was minute or so,” Alex notes down. “Let's try another.”

The kitchen is a mess when Jeremiah and Eliza come down for breakfast, and they were out of eggs. But it was the first time Kara felt like she was really part of the family.