For The Safety of Our Stars | Kara Zor-El and Mon-El

Chapter Two; "Blue, yellow and the slight presence of red."

"There is something else... you're writing too much in your diary over there. Where did you get one from actually? Aren't you almost out of trees? I remember Krypton being so into digitising writing and here I see a Kryptonian, not any Kryptonian, an El, using paper."

"You're too interested in what we do, your highness. Some people have the opportunity to still use paper in their day to day life, not only diplomatic acts are meant to be on paper," she replied while closing her journal and gathering her belongings from the table, knowing that her order was meant to arrive anytime soon.

She laid back in her chair and moved her sunglasses from their place in her hair down on her nose. Mon-El weirdly turned on each side, feeling his pockets, trying to find something. The first thing he put on the table was a shiny, silver lighter and after a long time, he put a pack of cigarettes on the table next to the lighter. He had propped himself on his elbows after he took a cigarette out of the pack and put it between his lips. The action took Kara by surprise. She knew that the Prince, now King, of Daxam used to smoke, all noble Daxamites had this habit, but she didn't expect him to smoke in front of her, on his coronation day.

After his first inhale and exhale, Mon-El moved back in his place and took a position similar to Kara's. They fell into silence, none daring to make another remark, joke, say anything at all. Kara looked at the way the smoke left his lips and nose and disappeared into the hot summer air.

"You still haven't told me why you're here." his voice, now deeper than before, because of the tobacco, broke the silence. Kara didn't say anything. She looked at him strangely, a look that made him shiver for a second and laugh at the same time. Even from behind her shades, he could feel the annoyance in her glare. He achieved something else that day, he pissed off a Kryptonian noblewoman.

"As I said, what I'm here to do is not going to harm neither the crown of Daxam nor their negotiations with Krypton. This thing is important for my planet and I'm not interested in ruining it."

"You're that Kara-Vex girl, am I right?" he stated out of the blue.

"What?" She laughed drily and started to play with her fingers and the rings on them under the table. "What makes you think that?" she asked, rose her head and looked at him weirdly, her tone being able to show that something was wrong or hidden.

"You think that I can't read Kryptonese, but by being in the royal family, your language was the second I had to learn. I've been talking in Kryptonese for decades and your writing is pretty neat, even when you're in a hurry."

"Are you some kind of psychologist?"

"No, I just pay attention to the people surrounding me." He shrugged and took another inhale from his burning cigarette.

Kara raised her eyebrows and rolled her eyes. The affirmation made her think about all the jokes and praises she had heard about his ability to seduce and pleasure women. Maybe that was why she had heard only good things about it, he paid attention and that trait was something many women wanted in a man. Wanting to get rid of her darker thoughts, Kara shook her head. The action caught the man's attention and he eyed her strangely.

Kara turned her head in the direction of the garden. She admired the kids running around, through the blue and green bushes, their laughter filling the air. Music could be heard somewhere in the background, from inside the palace, the terrace being considered a place where you could detach yourself from the party inside. Kara preferred the silence, the calm and she liked admiring the way people on Daxam were enjoying that festive day.

She was so caught up in the scenery that she didn't hear another person, now a woman, older than the child that came before. The woman wore an apron and was dressed in dark red clothes, shorts, a T-shirt and a vest. The vest had sewn on its different patterns with yellow string. She could not decipher whether the woman was a slave too or a paid server when she looked at her. Her attention was brought back by the coughs of a certain blue-eyed king. He nodded to the woman when the food, that he didn't order, was put before him. Kara smiled too at the woman when her order was also placed before her.