After the ceremony, Kara decided that she should grab a bite. She breathed deeply and thought about the whole ceremony, while she waited for her food, she took out her journal and wrote ideas that will, later on, be put together into an article for her blog.
Writing and enjoying the warm touch of the sun she noticed the moment someone stood in her light.
"Can I help you with something?" she mumbled, only after finishing the sentence, she raised her eyes from the pages and met a pair of grey eyes.
"I don't know. Can you?" he asked in a tone that she could only assimilate as looking for a one-night-stand, full of pride, but still in a joking manner. She moved her tongue over the lips and looked at the former prince.
"Weren't you supposed to bow or something?" he asked jokingly while he seated himself in the chair in front of her.
"Are we in the Middle Ages? Even earth moved on from those..." she remarked, while she took her glass of juice, intending to take a sip out of it, placed in the proximity of his hand. Not wanting to, she noticed the ring on his right hand's finger, similar to her grandfather's, but instead of the S inside of the contour of a 2D diamond, there was an L with a comet inside. She guessed that the L stood for Lar, his father and his predecessors, whose names started also in L.
"I don't know... they still do it and you might get hate for it... Princess." The nickname made her suddenly shoot her eyes from her papers and look at him strangely.
"What?"
"It took me a while... you know... your skirt is too blue for you to be a Daxamite and the combination of the colours... blue, yellow and the slight presence of red, the Els. You, people, really love your traditions, don't you? " he continued in his joking manner, put his other hand on the table and started to play with his fingers.
"What do you want?" The daxamite language slipped off her lips with ease.
"What would a young king want from a Kryptonian? Hmm... I don't know... a real motive for why you are here? I'm supposed to go back to Kandor in seven days to discuss what is to be done about the resources, the trade... you know... all that can help your dying planet." he wetted his lips with his tongue and eyed her longly.
A young man appeared out of nowhere, placed a drink before him and bowed at his king, then he turned to her, silently asking her if she wanted something to drink too. Slave. Kara's head screamed. Not interested in being someone that caused the child more harm, the noblewoman shook her head. The child moved to another table, asking the peers whether or not they wanted something else.
"What you need to know is that I'm not interested in getting between you and my planet's high council. I'm just here to see the coronation of the next king of Daxam, that's all," she stated firmly. The former prince looked at her intrigued. He knew something was off. Of course, a Kryptonian would not tell their real intentions to a Daxamite, they kept their secrets to themselves.
"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.
She put a cloth in her lap and moved into a position in which she could easily eat. The king did the same thing, but only after he had stubbed his cigarette in the ashtray that the woman brought along with the food.
"You know... if you were to be a reporter in disguise, I would not be surprised nor annoyed. The whole palace is full of reporters, who are trying to find something worth commenting about me. I bet that by tomorrow there will be at least three articles saying that I've finally settled down, just because I'm having a chat and lunch with you." He said while he took a bite out of his salad. Kara cut her meal and took a bite as well and looked at him somehow intrigued. "I know that there had to be someone in one of the families that were putting all that news out there. Kara-Vex was the first blob that announced that Seyg-El was dead." he made a pause and sipped from his weird looking rum.
"Blog." she corrected him, while still looking at her meal. She took another bite and savoured its taste. The fruits in her dish might look strange, but they fit well.
"That's what I said. Blob." he nodded while taking another gulp.
Kara just shook her head disappointed, but a small smile was placed on her face.
The rest of the meal was spent in silence. Kara enjoyed every bite of her food. When she finished, she placed her cutlery on her plate, wiped her mouth with her cloth and laid back again in her chair, now under the red sunlight. She sipped her drink slowly and kept her mind blank.
She knew that it must have been late and that she had a place to be sometime around six or seven, but she wanted some more time under the sun, not in the mood to go back to the cold weather on Krypton. Mon-El took out another cigarette after he had finished his meal. Both their glasses have been refilled with the same drink as before.
Placing her glasses back on her hairline and having her bag in her lap, Kara took out her communication device and looked for some missed calls from her family. None. Even if they had indeed seen her while watching the coronation, she didn't care. She was an adult, she was doing something she loved and she was for sure in no harm. She was sitting at a table with the King of Daxam for Rao's sake! She was very aware of the fact that neither Krypton nor Daxam wanted this stupid war to continue and she had a feeling that the man before her would have a big role in putting an end to it all once and for all.
She took out her journal next. Picked up her pen and started writing ideas down again.
While reading something she had previously written related to the coronation, so focused on the words spread before her eyes, she didn't notice the fact that the man before her raised from his place and moved before her. Only when her hand was covered by another one, but with the L ring on one of its fingers, did she raise her eyes.
"C'mon." that was all he had said before she was brought up on her feet. She placed her closed notebook on the table and in just mere seconds, she was standing in the arms of a certain Daxamite.
The music was louder now and her eyes were scanning curiously their surroundings. People were slowly moving around her, them, in the same rhythm that she and her dance partner were. Kara was so fascinated by everything that was happening around her. She knew that Daxam was a screwed up planet, the royal family being okay with slavery and also the ones who made the people to not have a free will, give them enough alcohol so that they could be "lost" forever and the planet will not somehow morally evolve. She knew many things, she heard plenty of them from her family, from friends, from school, in history classes, from council members. Kara was always surrounded by people, who hated the planet. But maybe the planet was not that bad after all? What if this person who was leading her in dancing could save not only Krypton, by giving them the resources to keep living, but also somehow Daxam.
The place where his palm was on her waist felt warmer and warmer every time they switched places or she twirled and then pulled back into his arms. Kara was so lost in thought and the analysis of everything surrounding her, thinking about ways to save people, either make them aware of the fact that they need to somehow step up, but also a strong cologne.
She felt warmth surrounding her, calmness, she had no idea why she thought that it could be because of the hot weather. She drowned into the feeling of warmness and felt like she was pulled into the darkness of sleep, even though she knew that she was fully awake. With one of her hands placed on the daxamite's nape before her, she slowly played with the hairs her fingers could catch. Her simple and childish game, dance, in his hair, made the man before her feel like he was pulled into a sea of warmth and calmness too. Still, with half of his brain in the real world, his hearing caught a weird sound coming from their table.
"Kara," he said almost in a whisper. His deep voice made her eyes, which closed at some point during their dance, open and after eyelids, the space unwrapped. All his brain could think of while looking at them, was the brightness of the stars and the colour of comets running on the night's sky.
She had no idea what was happening, it took her various seconds to come back to her senses and realise that she was hearing something very familiar, a Kryptonian song on Daxam... that couldn't be it. "I think that your communication device is ringing." his voice right in her ear. She broke from his embrace and moved towards the table, from which they moved away. She opened her bag and checked her ringing "phone". Mom. She accepted the call and after seconds she was able to hear the voice of her mother. "Where are you, sweetheart? The meeting is starting soon and you're nowhere to be found." Kara wetted her lips and turned her head in the direction of her former dance partner seeing him walking slowly to her table, sat himself back at the table and took another cigarette out of the pack and lit it up.
"I'm just out... with a friend." The noun in Kryptonese made the daxamite raise his eyebrows. "It might take a while for me to get back, I need to help them... you know... clean everything up, we decided that we should try some of those new terranean dishes that they've recently started bringing the receipts of..." she tried to excuse herself while she was looking through her back for some daxamian credits, when she found them she put them in the middle of the table, just enough to cover her meal and leave some more for the staff that was paid. At the sight, Mon-El stopped her hand, their eyes met and all he said was: "It's on me." Kara shook her head, not accepting to eat without paying. She took her hand out of his gently and put her bag on her shoulder, murmured a small "thank you" in daxamite, trying to make it as inaudible to her mother as she could, and left the terrace.
The king nodded his head in her direction and continued to inhale from his cigarette. People started to surround him, taking the tableware and cleaning the table not getting near the pile of credits in the middle. A blonde woman asked him if he wanted something else, the king shook his head and the money on the table got his attention again, He turned to the waiter on his right and said: "You should take it... she left them to pay for her meal."
"Your Highness, you know that I can't."
"I have no need for them, you do. You can consider it a tip for your good service." he shrugged and then rose from his place, leaving the woman shocked at what had just happened with her king. She had never heard of the former prince to do something charitable... It must have been because of that woman with the blue skirt. She thought to herself. She eyed the credits again and took them and then headed to the cash register. She dropped all the money into the tips jar and thought about the woman who shared a table with her king. She seemed nice... The king seemed interested in her, but the fact that she didn't stay more meant that she was not interested in him or maybe she wasn't a daxamite woman in need of attention.
At the other side of the city, Kara Zor-El was running through crowds of drunk and happy men. You know what they used to say: "The daxamites like to drunken their subjects so they could rule in silence just as they want." She tried to throw that thought out of her head because she knew that change would be brought at some point. She boarded and spent the next almost two hours in the ocean of stars looking through her notes for her next blog.
When she arrived back on Krypton and left the port, she started to shiver. The weather on Daxam was much hotter than the one on Krypton and the difference gave Kara no satisfaction, it made her sad even. Running through the people of Argo under the light of a setting sun, she had no worry. She was home, back on her planet, but she was for sure late. Seconds turned into minutes and that way her road home became shorter and shorter.
She started walking again when she saw her family's coat of arms, the statue in front of her home. She hugged herself, the chillness of the Kryptonian evening catching up with her. Her steps were hurried on the pavemented alley to the entrance. She pushed the huge and heavy door and came face to face with her mother. She froze.
"Kara!" her mother went to warmly hug her. "We have been waiting for you. C'mon." the woman told her daughter while her palm caught her elbow and the younger woman was dragged to the high halls of the El villa. The mother turned to her daughter the moment they both stopped in front of the door to the conference room. "Did you stay in the sun or something? Your cheeks are red, burnt by the sun, I think and you look like you've been running around... Also, are you full of dust? Where have you been?"
"I met with some friends and we decided that we should take a hike, we went to Kryptonopolis. Plenty of time spent in the sun, so that's why I have... the sunburns on my cheeks." She lied to her mother, she had gotten used to this, her mother had no idea of her hobby, her "other job", you can call it. She didn't know the fact her daughter was studying in secret journalism, all she knew was that she took some extra classes for the law.
"Oh, so you haven't watched the coronation." She wondered looking strangely at her, but a smile appeared on her face right after. "Let's just go inside." The parent nodded her head in the direction of the conference room in front of which they were.
Kara went ahead and opened the door slowly. All she saw inside is a big pile of papers and her father looking through some other with a pen between his lips. The young El walked towards the seat right in front of her father, took off her messenger bag, put in on the floor and sat down. Her mother picked the seat in her father's right. She moved the pile of papers in the middle of the distance between them and their daughter. Kara eyed the papers strangely. She felt that something weird was going to happen, but she could not put her finger on what that could mean.
"I think you are aware of the fact that the high council of Krypton has been in negotiations with the daxamite leadership for a while." Her mother started to explain.
"We are very aware of the fact that they have just had the coronation, but these documents have been signed for a while now and they're going to be part of the endurance policy, which won't let neither Daxam nor Krypton attack each other. Also, this has been an idea of redeeming peace with the Daxamites for a while, it took a long time for us to finally get the courage to put in motion. Of which we are not proud." Her father continued.
"And why do you need me?" Kara asked, half scared, half intrigued of the situation. Thinking that she may have a new subject to write about after the coronation.
"Take a Look." Her mother said with a calm voice, but Kara knew her mother very well and she could feel the resistance somewhere deep inside her. She looked her in the eyes, the same eyes she had and tried to understand what was wrong, the meaning of all of that.
Kara looked at her mother once last time and then slowly took a part of the tall and heavy pile of papers off the table. She read slowly the words on the first page and froze.
Marriage arrangement documents
compiled by the High Council of Krypton and Daxam, in the presence of King Lar and Queen Rhea
for
House of El of Krypton & the Royal House of Gand of Daxam