Actions

Work Header

Rating:
Archive Warning:
Category:
Fandom:
Relationships:
Characters:
Additional Tags:
Language:
English
Stats:
Published:
2017-12-12
Updated:
2018-02-06
Words:
23,418
Chapters:
5/?
Comments:
124
Kudos:
463
Bookmarks:
46
Hits:
6,864

Spree

Chapter 5: Good Distractions

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Perched on the roof of the building across from Catco, Reign felt a certain sense of peace shrouded in the darkness of this chilly night. Her target, a fairly non-descript middle-aged man she knew through Sam’s memories to be suspected of embezzlement at L-Corp, had gone inside the building for a moment. He would reappear at any moment in the street below, she knew. And then he’d be hers.

Sam hadn’t made any accusations over his suspected embezzling because she didn’t have the proof required to go to other humans to take him down. She was smart that way, at least. Sam had been keeping tabs on his every move for over a week now, waiting for the slightest slip-up so that she could alert Lena to his actions and allow the human laws to take over from there.

Reign knew better. Sam was smart enough, but she was painfully naive if she actually thought human laws could bring any true justice—and for a man as obscenely wealthy as this, human laws may as well not exist at all.

Fortunately, Reign was not bound by the flimsy, easily-corrupted human system. She understood that true justice needed to be final and absolute. And what could possibly embody those two things more than death?

So she waited, patiently, for him to reemerge. She’d had to be more careful these past few days—her more ambitious attacks on these sinful beings were beginning to attract more powerful attention than simple human law enforcers, such as they were. Supergirl being the main one.

Reign was certain Supergirl would not be able to defeat her in an out-and-out fight, but her attentions at present would be unwanted. They could hinder her greater goal. For right now, Reign needed to go about things with a more delicate touch, singling out those with money and power who had done wrong first. Once she had eradicated them, she could allow chaos to shake up the rest of the world. But not yet. She needed to be strategic, to make careful choices. And not just choices about who should be brought to justice, but also about who was worthy of surviving beyond this point, of being part of the Awakening.

Sam had provided her with at least one potential such survivor, the human Alex Danvers. 

This wasn’t to say that Alex’s worthiness was iron-clad. Reign had been witnessing an unsettling pattern with regards to herself and Sam—namely that sometimes the lines between the human and herself blurred. Already, Reign had a distant interest in the safety of Sam’s child. Children as a general rule were not Reign’s targets—they were void of the sin most adults carried with them. But feelings of protectiveness were not part of Reign’s purpose. Those feelings were Sam’s, she knew, but that didn’t necessarily mean they were wrong. Sam’s instincts thus far had proven relatively adequate, and if Reign took interest in Ruby’s wellbeing, it didn’t detract from her greater goal.

But Alex was a potential problem. Reign didn’t trust herself to be able to judge this particular human accurately, because she was unclear whether that judgment was being influenced by Sam’s infatuation with her. And if Reign couldn’t trust her own judgment…well that defeated her entire purpose. She was judgment. The slightest blurring of her perception rendered her useless. She may as well not even exist.

In time, she thought to herself, Sam would wear down, become weak, and Reign would be able to take over completely. At such time, she would be able to make a more accurate judgment when it came to Alex, and the rest of the humans circulating Sam’s life. And then she would deal with them all accordingly. 

In the meantime, it wasn’t entirely objectionable to indulge in Sam’s infatuation with Alex. After all, if Sam was right, and Alex truly was this paradigm for what a human should be, then Alex needed to be encouraged to remain that way. Goodness deserved to be rewarded, Reign could certainly allow that.

She stretched her shoulders luxuriously as she caught sight of her target reemerging from Catco and onto the empty street below. Satisfied with the conclusions she’d drawn, and eager to continue carrying out her task, she dropped gracefully, silently from her perch, and dove toward her prey.

*

“Well I can’t say I ever had any particularly good feelings about him,” Sam said as she took in Alex’s story about an L-Corp employee having been killed outside Catco the night before. “I’m actually pretty sure he was trying to pull some kind of embezzlement scheme. But I would never have wished that upon him.”

“Yeah,” Alex agreed, taking a sip of her beer. She ran her fingers through her hair and the light from the dim lamps in the bar caught the undercurrents of red. “We’re still trying to figure out how exactly that could have happened. Breaking his body apart like that, I mean. One of his arms was found completely detached from his body.”

Sam regarded her for a moment with a lifted eyebrow. “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever chatted with someone about dismemberment on a first date before,” she said.

Alex laughed. “Right. Sorry,” she said. She cleared her throat, and Sam saw her squirm a little against the back of the booth to get more comfortable. “I haven’t exactly…dated…anyone for a long time. I forgot murder cases aren’t the best getting-to-know-you topics.”

Sam smiled. “It’s definitely an interesting flirting technique.”

“How am I doing otherwise?” Alex asked. “My movie choice wasn’t too bad, right? It wasn’t a horror movie at least.”

Sam hummed, warmed by the teasing glint in Alex’s eyes. “It was hard for me to judge,” she said. “Someone kept distracting me for most of it.”

“What? Who was distracting you?” Alex asked, eyes comically wide.

Sam laughed. “I’m preeeetty sure it was the FBI agent who kept kissing me every time she got bored.”

“Oh her,” Alex said with an exaggerated eye-roll. “She’s the worst.”

Sam grinned, looking down to keep the giddy flush of her cheeks at least slightly hidden. She liked this, how comfortably teasing Alex was. Of course making out with her in the back of a dark movie theater like they were a couple of teenagers had probably boosted her ego quite a bit. Sam bit into her lip at the memory.

Alex was…a very good kisser. A very good kisser who apparently got extremely bored with artsy romantic comedies and did her best to stave off her boredom by honing those kissing skills on Sam. Many times. Starting off slow, then deepening, then really deepening, with her fingers buried in soft hair, mussing it so it would be the ruffled mess Sam loved the look of on her…she was glad the theater was so dark, and the volume of the movie was so high, so no one could hear the hungry moans and hums which spilled from her as she parted her lips eagerly for Alex.

Then the two of them would come up for air, settling down for a few minutes to actually catch a little bit of the movie, before Alex would get bored again and the whole thing started over. Sam’s entire body was practically vibrating with excited pleasure by the time the movie was done, and she’d gripped Alex’s hand hard in hers as they made their way to the bar they were currently tucked into. 

“It wasn’t so bad,” Sam said, corner of her mouth lifting as she pulled her attention back to the present. “I’ve definitely had worse distractions. Several.”

“Really,” Alex said, eyebrows perking up curiously. 

“Well maybe not several,” Sam amended. “I really haven’t dated much at all since Ruby. Here and there, but nothing serious. Ruby’s never really liked anyone I’ve tried to date, so it was hard to get that enthused. Regardless—as far as distractions go, you’re one of the better ones.”

Alex ran her fingers through her hair again with a self-conscious grin. “So…is this something you might want to do again?” she asked.

Sam swirled her straw around in her milkshake and hummed in mock contemplation. “Well, I guess if you promise to keep the dismemberment talk to a minimum, I might consider it,” she told her.

“Oof—no promises, my only real pickup lines are all about dismemberment,” Alex said. “But I can at least try to keep my mouth shut on the ride home.”

“The ride home?” Sam asked, eyebrows lifting.

“Yeah—I mean, my motorcycle’s parked a couple blocks from here, then you don’t have to pay for a taxi and…youuuu look kind of apprehensive,” Alex trailed off.

 Sam pressed her lips together uncomfortably. Apprehensive was one word for it. 

“I’m just…honestly motorcycles look like a deadly accident waiting to happen,” she confessed. “In my own little fantasy world, riding on a motorcycle sounds awesome, but the reality of it is…scary.”

“It’s not so scary,” Alex assured her. “I’ve got a helmet for you so we can both have matching helmet hair when we get back to your place…”

Sam smiled.

“…And I’ll go slow,” Alex added. “Like…30 slow. It won’t be as badass, but that’s okay.”

Sam held her breath for a long moment, then finally let it out, giving in. “Fine,” she said. “But if we crash and I die, I will haunt you for the rest of your life.”

“We won’t crash,” Alex said. “I promise. I’ll keep you safe.”

There was something surprisingly heavy and sincere in her tone when she said that, and Sam nodded. 

The two of them finished up their drinks and paid their bill, then exited to the street where Alex took her hand to walk down to where her motorcycle was parked. Sam knew next to nothing about motorcycles, but seeing Alex swing her leg over and sit astride it with her leather jacket and her somewhat cocky expression…this did sort of play out a teenage fantasy of hers that was awfully tempting.

She took the helmet Alex held out for her, then straddled the bike behind her, wrapping her arms tightly around Alex’s waist. Alright, so this was becoming more and more a teenage fantasy with each second. Sam bit her lip, and shifted impossibly closer against Alex’s back, resting her head against Alex’s shoulder. She inhaled deeply, smelling the leather of Alex’s jacket, combined with the sweet scent of the small patch of exposed skin on Alex’s neck. If not for the helmets, she’d have buried her face into the crook of Alex’s neck and kissed her there, nuzzling into her hair as they rode along, shifting them both against the vibrations of the bike beneath them.

As it was, she angled her head as best she could so she wasn’t knocking her helmet into Alex’s, and hugged her waist for dear life. True to her word though, Alex went slow, and Sam felt a warm wave of safety wash over her. And holding her this close and this tight with the wind blowing gently over her skin…Sam would probably do this again in a heartbeat.

*

There were several ways Alex had imagined this date ending. The unrealistic one, obviously, was the one where she and Sam had sex for hours on end until they could barely move anymore. Obviously that wasn’t going to happen given that Ruby was there, but it had been a nice thought.

The more realistic one was the kiss-on-the-doorstep thing with awkward smiling and muttering and stumbling over making plans for a second date. Which is what happened. To an extent.

Sam had just turned to go inside after all that when Alex spied a long, rectangular object about the size of glass bottle peaking out from one of the bushes underneath the window. It was glowing a strange blue-green, casting eerie shadows around it.

“Hey,” Alex said before Sam could go inside. She crouched and picked the object up, finding its surface jagged and rough, like some sort of rock. Crystalized something, it was hard to say. She held it up for Sam to see. “Do you know what this is?”

Sam’s expression slipped into something that almost looked fearful. Fearful—but also concentrated, demanding.…even slightly obsessive. Her entire focus seemed to have completely zeroed in on whatever this thing was in less than a second.

“Sam?” Alex asked, uncertain what that look was. “Are you okay?”

Sam lifted her gaze quickly to Alex’s face and she shook her head with a smile. “Sorry, I’ve just—I’ve been looking for that,” she said. “For…a while, actually.”

“What is it?” Alex asked, looking down at it. There were symbols carved into the sides of it that weren’t glowing. She squinted, trying to make them out.

“Just—“ Sam said, voice sharp. She whipped her hand out, and snatched the thing out of Alex’s grip.

Alex stared at her in surprise.

“It’s nothing,” Sam breathed, shaking her head. She offered another smile. “It’s…Ruby’s, she’s been looking for it. Some toy or game or something, I’m not sure.”

Alex searched her eyes. She wasn’t completely sure Sam was telling the truth, but whatever this was, it was clearly important to her. Alex guessed it really wasn’t her place to press for more details. God knew she had her own personal stuff she wouldn’t want someone giving her the third degree about—it definitely wasn’t her place to pry.

“Well…okay,” she gave in a little awkwardly. “I’ll um, see you later then.”

“Alex,” Sam said quickly as she turned away. She stood there, holding the object awkwardly, looking almost lost. She chewed on her lower lip. “Just…text me when you get home, okay? So I know you got back safe.”

Alex smiled, relieved by the more normal expression on her face, the sweeter sentiment. Sam pulled her in quickly and kissed her goodnight again, somewhat apologetically it seemed, for her odd outburst. Alex relaxed into the kiss, then pulled away slowly after a moment. Sam’s hands were at her waist, the glowing object pressed into her hip. Alex squinted again at those symbols, wondering vaguely why they looked so familiar as Sam kissed her cheek one more time.

It wasn’t until hours later, after she’d gotten home, showered, and went to bed, that she woke up with a startling realization. Those symbols on the glowing object weren’t just senseless shapes. That was Kryptonese writing.

Notes:

Kinda short chapter this time but things are gonna start ramping up soon... ;)