Chapter Text
Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, there lived a princess named Lena who was very anxious about very many things.
From the time she was four, she knew three key things about her place in her world: that she was secretly stolen from another planet because Queen Lillian and many other Arcanumites couldn’t produce kids after the Wivverfix War, that Arcanum was aligning with another planet called Daxam to repopulate itself, and that she’d be expected to participate in the two governments’ breeding programs. Specifically, by marrying the prince of Daxam, having his children, and managing the breeding programs once she became queen of both planets.
For most of her life, Princess Lena was willing to go along with the plans Queens Lillian and Rhea made for her despite the anxiety they provoked. Partly because she wanted the power to stop how the lack of fertile mates was making her people -- especially her best friend, war advisor, and lady-in-waiting named Maggie -- suffer. Partly because, as much as the raven-haired princess craved to find out where she’d been taken from and venture back there, she had no means of doing those things. But, if she was deeply honest, mainly because she’d been sheltered and controlled so much that she knew no other way of being in the world.
The future ruler would start to deeply question her willingness to enact those roles once a furry little creature came into her life, though.
Specifically, a furry little creature who -- as fate had it -- was also stolen from another planet and had a 125% chance of stealing Prince Mon-El’s girl if in her true form.
---
Maggie made such an excellent friend, advisor, and confidante to Lena for many reasons.
Far more than anyone else, the dimpled embodiment of loyalty paid attention to how Lena thought, felt, and otherwise responded to what was happening in their world.
For instance, as they grew from toddlers to teens and then young adults, Maggie could tell the roles Lena was being conditioned to play one day were becoming too much for her to bear, especially quietly, alone, or during the traditionally loud, chaotic, and obnoxious governance meetings with the Daxamites. So, once she was old enough to tap into the black markets on both planets, the lady-in-waiting secretly introduced Lena to contraband comic books, movies, television shows, and other media to get her mind off the future and make her laugh.
Maggie was so loyal to Lena not just because her roles required her to be. Rather, she’d come to know Lena as a kind, selfless, smart, and creative person with a quiet strength and a nonjudgmental attitude nobody else in the kingdom had. Features which especially mattered to Maggie when she, against their kingdom’s norms, came out as gay once they were alone and watching a new show about some heroic Earthling named Supergirl and her crime-fighting, scientist, human sister named Alex.
Lena not only gave her a hug, thanked her for opening up, and accepted her right then and there. She made sure to keep Maggie’s secret to herself and vow that, whenever she took over Arcanum and Daxam, she’d find a way to make it legal and normal to be openly different. Plus, she confessed that she was different, too, somehow. That even though Mon-El looked reasonably attractive and was seemingly more well-mannered than his fellow Daxamites, there was just no . . . spark . . . when she talked with him. That’s she’d much rather end up with someone like Supergirl, Alex, or her best friend, if given the chance.
“Feel free to have Supergirl, but hands off Alex; she’s mine, and I’m hers,” Maggie replied sassily while affectionately bumping Lena’s butt with her own and playfully flinging some popcorn at her bestie.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. In your dreams, Sawyer,” Lena playfully clapped back while affectionately pushing her friend off her bed, knowing the odds of them ever getting with their heroes were pretty much zero, but secretly wanting to dream anyway.
Instead of getting mad or butt hurt over playfully being insulted and pushed off the bed, Maggie got off the floor and back on the Luthor crest-themed comforter with a mischievous smile. One which made Lena prepare herself to be pushed off the bed, too, and cutely ask with her hands blocking her body from a possible attack, “What?”
Instead of playfully getting back at her best friend, Maggie excitedly asked with those classic dimples while bouncing her butt up and down a little, “I think I have a way of solving all our problems! You know, us not being able to get the girls, you forgetting about your shitty jobs, me maybe never having kids one day . . . the whole nine yards!”
Interest piqued, Lena relaxed her shoulders, lowered her hands, scrunched herself into a ball, and replied with lively eyes, “I’m listening!”
Cocking her head once more, Maggie took advantage of how Lena’s guard was down, affectionately pushed her off the bed, and exclaimed after they both stopped laughing and holding their sides, “Sorry! Gotta make space for my new best friend to sit!”
Smiling affectionately as well as cocking her head in confusion after popping her head up, Lena listened as Maggie squealed while full out jumping on the bed to punctuate each word, “We’re . . . gonna . . . get . . . a . . . dog!”
Happy to hear that idea, but not wanting it announced to the whole palace, Lena put her index finger to her mouth and winked.
In other words, though she didn’t know it, our princess was going to make more headway in breaking the queens’ rules and building the life she wanted.
All she had to do was find out how to keep their future pooch a secret from everyone else and make sure any fallout didn’t come back on Maggie (who, by sneaking her contraband, was already at great risk of being charged with and executed for treason).
---
Thankfully, there were a million and a half excuses for Maggie to go off long enough to peruse the black markets for what they wanted without anyone suspecting a thing.
Usually, the dimpled brunette claimed she was searching for fertility-increasing books, foods, and other items traders brought from other planets. She often delivered on her promises in that regard and directly led to thousands of babies being conceived, so she held both queens’ trust as well as the prince’s.
The day they got the puppy, though, Maggie was able to get away because, despite her omega status, the queens didn’t want her in the room or otherwise supporting Lena through Mon-El beginning their breeding schedule. Specifically, when the brown-haired Daxamite was coming into a sample collector and artificially inseminating Lena with his fresh sperm rather than mating her because the process allowed more transparency, less mess, lower risk for disease, and less time than traditional breeding did.
Lena’s enrollment into the breeding programs might have looked premature to anyone looking from the outside in because, though she was eighteen, she hadn’t had a heat yet. But, the queens, the prince, and the planets’ respective doctors found practicing insemination useful because they thought the introduction of Mon-El’s sperm could trigger a heat. Or that, at the minimum, her body would be used to his sperm’s presence and fight it less when she did finally have a heat.
Being more of the scientific and lady persuasions, Lena greatly preferred that route of insemination. She didn’t have to put in any effort besides making sure her legs stayed steady and up in the medical bed stirrups, and she could read books or listen to music rather than look at or talk with Mon-El as he did all the work (if one could call it that).
Lena tolerated them pairing up together partly out of duty to her people, but also because he did have some redeeming traits (including his fit build, talent with driving and designing ships, and low to zero likelihood of passing on known genetic conditions). One particularly annoying trait of his she hoped their progeny wouldn’t inherit, though, was his tendency to not take a hint. Specifically, his tendency to interrupt her clearly reading and listening to music by trying to make meaningless small talk because he apparently loved the sound of his own voice and couldn’t stand the silence between them.
Small talk she had to oblige because their mothers were watching their every move and one wrong move of hers could mean the dissolution of their alliance. To be exact, the increased likelihood Arcanum would be decimated or taken over by a less kind planet.
“So, I was thinking . . . we could name our boys Mon-El and the rest Rhea, then make their middle names Two through whatever. You know, to honor my mom, me, and their Daxamite heritage. And, because it’s more practical than coming up with like . . . twenty unique names or something. You know, because you’re going to be pregnant pretty much all the time until the change of life and getting them ready for school in the mornings,” the rather annoying and casually sexist prince garbled on, once again not picking up on or caring about how Lena was a busy introvert.
Internally rolling her eyes and inaudibly vomiting in her mouth like Maggie had trained her to do, Lena put on a fake small smile, looked him in the eyes over the top of her book, and replied with feigned affection, “Well, that sounds like a lovely idea, dear!”
Blushing at the fake compliment, Mon-El used the ego padding as motivation to jack off more while sitting in the chair in front of her instead of a room corner, zipped himself back up, finished up the insemination, and gleefully wiped his hands like he’d just taken out the garbage. Then, he replied in perhaps the most dude bro voice Lena had ever heard outside of university and the mandatory interplanet parties she planned to ban as queen, “I know, right? I hope they’re smart like me. Always coming up with good ideas. Emphasis on the coming. Because, you know, it’ll probably take multiple generations to build your planet back to what it once was. Or, really, make it better than it used to be.”
One thing about the Daxamites which made Lena vomit in her mouth harder than anything else was something Mon-El just epitomized perfectly: their false sense of superiority.
In reality, the only reason the Daxamites hadn’t been wiped out during or after the Wivverfix War was the boldly out front Arcanumite war fleets took most of the hits from unexpected and exceptionally damaging chemical weapons. Weapons Daxam and Arcanum’s mutual enemy -- a planet called Bimplo -- shot out as it imploded from the barrage of missiles Daxamites shot at its surface against their agreed upon protocol, no less.
But, Lena couldn’t ever bring up The Conversation with Mon-El. Partly because the men they’d called their dads died in the war. But, mainly because Rhea valued her planet’s ego more than the truth, such that she’d purposefully created a disinformation campaign suggesting Arcanum was at fault for people dying, getting poisoned, and becoming infertile. That it was Daxam’s honor and duty to save its esteemed ally from further self-destruction. That anyone who contradicted her campaign and future plans with said ally would be put to death or tortured.
Lena had no idea why Lillian didn’t partner up with a more transparent, moral, and accountable ally. But, the truth didn’t matter; either way, the damage to their planet had been done, and she’d been left holding the bag. Or, technically, the seed of the people she secretly hated more than the late Bimplodons.
In other words, when their time together was up, Lena did everything she could to get away quickly and smoothly. Even if it meant fakely smiling at and saluting their exceptionally creepy, controlling, and selfish mothers until they and Mon-El left to do their own business.
Whatever that was.
---
When making it back to her room and opening the door, Lena was incredibly grateful to be greeted by a small, golden-fluffed, cutely fierce, and apparently ready-to-play pup Maggie had cutely lost control over for a hot second.
Specifically, the princess felt more like herself when the pup cutely barked and growled at her as her best friend playfully urged, “Go get her, Kara! That’s right! Bite her!”
Giggling at how the pup started to try to steal her sock right off her foot only to get highly distracted by her face and sit pretty, Lena made heart eyes and affectionately picked the little one up. Then, she smiled as it wagged its tail as fast as a Falcon X9 ship engine’s turbine, looked up, and playfully asked with a perfectly manicured eyebrow raised, “How did you choose this one and her name, Mags? I thought we were in on raising her together. You know, because we’re fwends and stuff.”
Knowing Lena was just as happy as she was deflecting from what she’d just been through, Maggie got up, walked over, and hugged her fellow brunette until the pup started wiggling over being the middle of a fwend sandwich for too long. Then, she let go, put the pup down so the golden puffball could go get her toys, and replied while checking for passersby and locking the door, “She’s smart and full of potential like you. A good talker when she has to be, too. But, I think it’s better that I show you instead of just telling you.”
Instead of Maggie showing Lena, though, little Kara showed them. Specifically, by placing her kibble and toys to clearly spell out again, “AM KARA. AM LOST. PLZ HELP.”