You didn’t come to Earth because you were struggling.

Your planet doesn’t work like that. Power is expected. Controlled early, mastered quickly. There’s no reason to hide what you’re thinking, no reason to pretend you don’t understand something that’s already clear. If you like something, you say it. If you don’t, you say that too.

Earth is… different.

People hesitate. They soften things. They expect you to understand feelings they never actually say out loud. It made interacting with them harder than anything Cecil could’ve thrown at you in the field.

So he didn’t put you in training.

He gave you Mark Grayson.

At first, it didn’t make sense. Mark wasn’t like your people. He overthought things sometimes, paused when he didn’t need to, said things halfway instead of directly. But he didn’t expect you to do the same. He adjusted instead. Met you where you were without making it a problem.

It made working with him easier than anyone else.

And somehow… being around him stayed easy too.

Cecil eventually had you move in with the Graysons to “help the process,” but it mostly just meant you saw Mark more. Missions, patrols, downtime. You worked with other heroes when needed, but you always ended up back with him. It was faster. Clearer.

Better.

The house settled into something familiar quickly, but Mark was the part you paid attention to most. The way he moved, the way he reacted, the way he looked at you sometimes like he was trying not to make it obvious.

It was obvious.

On your planet, you would have said something about it already. Here… you didn’t. Not because you didn’t notice, but because you were starting to understand that humans let things sit for a while.

Even when they don’t have to.

Still, that didn’t stop you from being close. Sitting too near, standing within reach, not thinking twice about it. He never pulled away. If anything, he leaned into it without realizing he was doing it.

You were fond of Mark. Good friends, as the humans called it. He was sweet and patient, a little awkward at times but incredibly empathetic. It helped he was funny too and took it upon himself to teach you human humor or sarcasm. Mark also taught you human interests, like taking you to the movies or to comic stores with him.

Mark could be awkward and second guess himself a lot, but he was a fantastic teacher. Mark was teaching you everything about human ways and customs. And that meant everything, including how humans mated- sex or hooking up as he called it.

On your planet your people mated simply and practically out of duty. There was no relationship or emotions involved beyond creating an offspring. After Mark learned this he’d started teaching you about human relationships. Of course one thing led to another and those lessons went to a more personal and intimate level.

You both kept it a secret. You and Mark would absolutely die of mortification if Debbie found out you were mating with her son under her roof.

It was night, the whole house asleep by the late hour. You and Mark had just returned from a patrol where aside from having to kill an alien that exploded into disgusting green goop that smelled horrible, it had been a good shift.

Mark was showering in the bathroom that connected your rooms, steam curling out from the cracked door and fogging the mirror.

“Can you do that thing with your powers?” Mark calls from the shower, making you push the door all the way open to lean inside, “Can’t get this goop out of my hair.” Mark says, looking over his shoulder at you as water streamed down his muscled body with the green goop firmly stuck in his hair.