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"I do not understand your frustrations, Brave One." Astra crossed her arms and raised her head, which might've been dignified if not for the pout upon her lips. "I did exactly as you instructed."
Alex continued to stare up at the sky. She didn't know whether she wanted to laugh or scream. Kryptonians were the worst students. Alex had miraculously survived the consequences with Kara growing up -- but General Astra of Krypton was a whole new level of stubborn brat.
"Astra," Alex said, finally shifting her gaze to look at her, "you were supposed to kick the ball into the net."
"And that's precisely what I did!"
"You sent them flying into space!" Alex took a deep breath, knowing that fighting wouldn't make this any easier. "This is not a war, Astra. It's a game. You only kick the ball to make a goal, it's not an enemy you have to kill."
"None of this makes any sense." Astra waved it off, uninterested in looking as embarrassed as she felt. "Clearly the ball was defective."
"Seriously?"
"Or perhaps," Astra narrowed her eyes, accusation and mischief gleaming. "You are simply a terribly incompetent instructor."
"It's 'coach'." Alex corrected. "And I'm not the problem here."
"And yet, here we stand. Neither net nor ball in sight."
"You're saying this is my fault?"
Alex threw her hands up in surrender as Astra simply nodded in response. Alex was exasperated. It's not that she didn't anticipate this task would be a challenge, but she certainly didn't expect it to be like this.
"I don't even know why we're doing this." She grumbled under her breath.
"My niece insisted it would be fun and that you would be 'the very best person to learn from'." Astra shook her head. "Clearly Kara was mistaken."
"Well, maybe you're just incapable of having fun." Alex stepped towards Astra with a stern expression. "Stick to causing chaos, it's what you do best."
Astra's amusement was evident in her smile and her demeanor changed as quickly and smoothly as a cat chasing its prey. She walked towards Alex with a grace and confidence she sorely lacked throughout the soccer lesson, and Alex couldn't help but watch the way she moved.
"Trust me, Brave One. The ability to have fun is far from foreign to me." Astra stood mere inches from Alex as she leaned forward, fingers reaching to touch Alex's cheek. "I am fully capable of enjoying myself. I can even demonstrate, if you wish."
Quickly and without warning, Alex lunged forward, grabbing Astra by the shoulders and knocking her off her feet. Astra yelped in protest, but didn't make any attempts to free herself from Alex's grasp as the two women tumbled into a heap on the grass.
Astra followed Alex's gaze to find what appeared to be remnants of the soccer net tangled around the ball which had caught fire. It had landed just in time, as if cued specifically to save Alex from becoming a stuttering mess.
Panting an apology, Alex scrambled to lift herself off of Astra.
"Reflex, sorry."
Astra brought her hands up to cease Alex's movement as she hovered above her. She tried to thank her saviour, but all she could do was laugh. Soon, Alex joined her, lazily dropping herself onto Astra and rolling off to lay next to her in the grass.
"So, maybe sports aren't your thing." Alex mused, "but now I know who to call if I want to send a flaming soccer ball at someone's head."
"It would be my pleasure."
"Of course you'd find that fun!