#agentcorp events

[chaotic-super]

Collecting this info is going to help us make this event as suited to you guys as we possibly can so if you have 2 mins, please help us out! 😁

Info Poll

We’re kicking off our first poll for Supergirl May-hem! Keep your eyes on our socials over the coming months. The polls will help us create a better event for you.

Let us know what you think!

[chaotic-super]

Laboratory Truths - An AgentCorp Ficlet

A @supergirlmayhem example ficlet! Come check out the details on our WLW Supergirl fandom event! Sign-ups open Dec 1st!

[sanversandfriends]

The 2023 Sanvers & Friends Finish-the-Fic Challenge

Attention Fic Writers and Fan Artists and Beta Readers!!!

Welcome to the 2023 Sanvers & Friends Finish-the-Fic Challenge: an event to help SG Queership writers finish those fics that have been floating forlornly on the seas of Ao3 (and in the screaming, dust-ridden corners of our psyches). From Sanvers to Brainia and Agentcorp, if you've got an SG queership story you'd like to add to your list of New Years Resolutions, you can sign up below!

Note: This form is for artists and betas as well as writers. You'll be able to find the information if you scroll down.

https://forms.gle/MMHHgD8ybxBtc4Wp9

Sign up period: January 5-20. 

Event Begins January 21st.

Summaries for Artists Due: January 26th.

Forms for artists and betas to choose favorite fic(s) sent out: January 27th

Forms close: February 7th

Sending out matches: February 8th-9th

General outline of story to completion sent to artists: February 25th

Snippets and Mini-views: March 5th

Work completion Deadline May 20th

Reveals Start: May 25th (reveals may start earlier for those who finish prior to the deadline).

[fyonahmacnally]

Yes!! Let's use the upcoming @supergirlmayhem event to add some more AgentCorp and other WLW fics to the fandom. 🥰

Reading some Agentcorp smut and it's making me wanna write something with them two. Maybe something canon adjacent? Lemme think....

[agentcorpevents]

Hello AgentCorp Fans!

Our cabin is having a discussion about throwing another AgentCorp week in celebration of the last season of Supergirl.

Being that the season premieres pretty soon, it’s doubtful we’ll get this thing going before then, so we’ll have to come up with a date.  Probably the first week in April (TBD)

Also, most of us have a lot going on now, so we won’t be able to give the same love and attention that we did when we first launched the first ACW in 2020, but we all still love AgentCorp and we know there’s a bunch of you that enjoy them too, so, why not do a mini-event :)

Reblog, leave notes and let us know if you’re interested and we’ll get this kicked off.  AgentCorpers here we go!

[magicalstripedhorse]

Finally picked up my digital pen again in preparation for @agentcorpevents' upcoming Agentcorp Week

Lorde, I've missed these two

[jamies-overalls]

Agentcorp high school, maybe favourite subjects or extracurriculars for the headcanons

Get ready for cuteness.

They meet in biology class their first year. At first, they don’t talk to each other because they sit on opposite sides of the room. 

They both know the answers to most of the questions and constantly try to beat each other at saying it first. 

The next year, they find out that they’re in the same chemistry class. The teacher seats them together this time.

Both of their families are well-known in the science world, so the teacher makes them work on projects together. They’re competitive, but it soon turns to more friendly competition as they get to know each other.

They have to do volunteer hours to graduate, so they both choose to work at the science fair that happens at the elementary school in town. 

Lena is surprised to see a soft side coming from Alex when she goes around to all of the students’ projects and encouraging them all the time. This is when Lena starts to realize how much she likes Alex.

Lena joins the debate team and Alex joins the basketball team. Once they become friends, they go to all of each other’s events.

Everyone assumes they’re dating

Kara asks Alex about her study date with Lena at some point and Alex is confused about why she said “date”. She realizes that Kara thought they were dating. Alex’s feeling for Lena hit her like a freight train because she didn’t realize how much she actually wanted to date Lena.

Alex gets injured during one of her games and gets taken to the hospital.

Lena shows up in the waiting room and is the one to bring Alex home after.

Alex asks her out. Lena initially says no because the thinks Alex is still high on painkillers. Alex tries again the next day and Lena says yes this time.

[jellybabykid]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Supergirl (TV 2015) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Alex Danvers/Lena Luthor Characters: Alex Danvers, Lena Luthor Additional Tags: AgentCorp, Late Night Conversations, Awkward Conversations, Gay Disaster Alex Danvers, Light Angst, Fluff and Angst, Not Canon Compliant, Protective Alex Danvers, Angry Lena Luthor, Good communications skills for once, First Kiss Summary:

Could one conversation have completely changed the course of events after Season 4? And maybe it didn’t need Kara to be the one having it... 

-----

"I wanted to talk to you.”

“Why?” Lena had to work hard to keep her tone from sounding as defensive as she felt.

“You don’t seem yourself. I was concerned.”

“Concerned because I am a Luthor and my brother was behind this the whole time?”

Alex’s frown deepened.

“That’s...really not what I meant.”

[supergirlmayhem]

I’m excited about the Supergirl May-hem event, you guys are doing a great job but I can’t help but wish that supercorp wasn’t allowed at least this time. After seeing that 90% of the recs were supercorp I fear this event will barely have some more ‘rare’ ships and that’s a pity.

Hi Anon!

Thanks for reaching out with your concern. We have a few reasons why we decided not to exclude Supercorp and I'll list them below for you. Please excuse the ramble. I'll start with our main reason for making this an inclusive event for every WLW ship in the Supergirl fandom. We want to uplift every ship and give them a space to express themselves. We don't want to exclude anyone and leave them on the sidelines while we actively promote other people. That wouldn't be fair and the thought leaves a bad taste in our mouths.

Another reason is that the ship lines aren't as black and white as a lot of people believe. Many people have multiple ships in the fandom and care deeply about all of them even if they also ship Supercorp. Many Supercorp writers have expressed interest in writing for multiple ships and artists have shown they're open to creating for multiple ships. Many of the Supercorp creators would not join the event if Supercorp was excluded and that would mean that there would be a lot less content for the 'smaller' ships as they are interested in writing/creating additional pieces for other ships.

Whether Supercorp is in the event or not, there'll still be a very similar number of fics/art created for the smaller fics. To exclude them would simply deprive Supercorp of also having new fics/art created for them.

As a multi-ship event, there's always going to be a ship that is more popular than the others. Whether that's Supercorp, Supercat or Agentcorp. One will always have the majority. Yes, that majority increases with Supercorp but they're not getting any special treatment. We're putting an equitable amount of time and effort into promoting each ship. We understand that some ships are smaller and need more of a shove to get them seen, so we've done our best to make that happen.

As for the fic list, fics are added from the community. There are 3 of us, and we can't be in every ship fandom at once. We need help from those ship communities to add the fics. We've reached out to each community and asked for recs. If there are none on the list, that's because nobody recommended any. If there's only a few, that's because those are what we were sent. We're always adding to the list and will always keep updating it so people can send us links at any time to their favourite fics. Supercorp might have the majority, but even if they weren't on the list, there would be the same amount of other ship's fics on the list.

The sad truth is that while many of the fandoms are still alive, there are a few that are running on fumes and barely have any active members left. This event would not be what we envision it to be with a lack of people involved. We're trying to get as many members of those communities involved as possible but time has played a big part in the dwindling numbers for all ships, Supercorp included, although there are still a lot of active members for that particular ship.

We're doing everything we can to reach out to every ship we can think of, and want everyone to be included. If there's more you think we can do, other than excluding people, feel free to reach out and let us know. We're all ears and would love tips on how to reach them.

The final reason as to why we're including Supercorp is simple. As the event creators, we're fans of multiple ships and we've created this event to showcase our passion for those ships. We're not going to ban Supercorp from an event we created to make other people happy when this is a passion project. We don't get paid for creating the event and we're putting in hours upon hours of work into making it. We're not going to change it to appease other people because that would simply take away our passion and make the event worthless.

We understand where you're coming from with your worries. You don't want the smaller ships to be drowned out by Supercorp. There's only two places that may happen, and that's our socials when we start promoting each fic/art as it's posted on posting week. That's unavoidable. However, the clicks aren't all going to come from us. Each person is responsible for also promoting their work and while we'll do our best to help, we physically won't be able to put masses of effort into each and every one.

The second place is the collection. The collection will have all of the fics stored in one place. The good news is that AO3 has a great filtering system so people will find the ship they want out of the collection with ease. Other people will discover new ships through looking through the collection too, and may end up being inspired.

We've seen a lot of people expressing worry or anger about other ships being included, or not getting enough attention but there's not enough attention on how this is beneficial for every ship. Everyone gets to display their work in one place full of like-minded individuals, showing off their love for their ships of choice. You're showing off your work and showing everyone why you love them in a place where it's going to get attention. The attention you want on your ships will come from you proudly displaying your work in an event made to provide a safe space for everyone.

Of course, we're also taking measures to ensure there's a safe space for everyone individually too. Our Discord server (which will open after sign-ups) has individual channels for ships as well as general channels so you can choose to mingle or simply stay within your ships without being drowned out by chats from other ships.

Finally, we're taking the ship disputes very seriously. We understand that people have different preferences and we won't tolerate any hate being thrown at anyone else for who they ship. You can like or dislike any ship you want, but anyone who is making our safe space unsafe for anyone else will be removed from the event and banned from future events. We're very strict on that policy.

All in all, I apologize for the long answer and would like to say that this response is not just for the person who asked the question but to spread our views on the matter to everyone. Thank you, Anon, for giving us this opportunity to properly give an in-depth answer to everyone asking the same question as you.

[s-nebul0sa]

Because I’ll never get to actually writing it, here’s the synopsis:

Alex spends a several week long vacation with her parents, sister and her sister’s boyfriend. The past year she’s spent being depressed on and off but she hasn’t told anyone. She’s not doing too great, but she’s not in a depressive episode either so she thinks it’ll be fine. Usually structure and human contact work well for her mental health. But during the vacation it just becomes too much all. She dislikes Kara’s cheating boyfriend with a passion — she’s still not forgiven him for the time he cheated on her sister even if Kara herself has a while ago — and Kara is being rude to her all the time.

She gets the bad beds all the time and the one time her sister’s boyfriend offers to take the couch the rest think he’s being super duper nice and everything. At one point she’s had enough of being the fifth wheel on what was supposed to be her vacation too so angrily she declares next time she’ll have a partner too so she doesn’t have to be the odd one out all the time and stuck with her parents.

A little under a year later, new plans are being made but she still doesn’t have a partner. Determined to not let her vacation be ruined like the year before but also to still come with, she asks her friend (either Sam or Lena) to pretend to be her girlfriend for this next trip.

I have the intense desire to write a fake dating agentreign or agentcorp fic.

[superspoonie24]

Aly’s Whumptober 2020 Masterpost

Here are all the links to the fics I’ve written for @whumptober2020 . All 31 days, woohoo! I’m gonna give brief descriptions for which prompts, show/characters/ships, and word count. Hope you enjoyed this Whumptober!!!

I’m gonna go take a nap and/or cry.  💛

Link to the series on ao3

Day 1: Sleepover at Deku’s. Waking up restrained. Hanging around. My hero academia. Iitsuchako. Bakudeku. 706 words

Day 2: Who Do You Love More?. Pick who dies. In the hands of the enemy. My hero academia. Iistuchako. Toga. 1188 words

Day 3: I’ll do it. Manhandled. Forced to their knees. Held at gunpoint. Supergirl. Danvers sisters. 767 words

Day 4: Unbreakable. Collapsed building. Tangled the series. Euknighted dream. 1571 words

Day 5: Trapped by Love. Failed escape. Tangled the series. Rapunzel. Fred. Gothel. 532 words

Day 6: No More. Get it out. No more. Stop, please. Supergirl. Supercorp. Lex. 433 words

Day 7: I’ve got you. I’ve got you. Tangled the series. Cassarian. Demon child. 752 words

Day 8: One Last Look. Don’t say goodbye. Abandoned. Isolation. Supergirl. Kara Zor-el. Alura Zor-el. Zor-el. 457 words

Day 9: Fading Sun. Take me instead. Run!. Ritual sacrifice. Tangled the series. Euknighted Dream. 594 words

Day 10: Just Like You. They look so pretty when they bleed. Blood loss. Trail of blood. My hero academia. Izukacchako. Toga. 744 words

Day 11: Mother Knows Best. Defiance. Struggling. Crying. Tangled (movie). Rapunzel. Gothel. 490 words

Day 12: Bathed in her Brokenness. Broken down. Broken trust. Tangled the series. Rapunzel & Cassandra. New Dream. 1134 words

Day 13: Stay With Me. Delayed drowning. Breathe in, Breathe out. Tangled (movie). New Dream. 1824

Day 14: End of the World. Fire. My hero academia. Bakudeku. 362 words

Day 15: Mine. Possession. Science gone wrong. Supergirl. Supercorp. Danvers Sisters. Redk! Kara. 3620 words

Day 16: What We Fear the Most. Shoot the hostage. Hallucinations. Begging. Supergirl. Kara. Lena. Supercorp. 770 words

Day 17: What Would You Do? Dirty secret. I did Not see that coming. My hero academia. Tsuchako. Bakudeku. Bakugo & Tsuyu. 900 words

Day 18: Broken Steel. Panic attacks. Paranoia. Phobias. Supergirl. Kara. Alex. Lena. Winn. Nia. James. Kelly. 2964 words

Day 19: Sole Survivor. Grief. Mourning loved one. Survivor’s guilt. Supergirl. Batwoman. Crisis on infinite Earths. Kara. Kate. 231 words

Day 20: No Singing. Lost. Medieval. Supergirl. Galavant. Kara. Alex. Lena. Galavant. Sidney. 933 words

Day 21: Happy Anniversary. Hypothermia. Supergirl. Supercorp. Lex. 709 words.

Day 22: BBEG. Drugged. Supergirl. Agentcorp. 1549 words

Day 23: Hold me through the night(mares). Exhaustion. Supergirl. Kara. Nia. Alex. 1087 words

Day 24: Drifting Away. Blindfolded. Sensory deprivation. Supergirl. Kara. 168 words

Day 25: Safe and Sound. Disorientation. Burred vision. Ears ringing. Supergirl. Danvers sisters. J’onn. 814 words

Day 26: Blind Guy. Blindness. My hero academia. Iichako. Bakudeku. 790 words

Day 27: Snow Storm Snuggles. Power outage. Extreme weather. My hero academia. 1A girls. 475 words

Day 28: What hurts more? Mugged. Supergirl. Supercorp. 666 words

Day 29: Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Intubation. Emergency room. Supergirl. Kara. Alex. 374 words

Day 30: Suki’s Soft Spot. Now where did That come from?. Wound reveal. Ignoring an injury. Avatar the Last Airbender. Suzuka. 2524 words

Day 31: Where were you? Experiment. Whipped. Supergirl. Lena. Lillian. Hank. 971 words

Thanks again to everyone who’s read it! And thank you to @whumptober2020 for hosting an amazing event. Count me in as one of the completionists. See ya next year!!!  💛

[sanversandfriends]

The amazing @dkgwrites is not only a terrific writer, but she's also got a knack for encouraging people and bringing them together. We're extremely thankful for her presence and her many contributions to FtF. Today, she joins us to talk about writing and the importance of finding your people.

Tell us a little about yourself. How did you get started writing fic? Have you written for other fandoms? What are your favorite tropes?  

a) As a kid, I read a lot and used to create plot outlines for favorite shows that my childhood BFF and I would act out in improvisational skits in one of our basements. As much as I was always drawn to write, I never had any formal training, nothing past high school, and was well aware that my skill level didn't make me commercially publishable. I had given up on ever sharing this part of my creative side when a coworker mentioned she wrote fanfic. I had never heard of it. I went home and googled the word fanfic with my two favorite story subjects (superhero and lesbian) and SuperCorp was the top response. I signed up for AO3, read a few fics, and watched some SuperCorp clips on YT before jumping in with both feet and writing my first fic without having seen an episode of Supergirl yet. That was five years ago, and 1.4 million words (and counting) later, here I am. 

b) I've written in other fandoms twice. Once for Black Lightning (ThunderGrace) for the BLDC zine event, and once in the Legends of Tomorrow fandom (Avalance) for a fic trade event. Both times I was rather nervous, wading outside familiar waters, but I think both fics turned out well. I have some unposted WIPs for Wynonna Earp which I was never able to fully explore. Outside that, I've stayed firmly in my lane in the Supergirl fandom with a heavy dose of SuperCorp, a little bit of AgentCorp, a touch of Sanvers, and a single Brania fic. Danvaria will make guest appearances in some of my fics.

c) My top three tropes would be miscommunication (because I am one whole idiot), friends to lovers (thank you SuperCorp), and fake dating, not necessarily in that order.  What were your inspirations for this particular story? What was it about this/these ships that grabbed you?

a) This particular fic was a prompt from a reader, probably the first prompt I ever received. It's an au where Lena is the Kryptonian but also a vegetarian, and Kara is the Luthor. I expanded it a bit from there, but it gave me my introduction to aus, and I absolutely adore them. They combine the comfort and ease of familiar characters with the creativity of an original(ish) universe.

b) SuperCorp is the main ship for this fic. I enjoy the way Kara and Lena compliment each other, the play on darkness and light, raw power and intellect, and the whole rather Romeo and Julietesque love despite their warring families. I think this fandom has proven, again and again, how magical these two are together. I feel lucky to have entered fandom at a time to be able to write them. Has the time spent away from your story changed your outlook or approach to any of the storylines or themes? Have you had any new inspirations or breakthroughs/revelations in the meantime?

a) I wouldn't say time away has altered my approach to this particular story, but I have grown and developed a lot as a writer in the past four years. If I were rewriting from scratch (give me the strength not to do so) the story would be more direct, less meandering, and I wouldn't use dialogue as my crutch due to a lack of skill at narrative. I'm not sure how well the first few chapters will marry with the second part, but I hope it makes for an enjoyable, if oddly off balance, final story.

b) I think I have greatly developed as a writer since I started this fic. Do you remember when you were a kid, and your parent would stand you with your back to the wall and mark how tall you were? Each year you could go back and see how tall you've gotten. That is exactly how this fic makes me feel. I look at the old chapters and then the new and think "Look how I've grown." Any advice for new or aspiring fic writers?

I have more advice than I should put in any post, so I'll try to reduce it to a few salient points. Read a lot, and when you do, read as a writer. What lines do you like, and why do they resonate with you? What pulls you out of the story and why? Make note of the things you love and dislike, make lists and reflect on them when you write, and learn from those who have come before you.

Become a beta reader for others. I swear, I have learned more about writing from beta'ing than anything else. As a beta, you are forced to read mindfully, to really dissect the story, and you can't help but carry that mindset over into your own writing. Additionally, the writing community falls apart when we don't have betas, so do your part.

Outline. You may think you don't need to outline. (You probably do.) You may think an outline crimps creativity. (It does not.) Your outline may just be a few lines or a full blown spreadsheet (Excel is much sexier than most give it credit for being) but learning to organize your thoughts, even if you discover whole new paths and veer wildly off script as you write, will help you. Take it from someone who wishes they had known that sooner. Get yourself a writing community and be open to critique. Too often when we say, "What do you think?" about one of our stories, what we really mean is, "Say something nice about this." That's fine. You may only be in the emotional space to receive fully positive feedback, but when you open yourself up to kind but honest critiques, you improve your chances of growing. For me, my writing is like my child, and the last thing I want to hear is anything negative, but sometimes, the thing I need to hear is something negative.

If you don't have a writing community or friends in the fandom, message me. I am absolutely certain I'm not the only person in this fandom who would say the same, but so long as we can be kind and respectful to each other, you have a friend. I may be slow to respond, but my DMs are always open (if for no other reason than I have no idea how to close them). 

The best reason to write is because you want to write. That is the beginning and the end of the whole thing, and although there are a lot of reasons you'll find along the way, that is enough. You should write. 5. If you were going to promote this fic with a single line, what would it be? What if Lena was the kind-hearted but often clueless Kryptonian who accidentally found herself dating a Luthor named Kara and then assassination attempts occurred? 6. If you’ve already posted some of your work, please provide a link. I was very young (in writer years) when I wrote this. https://archiveofourown.org/works/17078813/chapters/40161911

[lena-in-a-red-dress]

In honor of Pride month. Pride AU?

Not gonna do a full bit for this, since I already have an agentcorp pride event piece that I really like, but what if Lena and Kara were ace and decked out in ace colors, but overhear some aphobe being, well, aphobic.

Kara is willing to ignore it, but Lena is decidedly not. She turns around and pins the offenders with a hard stare.

"Excuse me?"

Despite clearly not anticipating that they'd be overheard, one of them doubles down and meets Lena's glare with one of her own.

"It's people like you who make it harder for the rest of us," they say, heedless of the warning in Lena's voice.

Lena prowls towards them, ignoring Kara's pleas to let it go. She pauses within arms reach of their antagonizers, and tilts her head with a predatory smirk.

"Do you know what pride started as?"

The person blinks, then wrinkles their nose. "What?"

"A riot."

And then Lena punches them in the face.

[agentcorpevents]

It’s Official!!

Thanks everyone for your interest!

Based on the responses we saw, we at Team Pizza of Cabin 7H decided to move forward to host our second annual AgentCorp Event! This particular event will take place around the first week of May (actual dates TBD).  Keep checking back for updates.

To streamline the event, we generated a number of themes that you all can vote on.  At the end of the voting period, the final 6 themes will be selected (7th is a free day).  Pick your top 6!  Voting ends April 24, 2021. Vote Here:  https://forms.gle/C1e9yj5mxfAPZpLH8 We welcome all creatives to join in the fun in honoring this amazing ship.  Participants can write fics, create fanart, moodboards, videos, photo manips, or really anything AgentCorp. Information:  https://agentcorpevents.tumblr.com/info Coming soon:

Final schedule of the events to come, including dates for the week of the event, final theme/prompt selections, etc.)

Please reblog and help spread the word!  The more eyeballs this gets, the more content we may all get to enjoy!  Thanks all!

[magicalstripedhorse]

I have new agentcorp drawings that I really want to share but it's gonna have to wait until AgentCorp week

[team-science-mega-nerds]

Fictober Prompt #10: “Listen, I can’t explain it, you’ll have to trust me.”

Fandom: Supergirl

Pairing: AgentCorp (Lena x Alex)

Warnings: None

The last time Lillian was in town, she’d met Alex. Lena had noted the awkward tension, the way Lillian seemed to sour when Alex slumped in a chair and wince when Alex shook her hand. Lillian had hardly anything to say about Kara, Sam, and Nia, but Alex...she did not like. Never in her life has Lena felt more powerful than in her office on that very day. 

Alex, who was an acquaintance at best, gave Lena an idea. Childish. Ill-advised. Lena didn’t care. If anything, she’d been heavily influenced by Alex’s demeanor. The edginess that seemed to disturb her mother so much. Lena was enthralled. Paying more attention to Alex at game nights. Learning that Alex is an avid collector of all things ranging from bikes to whiskey to tattoos. So, when Lillian invited Lena - and a few friends - to a nice quiet dinner, inviting Alex was a no brainer. Sam, Kara, and Nia could play docile and cute for Lillian’s conservative inclinations, but Alex certainly doesn’t give a shit and neither does Lena. 

Lena invites Alex at the very last minute, hoping that Alex will feel obligated to go knowing that Kara will be there too. It’s a quick conversation. Alex asks if she has to dress up, Lena tells her to wear whatever makes her comfortable, and the night is set. Lena is confident that all she has to do is wait.

It’s only when Kara, Nia, Sam, and Alex arrive at the stunning mansion that Lena starts to get other ideas. It starts with Alex’s suit. It’s a three-piece suit, in fact, with a floral design that actually gives Lena some pause when she first sees it. Everyone looks nice tonight, Alex looks amazing. 

Lex, who has a backhanded comment for everyone, actually gives Alex an approving nod as Alex walks through the foyer and into the grand dining room. While Lillian is inappropriately asking Alex about her salary, Sam smacks Lena’s hand and nods toward Alex. “Alex sure cleans up nice.” 

“Yes, she does,” Lena remarks as she sneaks and rearranges the seating placards so that she can sit next to Alex. Lena is impressed by Alex’s poises, as Lillian tries to find a weak spot. Luckily, Alex stays strong and Lillian is forced to retreat and play hosts, while the catering company that she’s hired does most of the work for her. 

It’s a sly comment that changes everything right away. Something that undermines the years of work that Lena has put into accepting herself. Lillian says it casually as if she’s being charming. “Well, Lena, when you’re through messing around with these little flings, you might find yourself a respectable husband.” It hurts like hell. No one knows exactly how to deal with Lillian, even though they clearly all want to say something. 

Alex pops an olive into her mouth from the dry martini she’s been nursing and scoffs. “Who the fuck needs a husband?” It changes things. Lillian no longer has permission to be rude tonight. Lena is beyond thankful and when she sees Alex sneaking off for a bathroom break, Lena is swift to follow so she can say something about it. 

“Thank you for that back there,” Lena tells Alex.

“Your mom’s a bit of a…” Alex doesn’t finish the sentence but Lena knows exactly what she means. 

“I have...an idea.” 

Alex pauses at the bathroom door, she looks like she’s unsure but humored at least. Lena feels slightly flustered but confident that if Alex says ‘no’ to this idea, it probably won’t change anything between them. “Would you pretend to be my girlfriend?” Alex turns to face Lena completely. She looks shocked and is probably only smiling out of awkward embarrassment but Lena presses forward. “My mom thinks it’s just a phase, being a lesbian, and...honestly, fuck her. I’m...I’m not in the mood to be bullied. There’s more to it, heinous things she’s said and I...I don’t want to bore you. Listen, I don’t...I don’t want to explain it. I can’t explain it all. You’ll just have to trust me-.”

“You’re stunning when you’re flustered.” That shuts Lena right up. Alex rests her hand on Lena’s forearm. “If she really thinks you’re a disappointment, then I’ll be your plus one.”

“I wouldn’t want...you don’t have to do anything unsavory. Just a little show, something to cause a bit of chaos.”

“Should we hold hands? Make like this bathroom trip wasn’t just for the bathroom.”

“Certainly.”

“Give me a second, then. I actually have to go.” Alex disappears into the bathroom. Lena paces.

She feels like a kid again. Acting out for attention. Sam, Kara, and Nia will have something to say about this that’s for sure. 

Alex exits the bathroom and intertwines their fingers. Lena feels the excitement bubbling up. Nia yelps and Kara drops a $300 plate when Alex and Lena return. Lillian, surprisingly, doesn’t immediately voice her discontent. Instead, she nudges Lex forward to do her dirty work. “My, my, this is interesting.”

“What is?” Alex asks forcing Lex to change his manner of attack.

“When did this start?”

“A few months ago, what’s it to you?” Lex raises his hands defensively. “I don’t need your permission, Lex,” Lena reminds him.

“No need to get snippy.” Lex turns his attention to Alex. “You’re not going to step in and protect your girlfriend’s feelings?”

“If it’s one thing I’ve learned about Lena it’s that she doesn’t need someone protecting her.” Alex gives Lex a winning smile. “Your sister’s a catch. Certified. You’ve got a lovely mansion but Lena owns National City.” They go on like this. Easily, Lena might add. 

Alex has been trained well at the DEO. She doesn’t crack under pressure. In fact, Alex is having the time of her life. “Your mom hates me.”

“You don’t seem to care.” When Lena and Alex kiss for the second time that night it’s between dessert and brandy. Alex tastes like bitter chocolate and cherries. Lena can feel Kara digging into her side. A silent question: what the fuck is going on?

“They’re so cute together,” Nia remarks. She seems to be the only one playing along. As the night winds down, Lena considers what small victories can do for her. For starters, it keeps Lillian’s remarks to a minimum. Lex is enjoying the unspoken drama and Lena is learning to appreciate this side of Alex. 

The night seems to be over before it even begins. Lillian invites them all to an art gallery opening, which none of them seem eager to attend. Lex pulls Lena aside and tells her that she’s done well for herself. Kara, Nia, and Sam pile into the car first, but Alex remains chivalrous and holds the door open for Lena. It’s cute, Lena’s charmed. 

“Okay. What the fuck?” Sam says the moment they’re all inside. “You two aren’t really…?”

“No! We’re just…” Lena exchanges a laugh with Alex. “Fucking with Lillian, as per.” 

“It seemed pretty convincing,” Kara mumbles. Alex bows playfully. “You kissed like fifty times.”

“Twice.” Lena nudges Kara’s arm. “And I’m sorry but Alex is a good kisser.” Lena refuses to apologize unless she believes she’s really done something wrong. Tonight, she’s had a great time, and Alex is a big part of that. 

One by one, Lena drops her friends off until it’s just her and Alex sitting in the back of the town car. They’re both quiet, perhaps stalled by the events of the night. “That was fun,” Alex says. They’re five minutes from Alex’s apartment. It’s a nice apartment from what Lena remembers.  The town car slows. 

“Tonight could...keep being fun if you want.”