#human kara danvers

[chaotic-super]

For Her Sake - Chapter 17

Read For Her Sake on AO3 here!

Kara is a little overwhelmed with the speed at which she’s being thrown into her new job but overall, she’s fairly certain that she’s coping to a decent degree which means she’s not going to be fired after only one shift.

She’s being shown around the place and given the chance to try every part of the job as the chance arises so she can get a true feel for what it’s going to be like but even so, she’s spending a lot of her time behind the bar where she’s the most comfortable and the most experienced. There are no complaints though, it’s all coming back to her even after spending a few years behind a desk and running around after a needy billionaire.

“Kara?”

Kara looks up when she hears her name called, finishing drying the glass she’s working on before sliding it on the shelf, her head turned towards the person grabbing her attention. “Yeah?”

“How is everything going?” Sam checks in on her, her hand resting on her back momentarily.

“Good, good. Just getting into the groove of things back here.” Kara shrugs with a smile. “It’s like riding a bike.”

Sam smiles back at her. “I’m glad to hear that but would you be awfully upset if I made you come and help out in the kitchen? We’re going to get even busier soon and the other guys have the bar covered.”

“Not at all, lead the way.”

Sam takes Kara into the kitchen where half a dozen people are already working their asses off cooking all different kinds of foods and the smell of it makes Kara’s mouth water. It all smells really good.

“Oh golly, it smells amazing back here.” Kara murmurs, taking a nice deep inhale as Sam grabs herself and Kara aprons and hats.

“I know right? Now, I’m not going to throw you in right in the deep end because that would just be cruel so how about we leave anything that takes fire or heat and show you how to prepare some desserts?”

That makes Kara smile bigger than she has all day. She gets to learn something new, be trusted in the kitchen and handle her favourite thing in the world, dessert. “That sounds great.”

“Awesome.” Sam grins back at her. “I take it you don’t mind handling ice cream?”

“The only downside is that all of it won’t be in my mouth.”

“Well, I can’t expect you to be able to know how to make any desserts you haven’t had the opportunity to try yourself, could I? How else are you meant to know how they are supposed to look and taste?”

Kara’s eyes go wide and her voice dreamy. “I think I might be in love with you.”

“Save those words for Lena, we’ve got work to do,” Sam says and promptly strides off to get the ingredients she needs to show Kara what to do and leaves Kara stuttering and blushing behind her, something she takes note of and inwardly cackles to herself.

-

Sam takes Kara out for lunch halfway through the day by cooking them both the most delicious pasta dish Kara’s ever had the luxury of tasting and then directing her out of the door so they can go and find a bench in the park not far from Reign.

“Seriously Kara, it’s fine. I’m the boss and if I say you get to take an extra few minutes to have lunch with me, then it’s fine.”

“Are you sure? I don’t want the others to think I’m getting special treatment and hate me for it, I want my time at Reign to be good not filled with drama and pettiness.”

“I’m sure, besides, I take every new starter out for lunch. Or rather, usually, it’s just lunch in my office while we talk shop but I think this is close enough to pass. Nobody will question anything and if you’re so worried about having a long break, you can work over for fifteen minutes to help clean up.”

“You’ve got yourself a deal.” Kara offers out a hand for Sam to shake and her chin practically brushes the floor when it gets slapped out of the air.

“Don’t be weird. Sit down and eat.” Sam hands her a box and a fork. Kara opens her mouth to argue but Sam holds up a finger when it looks like she’s about to and cuts her off. “Babababa, no words, just eat.”

“But— “

“Babababa, no words.”

Kara is smart enough to shut her mouth after that and start digging into her food, immediately silenced by the incredible taste. Sam let her try a spoonful when she was making it so she’s already aware of how good it is but somehow the knowledge that she’s got a whole container of it to herself just makes it all that much greater. “Oh my god, this is so good.”

Sam nods her agreement. “It is. When I first opened Reign, I had this great chef working for me, his name was John and he was the greatest chef I’ve ever met. He made a bunch of recipes that I have to say do compete with my own. He retired last year but insisted we keep the recipes anyway despite the fact he made a lot of them up and some were his family recipes. We still keep in touch and he still comes into the restaurant every few months to supposedly make sure we’re putting his recipes to good use but I think he just misses me really.”

Kara raises her eyebrows at her, her face disbelieving.

“What, you don’t think someone could miss me?”

“No, I think you’re plenty missable. I’d just say that he probably only shows up every few months because that’s all he can handle.”

“You little bitch.” Sam gasps, her face morphed into one of pure shock. “I definitely regret hiring you, you’re going to give me as much trouble as Lena does. Speaking of the other little bitch, she’s been texting me all morning to ask me if it would be weird to text you and ask how it’s going so I’d appreciate it if you would text her first and end the suffering of the poor soul.”

Kara snorts. “Sure. I promised I’d keep her updated anyway, she’s such a sweetheart for caring.”

This time Sam snorts. “Yeah, she’s definitely a sweetheart alright. She’s got some major heart eyes going on.” Kara misses the joke completely, now focused on moving her thumbs as quickly as she can across her screen so she can get back to her food because her tastebuds are already missing it and her heart is crying out for more and weeping in despair every time the wind blows and cools it a little more so it’s no longer piping hot.

“Did she tell you she took care of Lori for me the other day? She’s so amazing.” Kara gushes around a mouthful as soon as she finishes up her text. “I think it’s cute she gets worried about something simple like texting, I always welcome texts from her.”

Sam’s eyebrows almost merge in with her hairline. “She looked after Lori?”

“Yeah. My sister and I are moving at the minute so when we had to look for a new apartment and then go and view a place, Lena offered to look after Lori for us so we could do so easier. She took her to the park and fed the ducks peas. Lori hasn’t stopped talking about it since.”

 “She never mentioned that,” Sam says, her voice soft. “She used to look after Ruby for me when she had to but it always made her a nervous wreck so I tried not to ask her if I could find someone else to do it.”

Kara’s eyes widen. “Oh no. I shouldn’t have accepted her offer.” Her hands fly up to her face. “She must have just offered to be nice and I took advantage of that. I need to apologize to her. I bet that’s why she got me the books and flowers; she was going to tell me and that was to sweeten me up but she backed out because she’s such a good person she didn’t want to upset me. Sam, I think I’m an awful person.”

By the time Kara has gotten through her mini-rant that borders on a panic-induced breakdown, she looks up to see Sam sitting next to her giggling.

“What’s so funny?”

“You and Lena.” She answers simply.

Kara frowns. “I don’t understand.”

Sam sighs. “Kara, with all due respect, you’re as big of an idiot as Lena is. She doesn’t do anything she doesn’t want to do so if she offered to take care of Lori, she wanted to and if she got you flowers, she wanted to. People that get other people flowers are usually trying to send a message. As Lena’s best friend, I can’t tell you exactly what that means but you’re a smart girl.”

Kara is confused for a minute and isn’t sure how to respond to Sam but after the brief silence that follows Sam’s explanation, it finally clicks. “Oh. Oh.”

“Yep.”

“I should call her later, huh?”

“That would be beneficial for my text inbox. I never get a break anymore, she’s very good at overthinking things so just a heads up, you’ve got to be able to look after her just as much as she’s willing to look after you.”

Kara taps Sam on the shoulder lightly. “What makes you think that I share those feelings.”

“I can see it written across your face.”

“It’s really that obvious?” Kara asks, her voice shaky with nerves. She thought she was doing pretty well at hiding it.

A nod confirms her fears. “Yes but if it makes you feel better, the only reason it’s obvious to me is because I know about Lena’s feelings because she’s my best friend and I can read her so I had to scope you out to see if you feel the same. It’s easy to find something you’re looking for, you know?”

“Maybe. I guess so.” Kara says, fiddling with the edge of the container, now completely empty, something that upsets Kara greatly.

“What’s wrong? Why are you so sad to find out the woman you like actually likes you back?”

Kara looks down, finding her words in a momentary deep breath as she closes her eyes. “I’m happy she likes me back but my life is crazy right now and while I do really like her, reallylike her I mean, I have to prioritize my daughter. I’m starting a new job; Alex is just settling into hers and we’re moving apartments. It’s a lot of change in schedules and routines and that’s tough for a four-year-old to deal with. She’s my world and I’m not at a point where I can risk disrupting anything else in her life. If it was just me, I’d happily take the leap but she’s my daughter, I just…can’t.”

Sam’s hand lands on Kara’s knee. “I hear you. You’re not at a point where a relationship is good for you or your family. That’s ok. You don’t have to be in a relationship you don’t want to be in.”

“It’s not that I don’t want to be in a relationship with her.”

“You just want to do what’s right for your daughter. That’s perfectly fine and Lena will understand that. I just think it would do both of you well to have this conversation between the two of you. She’s not going to hold anything against you, it’s not her style and I think you’ll find that she appreciated the honesty.”

Kara’s lips twist. “I don’t want to upset her.”

“The only way you’ll truly upset her is by allowing her to continue essentially dating you without dating you and leading her on. You guys are having dinner and sleepovers. You can still do all of that but until you state that you’re doing those things as friends, she’s going to have hope there’s something more and that’s just as unhealthy as getting into a relationship when you’re not ready to be in one.”

“I hear you.” Kara looks her dead in the eyes to convey just how sincere she is. “’ll talk to her the next time I see her in person. I think that’s a conversation to be had face to face.”

Sam squeezes her knee. “Good call. Thank you.”

“No, thank you. I think I needed to have this talk with someone. I just wasn’t expecting it to be with my new boss in the middle of a workday.”

Sam stands up, offering a hand to help Kara up too. “Yeah, well, I wasn’t expecting it either but Lena’s my family and I have to look out for her. Usually, I’d just threaten you but unfortunately, I kind of like you so that’s not happening. It’s a shame really, I’d love to scare you a little bit but you’re too nice and you kind of have a good head on your shoulders.”

Kara has to disagree with the last part of that because she did not have a good head on her shoulders when she did what she did that led to her meeting Lena but she’s not about to expose herself to Sam like that. That would end with Sam dragging her to the lake on the other side of the park and holding her under until the bubbles stop.

“Thanks.”

“Alright, let’s get back before people start questioning whether or not you got the job by canoodling with the boss.”

Blue eyes roll without her even thinking about it and it earns Kara a little shove.

“I’m going to teach you how to use the oven when we get back.”

“You better make sure there’s a first aid kit lying around then.”

“There is and I’ve made sure there’s a fresh page waiting in the accident logbook too just in case. You did great this morning and there’s no reason for us to drag our feet on getting you thrown into the mux in the kitchen. You’re better than you think.”

Kara smiles, her head ducking. “I think I’ll keep this job; it’s going to give my ego a good boost.”

“I can always make you mop the floors for eight hours straight.”

“After working for Cat Grant, that sounds like a joy.”

“Fuck, breaking you is going to be hard.”

Kara laughs and it makes Sam break out into a chuckle too. She’s going to really like this job, she can tell.

-

Kara grabs her bag as soon as she’s finished cleaning up. Sam did try to tell her that she didn’t really have to stay the extra few minutes but she’s not one to go back on her word and since she and Sam did take a long lunch, it’s only fair. She’s a team player and she’s not one to leave the team picking up the slack so she can goof off.

She’s gotten along with everyone so far and it turns out that the potty-mouthed chefs in the kitchen loved her attempts at swearing because having a small child has definitely changed her. She used to swear a little but never excessively but once Lori was born, every swear got adapted and it’s quite funny watching a woman drop ice cream down herself with a cry of “Barnacles!”.

It turns out that the accident book only got one new addition too so Kara’s taking that as a win. She’s only got a minor burn on her pinky where she accidentally set a towel on fire moving a pan but she’s not going to do it again because she’s already been made fun of for it enough that she’s never going to forget it again. None of it felt malicious though and that’s all that matters. One day down and she’s already in a better environment than before.

She’s all prepared to get the bus home but when she steps out of Reign, she sees Winn waiting there with his hands in his pockets. “Hey, Danvers!”

Her eyes light up and her hands fly up in a double wave. “Schott, Schott, Schott!”

He pulls her into a tight embrace and sways her slightly. “In my quest for knowledge of your first day at your new job, I came to the understanding that it is easier to extract information when in a private vehicle rather than a land submarine.”

“You’re nosy so you came to pick me up.” Kara shakes her head. “Also, I told you to stop calling buses land submarines, it’s weird and unnecessary.”

“No can do, buckaroo. I parked up the street, come hither and tell me all about your first day, I want all the deets.”

“You’re so annoying. I have half a mind to just leave you here and get the bus home anyway.”

Winn pouts. “I waited fifteen extra minutes for you because you were late out and you want to leave me here? The tragedy.”

“I hate you.”

“Love you too, now spill.”

Kara gives in and starts walking him through her day, purposefully not adding any details about what she and Sam talked about. The next person she talks to about that is Lena and Lena alone.

-

The week flies by faster than Kara could ever have expected it and with each day that passes, she finds that she loves her new job and is improving more and more every day. There’s only been one day this week she hasn’t spent at least six of the eight hours of her shift in the kitchen and that’s because two of the bartenders were sick so she had to focus on helping out there rather than the kitchen.

She doesn’t mind a bit though because everyone has been so nice to her, all of her new coworkers have been great to her and she’s loving every minute of it, even the dullest of jobs and nastiest of customers don’t hold a candle to some of the things she put up with over the years when working at CatCo and not all of it was Cat’s fault, even though a lot of it was.

The place was rife with self-absorbed assholes willing to hurt whoever it takes to get their name on a byline and earn the most money so being somewhere where none of that is evident is like a breath of fresh air.

She’s just finished her last shift of the week and she’s got a couple of days off now to hang out with Lori, something she’s thrilled about because while the job is great, her feet are killing her from being standing up all day so at night the most she’s doing is chilling with Lori on the couch playing games, reading or watching movies and that’s all well and good but her daughter loves to run around and play and she’d like to be able to do that with her.

Alex has been nothing but supportive and has been asking her to tell her all about her day every night over dinner and it’s been nothing short of lovely being able to talk about her work without it becoming a bitchfest and having to listen to Alex telling her she deserves better.

People always say that kids are smarter than we give them credit for and Kara has never been surer that it’s true. Lori can tell she’s already happier and where she would give her lots and lots of cuddles before to “make Mama feel better” she’s now giving them to her to “feel as happy as Mama.” It’s delightful and it makes her heart ache at the same time knowing that Lori knew she was miserable before.

She’s also been messaging Lena throughout the week too and it’s been a bittersweet experience. Now that she’s got it confirmed that Lena likes her too, she’s thrilled because who wouldn’t be excited when finding out their crush is also crushing on them? The bitter part comes from having the knowledge that they both like each other but they can’t do anything about it in the way she wants.

She’s got plans for a game night tomorrow though and while it’s technically Winn’s turn to host, Kara invited Sam to come and she’s bringing her daughter too so Lena suggested her place because there’s more room for everyone and there’s no way they would all fit into Winn’s tiny apartment.

They aren’t heading over to her place until six though so they have the full day to do whatever they want to do as a family before they hang out as a group.

Lori is already asleep and Alex is dozing on the couch beside her as she reads one of the books Lena bought her and with every page turn, she feels her gratitude amplifying. Lena has gifted her an escape she’s been craving for a long time but barely even had the time to process her need for. Reading has always been a key part of her life and yet she can count the number of books she’s read in the last year on one hand so having this opportunity to relax and let herself get swept away in someone else’s life and leave her worries behind for a couple of hours is everything she’s needed and more.

She’s so enthralled by the book that she gets through the majority of it in one sitting and she’s only stirred out of her own little bubble by Alex stretching, her legs making their way into her lap as she turns over. Kara adjusts herself and Alex’s legs a little so she’s more comfortable but settles back into her book because while it’s late, the soft comfort of the quiet and the physical grounding provided by her sister is everything she needs to round out a good week. The first of what she hopes to be many.

Kara ends up waking up to the smell of the fabulous new book smell she wants to make a candle out of. Her book is on her face, her nose making a very good bookmark, and Alex’s legs are no longer across her body.

She must have either fallen to one side in the night or Alex lay her down as much as she could because her legs are propped up on the couch beside her and she’s at a bit of a strange angle, her back pressed into the corner of the couch and her neck stretched back into an awkward position, the weight of the book not helping her avoid neck pain in the slightest.

Her neck cracks as she lifts her head up, her thumbs tucking into the pages of the book so she doesn’t lose her page though she’ll probably have to skip back a couple of pages when she goes to carry on reading because there’s not a chance in hell she’ll actually remember what she was reading last night right before she fell asleep.

Slipping a receipt into the book as her bookmark, she looks over at the kitchen and sees Alex filling up two mugs with coffee and a cup with milk for Lori.

“G’mornin’,” She mumbles, her brain still trying to fight its way into the waking world. “Coffee?”

“Good morning, sunshine.” Alex brings her the mug of coffee she just poured her. “The coffee is nice and hot, feel free to have another ten minutes to sleep if you want to while it cools down.”

“Why? What have you done?” Kara questions, clarity finding her as she shakes away the last clutches of sleep.

Alex shoves the mug into her hands, “Why don’t you believe that sometimes I want to do nice things for my baby sister without it being because I’ve done something?”

“Because never once have you done something nice for me without it being because you’ve either done something wrong or you want something so, which is it?” Kara is happy to have the coffee but Alex is definitely freaking her out.

“That’s so not true.”

“Yes, it is.”

Alex shakes her head again. “I completely disagree, anyway, you’re eating into your sleep time, I’m going to go and check on Lori now, she was just stirring when I just started the coffee so you know we don’t have long now before we’ve got to entertain her. “

“I’m good. I’m just gonna sit here and drink my coffee while Auntie Alex does the work because she’s done something wrong.”

Alex folds her arms and clicks her tongue. “Not true but since I’m a good sister I’m going to go and do it anyway. Chillax, sis.”

She strolls away confidently while Kara stares at her back and mouths in confusion, “Chillax?”

They decide to take Lori down to the pier for the day and then she’ll undoubtedly be tired by the time they get to game night and will hopefully fall asleep early. Fingers crossed anyway. Kara and Alex take it in turns showering before they head out and Kara gives Lori a bath but other than that, Alex handles all Lori’s care and it takes a while for Kara to get it out of her what she’s done but she does learn that Alex’s ironing skills leave a lot to be desired and she now has one less shirt.

She isn’t really mad about it though, Alex isn’t usually the one to do the laundry because she’s so bad at it but since she started her new job, Alex wanted to do something nice for her and it didn’t pan out. She’ll let this one slide.

They take the bus to the pier, two actually, but it’s not a painful ride with books to read to pass the time. Kara keeps an eye on Alex as they walk to the bus stop and then again when they get off the bus at the pier and they start to walk. She’s not had the opportunity to check in with Alex fully about her recovery in a while other than the generic questions which get brushed off with moderate ease and she’s not had much of a chance to watch her closely as she walks either so today is her chance to assess for herself how Alex’s recovery is going.

Kara makes a point to let Alex walk ahead of her and simply meanders on behind her and Lori, who is holding her aunt’s hand and bouncing around excitedly as they walk along the wooden planks towards the end of the pier where they can look out over the glossy waves of the sea.

There are a few things she’s noticing, the most important being that she’s walking much better than she was before. She really worried her before and yet here she is walking again and doing a great job of it.

Her gait is a little stilted, one leg straightening more than the other when she steps forward and she favours one leg over the other but she’s not panting or getting out of breath and she’s not so much as glancing at any of the benches they pass because she’s not feeling the need to sit down and have a rest.

Alex must be taking her doctor’s advice seriously and resting as much as possible and sitting down at work wherever she can but Lena is, no doubt, a large part of that because she’s very obviously a big fan of looking out for the people she cares about.

Ugh, Lena. Kara still has to talk to her and she’s not certain she’s going to have adequate time alone with her to talk today and even If she does find the time, she doesn’t want her to be left alone after being rejected but she also doesn’t want her to have to pretend she’s ok if she’s not. Maybe she should work out a time with Sam so she can be there for her afterwards.

That makes her feel big-headed though, like she’s expecting Lena to be heartbroken over her. No, that’s not possible, Lena will be fine. She’ll find time today and if she can’t she’ll ask her to meet for lunch sometime in the week.

Alex looks back and cocks an eyebrow at her. “Did I pass your test, Doctor Danvers?”

“What? I have no idea what you mean.” Kara lies, upping her pace so they can walk side by side, each of them taking one of Lori’s hands and periodically swinging her and making her fall into fits of giggles that definitely add a few years onto their lives.

“I have no idea what you mean.” Alex mocks her, her voice going all high and squeaky before she goes back to her normal tone. “Such a liar. You were watching me.”

“I know, I just wanted to make sure you’re really getting better. I know I haven’t really had as much time to check on you but I should have made time, I’m sorry. I let myself get caught up in everything and I’ve not been here for you as much as I should have been.”

Alex waves her off. “You’ve been thinking about this a lot more than I have because I never once felt like you’ve been absent in any way, Kara. You’ve been here for us both as much as you can and I’ve got no complaints other than the creepy way you just watched me walk. I’d prefer if you didn’t do that, it’s weird.”

“How else am I supposed to check your progress?”

“Ugh, I don’t know…ask?”

“You always lie and say you’re fine.”

“I usually am.”

Kara points at her. She’s got her ‘a-ha’ moment. “Usually.”

Alex pays her no mind. “I stand by what I said and while it is usually alright, the times it’s not, are times when I get to prove to myself that I’m still strong.”

“The strongest.” Kara mumbles. “I’m sorry, I know I’m interfering when you don’t need me to, I’m just worried about you.”

Alex’s head tilts to one side. “Why now? Why are you worried now?”

“I don’t know, I might know when we can afford therapy but until then you just get to deal with my weird mood swings and overwhelming need to check on the people I love.“

Alex snorts. “It doesn’t take a therapist to know that you have attachment and abandonment issues, sis. Want to use Google to fix them?”

“Sure but if it tries to tell me I have cancer, I’m giving up.”

“Deal, now look at the ocean, maybe run Lori up this pier to get her energy out and if that doesn’t work then you can play fetch with her.”

“She’s not a dog.”

“I never said she would be the one fetching anything.” 

“Have I ever told you just how much I dislike you at times?”

A hand on her shoulder sends her almost toppling right over as she is on the receiving end of a harsh shove and then Alex is running with Lori in tow, the pair laughing hysterically. Kara’s heart is fuller than it has been since before the accident. There’s a lot of room to grow but for now, this works.

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[malfiora]

most Superman video games approach it all wrong. they try to imply that the player is OP but has to limit them to make the game challenging. no. a true Superman game should be the exact opposite.

it should be the easiest thing in the world to destroy everything, kill anyone. hell, you should be able to fly through the earth, explode the moon, fly fast enough to cause tidal waves, whatever you want.

because the real challenge will be to not do that.

the objectives of the game should be to fight thugs without hurtling them into space. to rescue a plane from crashing without causing a sonic boom. to catch a jumper from a bridge without breaking their neck.

a real Superman game would be an exercise in restraint.

[blazethecheeto]

hi so i watched the supergirl finale. and like. what the fuck guys.

that might have been the biggest queer analogy i've ever seen without it being explicitly stated. the whole talk where kara compares how she feels like she's been trapped, how she's been hiding and never living her authentic truth to alex feeling free and joyful with her wife.

the life she wants to have. the metaphors of her not feeling ready to come out. the constant parallels to alex's journey and her wedding vows resonating with kara so deeply. CAT SAYING "most of all, i hope you choose to become your full self."

TEARS. CRYING. LIKE HAPPY PRIDE MONTH??? I GUESS???

and then, AND THEN- out of every single person, lena luthor is the one she has her last conversation with. she is the one to support her, to believe in her, like she always has. lena comparing how both of them were always being told who they were supposed to be, the roles society set up for them, and how they both defied it by becoming friends.

no, because don't get me started with how lillian said in the very beginning of the episode to lena: "live your life the way you want to live it." the insane queer metaphors and parallels with her magic being programmed out of her as a kid because 'it wasn't how the luthor family was supposed to be".

lena turning to kara in that conversation, saying she's finally living her own life and it feels amazing, inviting kara to join her and go through and take on that journey together. kara wondering how it would feel like to connect with someone as her full self NOT KNOWING THAT PERSON IS RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER? lena just responding "i think it'd be empowering" WISTFULLY? i can't do this guys i sobbed.

like TF DO YOU MEAN "i didn't get to grow up to be the person i was supposed to be, and i think it's the same for you" and "i give people speeches on how to live their best lives, but i'm too afraid to live my own".

also, ain't no way they killed off william AND made mon-el come back JUST to confirm that ship was never becoming canon. the writers really said yeah, both of them will be the only people at the wedding with absolutely no other love interests except each other!!

finally, on a less serious note, in that last cat + kara conversation, the way she said-

"i just feel..."

"bi...furcated?"

and i was like LMAO WAS CAT JUST GONNA SAY "KARA, YOU'RE BI GIRLIE."

tl;dr: that was an insane show to go through, i can only imagine how the fans reacted, but man. queerbaiting's really something isn't it. i'm gonna cry and read more supercorp fanfiction.

[trashmakerarticle]

The bats and the supers both think that each other are super weird, crazy, insane even.

Bats: *does smth completely insane and inhuman* I’m doing so well at being normal

Supers: what in the actual fuck was that????

—

Supers: *does smth absolutely no human could accomplish*

Bats: why are they so weird??

Or better yet —

Supers: *smiling like they goddamn sun and just happy to exist*

Bats: *running on 0.43 seconds of sleep and an concerning about of energy drinks/eye bags heavier then 5 trucks*

Both: something is not right with them

[dinovia-grant]

Fall is my favorite time of year. SuperCat is my (current) favorite ship. Mash them both together and what do you get?

SuperCat Fall Festival!

The rules are simple:

It must feature SuperCat (other ships can be secondary).

That's it!

Submit art, fic, gif sets, music videos, photo manipulations - whatever you want.

Fic has no minimum word count requirement. Extra scenes from established stories are welcome.

The due date will be September 24th by midnight (Pacific Daylight Time).

Let's get this hayride into gear!

[best-character-named-x-poll]

have you done your daily click

[thatonebirdwrites]

Sneak peak from my as yet unreleased fic, Shattered but Whole (this is an excerpt)

EXCERPT (from second part - Unravels. There is also Lena's Tale from The Event and Kara's Tale also in Unravels. A third part Integration is still being written. I'll post full fic at end of month hopefully):

Sam's Tale

Sam places the soup on the coffee table. The lack of sleep burns behind her eyes, partly due to Rory's tendency to wander. She sits down on the sofa and manages a smile for the huddled form under the pile of blankets.

Stubborn and unflinching like steel, Rory has failed to eat more than a few sips of broth for the past day. Frustration boils in Sam, but what can she do? She can't let that emotion show.

So she takes a deep breath to calm herself. Pictures the tidal pools, where her, Ruby, and Lena used to walk on weekends before Lex's escape and carefully crafted lies and manipulations that strangled the leadership of two countries and nearly killed them all.

Sam remembers the fires that raged from the satellite weapon. One blast had incinerated parts of Kansas, burning wheat fields, and destroying the town of Smallville. Then another blast had ripped through downtown Metropolis, obliterating one of the news stations and its neighboring buildings.

At the time, Sam had been making dinner when the flash of red swept across the sky. Next came the booms and the brief quake, then the horrid silence before the sirens started up. Most channels in town had gone off-air, but those from one state over functioned fine. It relayed images of the destruction, and how the Claymore satellite turned toward space again. Sam had started packing immediately, while she did everything she could to keep Ruby distracted.

Then hours later, Lena had called.

Sam won't ever forget how her voice whispered Sam's name over and over in a pained, panicked way, as if Sam was the rope she held tightly to keep from falling. In the background, she had heard booms and white noise. At first, she feared Lena had been near the epicenter, only to learn she was instead on the other side of the country. And the booms were just thunder.

Sam runs a hand through her hair. Stress and anxiety hangs like a shawl, the intense rush to reach National City still sizzling in her limbs. She should have returned sooner, before this tragedy.

“Rory,” Sam says gently. Grief coils in her chest when Lena's face turns to her, only for Rory's wide green-blue eyes to meet hers. As always, the haunted expression breaks Sam’s heart a little more. “It’s okay. I’m not angry. I’m just worried. Eating will help you feel better. So how about a few bites?”

Tentatively, Rory reaches out to prod the spoon in the bowl. It swirls the ingredients in little whirlpools.

For Rory to front this long? Without any sign of Kieran or Lena? Worry joins Sam's grief and exhaustion. It's been two — possibly three if she counts the night of Supergirl’s rescue— days with no sign of the others.

“We had to. We had to end the cycle.” Lena's words said so brokenly.

Sam isn’t a fool. Lena/Kieran killed Lex and burned the evidence. She still doesn't know how this came about or why it transpired in Northern California.

Will burning it all be good enough? Should she devise alibis just in case? This really isn’t her purview — Lena is the strategist or Jack. Sam is more of the ‘wild ideas and toss at wall to see if they stick’ person.

Advice definitely needed, but who to call?

Sam taps her fingers against her knee and teases her mind for solutions. How would Jack or Lena approach this? Systematically. Sam is decent with math, but she's never been able to keep up with those science geniuses.

Systematic she can do. She unlocks her phone to peruse her options.

Alex Danvers, FBI agent, who likely knows what they need for alibis. Can Sam trust Alex not to align with her job and bring in Lena?

The news this morning documented Supergirl's fight with Lex and the liberation of the alien power plant. Catco released the first part of a three-part article that exposes of Lex's megalomania and genocidal plans. Kara really outdid herself with that piece.

The tide favoring Lex shifts slowly. No, she can't trust anyone associated with the government. Not until Sam has definitive evidence they won't turn on Lena or Supergirl still.

Fine, whose next?

Kelly Olsen, Lena's therapist. Or soon to be ex-therapist due to Kelly dating Alex Danvers now. Due to Lex's brief reign of terror, Kelly and Lena — as far as Sam knows — hadn't had time to find a suitable replacement to continue Lena's work on integration.

Kara Danvers then? A rather naive journalist, who apparently is Supergirl's alter ego. Or maybe Supergirl is Kara's alter ego. That stormy night Supergirl rescued Lena confirmed they are one and the same.

Lena adores Kara, but her words that stormy night: “Did you know Kara is an alien?” had held a layer of pain.

Sam sighs and rubs her temple. The only other number she has is for James Olsen, who she doesn't trust farther than she can spit. He may have dated Lena, but he'd never truly let go of Lena's last name. Sam wishes she'd never pushed Lena to try, but that was before she understood the depth of Lena's feelings for Kara.

The clink of a spoon echoes softly in the sterile apartment. Rory still hasn't attempted food. Only swirls and swirls, the whirlpools sink into the depths of the cup and reveal bits and pieces of vegetables.

Sam watches and blinks back tears. Jack would have known what to do. He'd likely be mobilizing alibis and lawyers already, but he lay in a coma, trapped since the nanite catastrophe that destroyed Spheerical Industries. A memory Sam tries to avoid. Kieran and Rory had fronted for weeks after that disaster.

“Lena,” Sam whispers, “I know you're in there.” She reaches out to brush black hair from Rory's face. “How would you or Kieran handle this?”

Rory glances at her, her eyebrows scrunched as if in thought. Her other hand lifts from under the blankets and forms the sign for ‘endure.'

Yes, Sam knows Rory is the one that endures. Helplessness seeps through her limbs. She looks down at her phone and flips through the contacts again with her thumb. One by one names trickle by until she stops at Kara Danver's name.

“I’m going to make a phone call,” she tells Rory. “When I get back, I want at least some of this soup eaten. Then we can watch your favorite show. Or maybe play a game?”

Rory tilts her head, and her face contorts — wrinkles in forehead, scrunched eyebrows, flared nostrils, slight grimace, and sucked in cheeks — a sign of a possible switch.

Sam holds her breath in hope.

The expression fades, and Rory tugs blankets tighter around her body. One hand grips the spoon again and forms the whirlpools once more.

Sam lets out her breath. “Promise me, you'll eat? Otherwise, no games later.”

Rory narrows her eyes but reluctantly nods. Sam will take that as progress.

Standing, she glances at her daughter, who sits curled up in the armchair by the sofa. Her latest book — a science fiction novella about nonbinary monks and robots — lays open in her lap. Ruby's fingers crinkle the page right before she turns it.

Sam marvels for the millionth time how much Ruby looks like her. Only her nose and thicker build gives any hint of the worthless father.

Her baby, the reason for much of what Sam does. Today, Ruby's hair curls down past her shoulders, still damp from a shower, and her brown eyes scan the pages of her book. She looks up at Sam, her eyebrows furrowed in worry.

“Keep an eye on her, Rubes. I’ll be on the balcony.”

Ruby gives her a thumbs-up. She knows the drill. In a way, she and Rory act as sisters, which puts Sam in the weird-ass role of mother figure when Rory fronts.

So very different from the best friend role Sam holds for Lena, and the nebulous more than friend role for Kieran. All aspects that leaves Sam in a strange limbo of not able to ever confess her feelings.

Outside, the wind blows cool, the taste of salt off the ocean. Sam leans against the railing and struggles to hold back her tears. Is this disaster the one that finally breaks her best friend?

Sam had promised herself long ago to make sure Lena was never alone wih Lex, and yet, three days ago that exact scenario played out while Sam was stuck in Metropolis. She'd been there for the past three months fixing a major production and accounting mishap, which meant Ruby temporarily enrolling in the school in the interim.

Convenient that such a mishap happened just when Lex strolls back into Lena's life. Sam rubs her eyes and slumps against the railing. The mishap she repaired had been sabotage, that Sam knows, but she can't scrounge up enough evidence to confirm by whom.

Even though in her heart she's positive it was Lex's way to separate her and Lena.

To isolate Lena slowly. Like he always does.

Sam can't ever forget the moment she learns of his abuse. During the initial merger, years ago, Lena had been sitting in her office after a meeting with Lex. Sam only came by to drop off her report, but what she found alarmed her. Lena's expression had been twisted in what looked like pain. Her red, chafed skin and the red mark on her left cheek ignited a deep need to protect in Sam.

Yet she'd failed. All their work to free Lena from the Luthors shredded by Lex. The urge to scream and rip apart the world seethes in Sam.

At least Lex is dead. The fucking bastard. But it should have been her hands that did it. Not Lena's.

She rubs away her angry tears and pulls out her phone. Thumbs through the unlock and hovers over Kara's name. A number she's had since the worldkiller crisis ten months ago. That time of horror is where Sam finally understood viscerally the amnesiac episodes.

***

Sam stands in an alley. Her boots are muddy, and her head stuffed with cotton. Her breath catches in her throat, her lungs raw. Her body feels not her own, like a puppet on strings. She looks down at her hands, the grime under her nails unfamiliar. Her stomach twists in knots, her head aches, and she wants to curl up and weep.

How did she get here? Where is she?

Fog coils in her mind and sizzles with lightning. The air charged with apprehension despite the cloudless night glaring down at her.

Memories seep through slowly: She was skating on a rink with Ruby, who easily kept pace with her. Sam had turned to skate backward and make faces at her daughter. Typical pre-teen response of rolled eyes, but the hint of a smile gave away Ruby's amusement.

She'd just turned to skate forward again when a ringing started in her ears. Ruby passed her, while Sam's vision fogged over. Whispers crept into her ears: let go, let go.

Dark woods loomed then, while the fog tugs her from the fluorescent lights of the indoor rink. Bare branches curved like hands that reach for her, until darkness coats her mind and body. Freezing cold slithers through her.

Only to wake here, in an alleyway, alone.

Terror ignites.

Ruby.

Where is Ruby? She digs through her pockets but finds nothing. No phone.

Wait, why is she in khakis and navy blue button-down shirt? Where is her jeans and T-shirt she'd been wearing skating?

Why is one of her sleeves caked with blood? But she has no wounds.

Ruby. Her feet jerk into motion, and she sprints from the alley.

Car engines and horns assault her ears. She’s a block from L-corp. Definitely phones there to borrow. She dodges through the slow, meandering traffic, and ignores the driver's curses and car horns.

She bursts through L-corp’s doors. To the left is the security desk, where a lone guard reads a magazine, his only light a small lamp. The rest of the building is dark except for the fluorescent lights near the elevators and stairs. Sounds of traffic fade into a faint roar, only interrupted by the crinkle of pages.

Shadows stalk across the foyer, like the woods of her nightmares. One shadow forms the figure of a woman, red eyes aglow. She takes a step backward, her breath caught in her throat and her stomach bubbling with nausea.

“Ms. Arias?” the voice cuts through her frozen terror. The figure vanishes.

Sam turns to see a plump, older man at the security desk. His hazel eyes look up from his book, his mouth in a confused grimace.

“Are you all right?”

No, she most definitely is not. She can't let it show. Breathe, she tells herself. Four, eight, twelve, sixteen, twenty… she counts until her hands stop shaking. “Bill," she asks, slowly, "can I use your phone?”

“Uh, sure.” He turns his desk phone around to face her.

Sam dials Lena’s number. Her fingers tremble despite her attempts to calm down.

To her relief, Lena picks up after one ring. “This is Ms. Luthor speaking.”

“Lena, oh thank god you answered," she clutches the phone, almost in tears at her familiar voice. "Please, where are you? Where is Ruby?”

“Sam?” Relief floods Lena’s voice. “Sam, I’m at the office. Where are you? I can—”

“I’m coming upstairs.” Sam hangs up and sprints for the elevator. As the elevator ascends, she paces back and forth, terrified and nauseated. Her body aches from head to toe as if she’d been in a fight, but she has no memory of the past few hours — days?

It's been two months of horrific nightmares and amnesiac episodes. One month of trying to hide it all under a veneer of practiced poise.

Shadows play across the elevator walls, and one sneers like a face of a demon. She jerks backward, her back hitting the wall. Whispers in a language she can't quite distinguish sinks into the dark. Strange symbols form on her arms, and she tries to rub them away to no avail.

The metal of the elevator forms a face with red eyes.

No. No, no! She hits the buttons on the elevator desperate to escape. The elevator shivers and clanks. Horror stalks her.

"Four, eight, twelve," she says, out loud, desperate to calm herself. "Sixteen, twenty…"

The elevator doors open to darkness, except for a red light at the end of the hall. No, she can't enter that. The doors shut, and she slumps to the ground, her arms around herself. The doors open three more times, and each time she's met with a gloom so deep, she swears she can hear the creaking of branches.

She’s never been more terrified in her life. For these episodes to increase in severity, for them to now impact her daughter? Sam wants to scream and rip herself to shreds.

The fourth time the doors open, light cascades into the room. She throws herself into the precious light. Scrambling to her feet, her boots pound against the tiles as she sprints down the hallway, past a conference room, past Jess' empty desk, and finally to the door of her office.

She tugs open the door, her breaths sharp and agonized.

A figure sits at the desk, the glow of a tablet across her porcelain features and glossy black hair. A fluffy scarf wraps around the woman's neck, her jacket open to show a shiny red shirt that is far too reminiscent of blood.

Recognition sparks. Lena. It's only Lena. Relief stops her mad dash. “Where’s Ruby?”

“Sam! Thank god you’re okay.” Lena sweeps to her feet, her Irish accent faint, which means it’s Lena fronting. Kieran always has a heavy Irish brogue. She takes a few hesitant steps around the desk, but pauses a few feet away. Her concern etched into her perfect features. “Ruby called me right away. I took her home. I — I thought I’d check the office again in hope you’d return here. Like you had the other times.”

“Oh my god.” Sam turns away and presses her hand to her forehead. “How could I do this to her?” She throws her hand down and starts to pace. “What if I’d been driving at the time?”

Her imagination unhelpfully provides a vivid image of a crash and a bloodied body. Bile rises in Sam's throat.

Lena holds up her hands as if to placate her. “She’s safe, Sam. She did the right thing by calling for help.”

Right, help. Good. Emergency plan enacted. Yet Ruby never should have needed it.

Sam takes a deep breath and turns back to Lena. “Was she scared?”

Lena’s shoulders droop then, but the tension in her body shows in her creased brows “Yes. We all are.” Cautiously, Lena approaches her, one hand still upheld. “Do — do you remember anything?”

Sam shakes her head. Whispers, shadowed woods, and fog provides no clues. “No. No, I don’t. Same as always.”

Lena tugs at her fingers. “Ruby told me about the other times.”

Sam stares at her, unable to fathom at first Lena's meaning. “She doesn’t know,” she says, finally. “I — I haven’t told her yet.”

“She’s a smart kid. Had a time-line of dates, times, and places —”

“You told a twelve year old that her mother is sick with a illness no one can diagnose?” A coiling horror mixed with anger shudders through her body. No, Ruby can't know. “Seriously?”

“Sam, she already knew.” Lena holds up her hands again, as if to ward off Sam’s anger. “I simply reassured her that you didn’t abandon her. That we’re looking into this.”

“Si—”

The world sears in sudden frigid cold. It weaves into her bones, as dark grey fog coils. Let go, a whisper curls into her ears. A face forms in the mists, skull with no eyes, and hands reach up from the ground.

Bare branches leer over her like clawed hands. She staggers backward, only to hit the desk.

She’s back in the office. “What — what…” Bile burns her throat.

Lena stands on the other side of her, her arms around herself, and a haunted look in her eyes. She blinks and drops her hands to her side. “Sam? Are — are you back?”

Sam slowly backs up until her legs hit a chair. She lowers herself, shaken.

“Sam? Did you just have a blackout?”

Terror throttles her breathing, her gasps sharp and pained. Nodding, she shivers and grips the chair.

Lena holds up her hands as if to calm her down. “You don’t remember anything you just said?”

Tears blur her vision. She shakes her head. “I need help,” she whispers. Something more than therapy, more than Alex’s MRI and CT tests. Something that can dig deep into why these episodes happen when it’s never happened prior.

“Sam, do you trust me?” Lena drops to one knee next to Sam’s chair, and gently grasps her hands.

Sam clings to Lena’s warm and grounding touch and nods.

“Let me run some tests. You’ll have to stay in the basement lab for the night.” Lena bites her lip and looks down at their hands. “If I’m right about this, you’re in grave danger.”

Dread weighs heavy on Sam. “Whatever is needed, do it.” If anyone can find what’s wrong, it’d be her best friend. The person who understands amnesiac episodes, the one who is a genius with biology and engineering — the person Sam trusts and loves more than anyone else in the universe. “You’ll watch Ruby?”

“Of course. She’s in a safe place right now, and with someone I trust to keep an eye on her.”

Her words help only marginally; Sam can’t help but worry for her daughter. To not be able to see her? Out of fear of what she might do in an episode? The tears escape despite all her attempts to hold them at bay.

“I promise you I’ll figure this out. We’ll find the cure together.” Lena wraps an arm around her shoulder, while her other hand rubs her thumb over Sam’s knuckles. Exactly the same way Sam does during Lena’s panic attacks or amnesiac episodes. Oh, how the tables have turned.

True to her word, Lena sets her up in a medical bed in the basement lab and runs the battery of tests. Her best friend says very little, her entire focus on her work — like always when she hyperfocuses.

Needles used shimmer with a hint of green and leave a weird ache after. Hum of machines scan her insides, and the tool to scrape a sample from inside her mouth feels cold and unnerving. The only words spoken are gentle but short explanations of each procedure.

She knows Lena does it to try to calm her.

Nothing will calm her. Not until they know the truth.

Sam wonders if feeling shattered or scared is how Lena is all the time. If so, how does she cope? Admiration for Lena’s strength and resiliency floods Sam. Lena’s spent a life like this, while Sam falls apart after only a few months.

“This last test relies on you sleeping.” Lena stands a few feet away, her hands clasped in front of her. Her accent has stayed faint these last few hours, which means Kieran hasn’t fronted once. “Do you think you can sleep?”

Sam rubs her eyes. “Maybe. I’m exhausted enough.”

For a moment, Lena stands silently, her expression contorts almost in pain. She takes in a sharp breath, and her shoulders straighten, her posture rigid. A switch.

“Then rest.” Her best friend steps up to the bed, her accent a thick Irish brogue, where each word is pronounced slowly as if she tastes each one. That signals this is now Kieran. “We will watch over you.” She gently kisses Sam’s forehead and smooths back her hair.

Sam aches to hold her and be held in turn. Instead, she grasps Kieran’s hand. “Can — can you really cure this?”

“Not me, luv,” Kieran says, tenderly. “Lena can. She has a plan. We just need more data.” Her hand continues to stroke Sam’s hair, her other tightly holding Sam’s left. “Close your eyes now, and I shall sing you to sleep.”

Of Lena’s many parts, Kieran is the only one that can hold a tune, and she sings an Irish ballad. It ripples over Sam and encases her in warmth. She finally drifts to a dreamless sleep.

When she wakes, her head aches, her vision blurry, and her shoulder hurts. She reaches up and realizes there’s a device there, but she can’t quite see what it is.

“Lena? Kieran?” She’s not sure who is fronting for her friend.

“It's Lena.” Lena looks up from the desk, where several papers are scattered along with a tablet and a laptop. She gives her a faint smile. Dark circles line her eyes. Likely barely slept. Typical of her. “How do you feel?”

“Achey. What — what is this?” She taps the device.

“Precaution.” Lena stands and walks closer, only to stop a few feet away. “I — I have good and bad news.”

“Surely not as bad as the world ending?” Sam jokes.

Lena doesn’t laugh nor does she smile. Her eyes narrow instead. “I reviewed our data and the timeline of your episodes.”

The seriousness in Lena’s stance, the faint wisp of her accent, and the pain in her tone makes it clear that Sam isn’t going to like her next words. She braces herself.

“Your episodes align with when Reign appears.”

Sam jolts upright in shock. “No. That’s crazy.”

Lena frowns. “The data I’ve taken has provided proof. I suspect when you left on your trip ‘to find your origins,’ you were possessed. The time and date of that correlates to the timing of Reign’s cult leader escaping prison.”

Sam shakes her head. There’s no way.

“Let me show you then.” She picks up a remote and turns on the television. It plays a segment from a news report of a murder. “Two months ago you report a black out. Reign appears and kills three robbers and leaves an odd symbol all over National City. The same symbol the cultist gave Kara during her interview exactly two weeks before your ‘trip’ happened.”

Sam can’t believe her ears. She shakes her head again.

“A week later, you have another black out.” She hits the remote and another news segment appears. “Seven people killed at a warehouse. Their bodies mutilated.”

“Lena, why are you doing this?” Sam stumbles out of the bed. “You — you can’t— I get squeamish whenever Ruby asks me to kill a spider. Why — how — there’s no way I’d ever kill those people!”

Lena sighs. “I don’t think you did.”

“So what, I’m like you? Split personality now?” She snaps as she starts to pace. A weird energy tingles through her, and the area where the device is aches.

Lena takes a shuddering breath. “Sam, that’s —” She turns away and fiddles with her tablet. “Is that really what you think of us?” she asks quietly.

“No!” Sam put her head in her hands. “No, it’s not at all. I — I don’t know why I said that. You’re absolutely lovely. All of you.”

“Sure.” The flat tone to her voice hurts to hear.

“Lena, I mean it!” Sam drops onto the bed. “I’m not thinking straight. My body feels weird, and my head hurts, and — and I’m scared. Do — do you have dreams of dark forests with mists that whisper frightening things when you switch?”

Lena’s head shoots up, and she stares at Sam.”No, I don’t. I thought you said you don’t remember anything.”

“I don’t. But when — when I got angry at you at the office, I — I was briefly there, and, god, it sounds crazy, doesn’t it?”

“No, it doesn’t.” Lena picks up the tablet and types something into it. “That’s valuable information.”

“Do you know what’s wrong then?” Sam needs answers. Some sort of tangible goal, not this nebulous grey.

“I think Reign is possessing you,” Lena says, bluntly. “When she fronts, you lose all awareness. Your DNA essentially rewrites itself. None of my alters rewrite my DNA. Believe me, I tested myself to verify. It’s likely the Reign cultists targeted you, but what they used to cause this, I’m still researching.”

Sam stares at her, shocked.

“Please, Sam, understand, I wouldn’t tell you this if I wasn’t sure.” Lena’s words are sharp, firm, but her hands tremble, her eyes red-lined as if she’s been crying.

“This is ridiculous.” Sam starts to pace. Her body vibrates with energy, and she feels ill. Like her stomach’s acid eats through her intestines. Looking at the TV makes it worse. “I’m going home to Ruby.” She turns and walks straight into a wall. Startled, she stumbles backward. There’s nothing there.

She reaches out, tentatively, and her fingers bounce against an invisible field. “Lena, what the hell? Let me out!”

Lena shakes her head. Tears shine in her eyes. “I — I can’t. You asked me to help you. This is the only safe way.”

“No!” Sam slams her hand against the field. “Let me out, Lena. I want to see my daughter.”

“Until I find a cure, no.” Her voice shakes, but she holds her chin defiantly.

“So this is how it is?” She has the urge to lash out, to draw blood. Energy jolts through her, and her vision blurs further. Whispers of a fog curls around her mind and body. “Lena Luthor holds her best friend hostage —”

Lena breathes in sharply. “Sam, you asked me to help you.”

“I didn’t ask to be held in a cage!” Sam shoots back. “This was supposed to be just tests.”

Lena closes her eyes and turns away. Her shoulders shake, and her expression contorts. A sure sign she’s fighting against a switch. “I need to check on Ruby.” She takes the tablet and leaves.

The door clangs shut behind her. Silence envelops Sam, and with it, shadows plague her periphery. The light flickers. Fear swiftly replaces her frustration.

The TV still plays news segments. A desk with a monitor and keyboard sits under it. Distract. Must distract, otherwise the shadows creep closer, and the eerie sense of being watched looms larger.

She switches off the TV and settles in the chair. Clicking the start menu, she finds only generic games and a word processor. No internet connection and the clock is hidden. Meaning, she has no clue of the date or time.

Turning, she slams her fists against the forcefield, but it doesn’t budge. She grabs her chair and hits it against it again and again, but still nothing. It stays firmly there. Trapped.

A scream erupts from her throat, and she throws her body at the field, only to slide to the ground in a fit of panicked weeping. Claustrophobia claws through her, and she desperately wraps her arms around herself. Taps her shoulders again and again until the soft beat of her hands transforms the panic into a quiet, anxious simmer.

She thinks through all the years she’s known Lena, and nothing implies a trajectory to this situation. Her blackouts is the new data-point, which means, Lena doesn’t trust her as long as she has them.

Sam doesn't trust herself as long as they keep happening.

She rubs away her tears. Decides to focus on Aikido exercises to pass the time. Thinking about her situation only induces more panic, and she needs to try to stay calm for when Lena returns.

Hours pass. Or maybe minutes. Time flows unsteadily, the buzz of monitors her only sound. When her muscles tire, she plays solitaire and later a generic racing game. Finally, sleep slithers up her spine, and she manages a nap.

When she wakes, Lena sits at the desk again. This time a picture frame lays on the desk by her tablet. “Good morning,” she says with her boardroom voice, a carefully modulated and emotionless tone. “Have you thought about what I’ve told you?”

“Lena, please, don’t play games with me,” Sam pleads. Being alone messes with her mind, and she fears the silence. “Let me go home. I told you, if I killed people, I’d remember.”

Her fingers tap against the tablet. “Amnesiac episodes would not allow you to remember such things.”

“Then give me a better explanation than, ‘hey, you’re a supervillain in your spare time,’” Sam snaps. “Aren’t we family, Lena? Locking me up like this isn’t cool.” Frustration tingles through her limbs, and the urge to lash out bubbles through her. “I guess the saying is right,” she says.

“What saying?” Lena frowns.

“Ask an oncologist what's wrong, they'll say cancer. Ask a pulmonologist, they'll say asthma. Ask a Luthor…” The words freeze on her tongue. What is she saying?

No, no, she can't finish that thought.

Fury radiates from Lena’s eyes, her fists clenched, and her accent is nearly nonexistent. “They'll say Supervillain?” she finishes for Sam. “Maybe on some deep level you do know.” Her voice is cold, deadly almost, as the most unnerving alter of all comes to the front.

Sam shakes her head. “No, no, I didn't mean —”

“Let’s take a look, shall we? How about Morgan Edge, the bastard who tried to poison a city for profit.” Angry Lena walks back and forth by the edge of the forcefield, while her thumb punches the remote.

The television turns on behind Sam to a news segment of the attack on Morgan Edge.

“What I wouldn’t give to see how that played out.” The sneer on Lena's face looks foreign.

Sam scrambles to her feet and backs away, only to hit the other side of the forcefield. “What — what — no.”

“Or what about Supergirl? What did it feel like to connect your fist with something that solid? That powerful?” Another news segment appeared on the screen, where Supergirl falls motionless from a great height. “Or those men?” A third one flashes into view that depicts entrails and mangled bodies. “You tore those men apart. Ripped their limbs from their bodies.” The fury in her voice accents each verb with deadly accuracy. “Did you delight in their deaths?” Angry Lena steps closer, her stormy eyes boring into Sam.

“No!” Sam clenches her fists. Her whole body vibrates, and she feels like she’s about to explode. “Stop this! I just want to go home to my daughter!”

“As if I’d let you near Ruby again,” Angry Lena snarls. “How did it feel living in that house with her day in and day out? When you could easily snap her in half with your bare hands?”

“Stop this!” The energy rattles through her bones, rises up toward her head, and she feels frantic. Something terrible looms, and she can’t stop it.

When Angry Lena speaks again, Sam fails to comprehend. Her words trigger a flare of pain that rips through Sam’s body, catapults her mind into a frigid, grey fog.

Her feet slide on rocky soil.

Branches creak but there is no wind.

Shadows coil in her periphery, whispers caress her ears. Let go. Let go.

Misty hands brush against her ankles. She kicks them away and staggers backward, only for her hand to hit something soft and moist. She screams and jolts her hand away. Her feet slip on the gravelly soil, and she tumbles into a ravine. She curls up with her hands above her head and whimpers.

“Four, eight, twelve,” she counts, just like she did many times with Lena, “sixteen, twenty...”

The coldness abates, the fog fades, and light warms her eyelids. Pain burns through her body. She gasps and opens her eyes to find herself flat on her back.

Around her, the bed has been torn in half. The desk shredded. The monitor is ripped apart, and the television swings back and forth on its cords. A video plays. She watches the last bit of Angry Lena's cruel words, then the monstrous change ripples through Sam's body.

Not-Sam unleashes heat vision and tears apart the room with her bare hands.

Terror freezes her, her eyes wide. Metal snaps off the bed and hurls at the force field. It shimmers brightly. Lena ducks behind her desk in the video, and that sours Sam's mouth with bile.

She leaps forward to stab at the TV’s buttons in desperation. “Turn it off, turn it off!”

The television goes silent.

“We — we needed you to see it for yourself.” Lena’s voice whispers, pain in her voice. “And we didn’t know how else to do it. You — you weren’t listening. I’m sorry, Sam.”

“All those people…” Sam crumples and breaks into tears. Her hands are coated in blood. How can she ever face her daughter again?

The forcefield flickers and drops on one side, while Lena springs to her side. “Sam, Sam, it wasn’t your fault.” She wraps her arms tightly around her shoulders and presses her forehead against Sam's. “You weren’t in control. When Reign fronted, I got samples of her DNA, okay? And knowledge is power. We’re going to get you through this, okay?”

Sobs cascade through her body. She doesn’t know for how long she cries, but Lena rocks her gently. Kisses her temple, and strokes her hair.

Her voice changes to the thicker Irish brogue of Kieran. “It’s okay, luv. It’s okay. You’re not alone in this. We understand. We can cure this. Lena has a plan, and I’m sorry we spoke so harshly. It won’t ever happen again.”

Sam clings to such frail hope. Slowly, her sobs slow. She shivers and pulls back. “Kieran, you — you can’t be in here with me then. Not — not if I could turn into Reign.”

Kieran brushes hair from Sam’s face and cups her cheek, her eyes a turquoise color instead of Lena's usual emerald. “We know the risk.” She pulls out a phone and gently places it in Sam’s hands. “Call your daughter. We’ll clean up.” She kisses Sam on the forehead, and stands with a sad smile.

The affection in Kieran's voice takes the breath from Sam. For a moment, she stares up at her best friend, the part that has stayed fiercely loyal to Sam, and always touches her with such reverence.

Kieran doesn’t just love her as a friend, but perhaps more than one.

But Sam can never act on this realization, not with her complex roles in Lena’s life — Lena’s best friend, this nebulous more than friends with Kieran, the almost motherly role for Rory, and the grounding role for Angry Lena.

Her current state mars her roles, darkens her impact, threatens to sever their connection. The hurtful words they hurled at each other fade to a dull ache. Instead, Sam holds back a sob of grief. Her roles in Lena's and Ruby's lives define her.

Without them, who is she? How can she be useful to anyone?

She looks down at the phone and sags against the wall.

Kieran pushes out the shattered bed and desk. Sweeps away the glass and metal. A new bed she rolls into the enclosure.

As she works, Sam unlocks her phone and stares at the number for Ruby’s emergency phone. What does she even say? Grief lances through her, her heart charred by the horrors.

Her best friend finishes and pauses at Sam’s side. “Call,” she says, quietly. “You need to hear her voice as much as she needs yours.” The thicker accent is gone, and Lena’s deep emerald eyes meet Sam’s. She reaches out to gently trail her fingers along Sam’s right temple. “I’ll be just outside the enclosure, okay?”

Sam nods. She waits until the hum of the forcefield activates before she finally speaks. “I’m sorry,” she whispers. “I shouldn’t have said what I did earlier.”

“It’s okay, Sam. We’re sorry too.” Lena sits down on the other side, her tablet on the ground next to her. “We understand how scary this is. But a cure is possible. Whatever the cultists did, we can undo, okay?”

Sam shudders and tries to believe Lena, but her hope is fragile. Her mind keeps spinning back to the news segments, to the deaths by her hands — even if she wasn’t the one fronting. Images of entrails clog her thoughts.

No. Think of anything else. She takes a shaky breath and lets it out slowly. Thinks instead of the softness of Lena's hands against her face.

And the smile of her daughter as she eagerly shares a story from school.

Precious grounding moments.

She finally hits the dial button.

“Mom?” Ruby's voice shakes at first but then steadies. “Is it you?”

“Hey Rubes, it’s me. I wanted to check in on you.” She doesn’t dare tell her where she really is. In case it puts her in danger.

“Mom, are you okay? Is Aunt Lena with you?”

“Yes, she is. And the truth is, I am sick, so I have to stay in the hospital for a little while longer. But I don’t want you to worry about me.”

“Can I come see you? I miss you.”

“Oh baby, I miss you too.” The tears flow harder, and she chokes back a sob. “But you can’t. It may be contagious, and I can’t risk you. Aunt Lena will be by to check on you, okay? And I’ll be home as soon as I’m better.”

It feels so futile. So banal of a promise. She can’t bring herself to lie further.

“But Mom, can't I just put on one of Lena's special hazmat suits? I'll be good!” Tears mangle part of her words, but Sam understands.

“No, you need to do what Aunt Lena says is best. She's good at what she does, okay? She's helping me too. I promise you, we'll get through this, okay?”

Ruby's sobs echo in Sam's ears. “Mom… I love you, okay? And maybe we can do a video call instead?”

No. No, she can't let Ruby see her in this state. “We'll see. I love you, Rubes. Love you so much. Be good for your Aunt Lena.” She hangs up before Ruby can say another word.

Lena speaks then. “Don’t worry about Ruby. I’ll take her to —”

“Don’t tell me where she is,” Sam interjects with a strangled sob. She looks up to see Lena fighting tears too. “Not until I’m cured.”

Lena nods as a few tears escape. That Sam can’t bear. To be the cause of it? She hides her face against her knees and curls up against the wall. Sobs broil down her body.

Behind her, Kieran’s Irish brogue sings a haunting tune that wraps around Sam, soothes her pain, until her sobs fade to ragged breathing and counting in multiples of four.

The next few weeks is torturous. Sam's hold on reality untethers as her sense of time and space evaporates into a haze of pain and fear. A war of fluorescent lights versus seething grey fog. They learn that the place Sam's mind goes is an alternate dimension related to the possession.

Waking from that dimension leaves Sam in a cold sweat. She leans against the forcefield with Lena leaning against the otherside. "How do you deal with this daily?" Sam wipes away her tears. "I — I don't know how to move forward. Not with — with that monster inside me."

"Acceptance of the truth is the first step," Lena admits. "I always had Kieran. They wrote in our shared journal and signed the entries. But to learn of new alters? Practice acceptance. You're already good at it."

"How can I accept that a blood-thirsty killer is inside me?" Sam whispers. "I never want to hurt anyone."

"It's not about accepting their actions, Sam. It's about accepting that they exist. You don't have to nor should you accept what they do." Lena shifts to press her hand against the forcefield. "Look at me, hun."

Sam turns and meets Lena's green eyes.

"My alters are me," she says, quietly. "We may have split into separate parts, each of unique in a way, but they are still me. But Reign is not you. Reign was forced on you. Accept she exists, but resist her control. This is your body."

"How do I do that?" Sam presses her hand over Lena's, the forcefield separating them from feeling the other's touch.

"You do it with me often. Ground oneself in the present. For you, ground yourself in your body. In your senses." Lena taps her ears and above her eyes. "It may feel like a fight, but you are strong." She taps her leg and tilts her head, her accent still the light one of Lena. "Since you go to that other dimension, try focusing on your body and how it feels. Imagine each sense, the height and weight, and clothes. Imagination is a powerful tool."

Sam ponders Lena's advice and wonders if she can pull it off while terrified out of her mind. Maybe if she practiced enough? "Can we go through this as an exercise? To practice?"

Lena smiles, faintly. "Sure."

They spend the next two hours practicing, and make it part of their daily activities. Each practice session, Sam feels a little stronger, more like she might actually be able to pull it off if she gets trapped in the other realm.

A week later, Lena attempts to capture data during Sam's times in the alternate dimension. One day she accidentally causes both Sam and Reign to manifest in that terrifying forest.

Branches curl toward her, and whispers coil around her. Shivering, she turns and freezes. An exact copy of herself stands a few feet away, clad in black, except her eyes are red. They shine in the dark fog.

She dives behind a tree.

“Sam, do you truly think you can resist me?” the words slide off the other's tongue like poisoned honey.

One second Reign is several trees away, and the next she's at Sam's side. Her hands reach for Sam's shoulder.

Sam throws herself backward. “Don't touch me.” She strives for bravado. Grabbing a stick, she swings it desperately.

Reign stalks her, moving unnaturally fast. One moment on Sam's left, the next on her right. Fog billows around her like monstrous wings, and the air charged with sparks of black lightning. Trees creak despite no wind. The cold leeches away Sam's energy.

Stay focused. Sam adapts her breathing to her Aikido training, her stance to a loose defensive one. This time her swing hits Reign in the chest.

Reign snaps the branch like a twig, and darts forward to snag Sam's throat. She's slammed against a tree. Red eyes bore into her. Whispers from the broiling fog chant, let go, let go.

No! She can’t leave Ruby. Or Lena.

She knees Reign in the stomach. The grip loosens enough for her to twist and perform a throw. Gasping in air, she stumbles backward. Her body — she needs to imagine what her body feels like. As she runs from Reign, who is staggering to her feet still, she pictures how her legs feel while running in the real world. How her muscles pump, how the fabric of her clothes rub against her skin, the way her hair falls across her neck and back, and the sweat that dampens her hair's roots.

She trips and falls through the ground and into the soft blankets of the medical bed. She's back in the forcefield room, far from Reign. Sam weeps and curls up, the fire in her veins pulses from the device on her shoulder. “No, no, don't do that again, Lena.”

“What happened?” Lena presses her hand against the forcefield, but she doesn't lower it or come closer.

“I was there with Reign.” Sam shudders. “God, that monster. You got to stop her, Lena. Please.”

“Oh crap.” Lena drops her hand to her side. “I — I got a sample of the enzyme causing the change just now. While you were passed out. I think I can synthesize a cure from it.”

Sam clings to the first good news in weeks. But like all good things, the very next day, the world erupts into chaos.

Two aliens rip apart concrete and metal and break into Lena’s lab. Seconds later, Supergirl and three others teleport into the room in a flash of red light. In the ensuing fight, Sam loses control.

She crashes into the nightmare realm. Mists seethe over her, and this time she can’t find her way back to her own body. Claw-like branches leer over her, whispers to let go tug at her ears, and the ground heaves like it breathes.

Desperate, she stumbles to her feet. Faces form in the mists and dive at her. She ducks and runs.

She trips over something soft. Turning, she gasps and jerks her leg off the body. A Korean woman lies there, her face locked in a silent scream.

Sam gasps and scrambles backward. Slipping, she tumbles down a ravine and into a cavern. Flickering blue light shimmers in its depths. One hand against the wall, she stumbles forward.

Turning a corner, she stops in shock. Black woman carves words into the sandstone rock. Names, places, but other words make no sense. Over and over, she carves and mutters incoherently.

"Hello?" Sam tries, but the woman doesn't respond. She only carves and shivers.

That’s when Sam sees firsthand how this realm eats away memories. Tears down the mind, until there is nothing left but to die.

She doesn’t know how long she’s there. But soon the whispers and growing pain starts to eat into her too. Her mind grows foggy, her memories slither away like oil.

She keeps the other woman company but struggles to remember why. Finds her own sharp rock and carves her name, Ruby's, and Lena’s along with anything else she can remember.

Faces form in the mists, and whispers slither like hands across her shoulders. She shivers and carves until her hands and arms ache.

The woman coughs, shakes, and freezes with glassy eyes. Sam watches in horror as the woman ceases to breath and tips over as if frozen solid. Mists coil over the body, faces form in the shadows, and mist hands sweep over the body.

Horror spikes, and Sam scrambles deeper into the cave. Near bubbling pools, one clear and one muddy. The walls of the cave close in on her.

Sobbing, she carves the names over and over. Figures coalesce, familiar until their faces twist into snarls, their eyes empty sockets. She huddles closer to the rock wall, ducks her head, and digs her rock deeper into the sandstone.

Her nails start to bleed, her palm raw. Still she carves.

A voice calls out her name. An almost familiar one. “Sam?”

She keeps carving. It’s another phantom. Another to distract her from her task.

“Sam. Sam, it’s me.” Gentle hands turn her face.

She looks into emerald eyes. “No — not real…” She tries to tug free, but this one is solid unlike the others. Fear curdles through her. She’s too weak too fight. Now they’ll kill her like the others.

“Sam, please, I really am here.” The green-eyed lady strokes her cheek in a familiar, almost calming way. “Count with me, okay? Four, eight, twelve, sixteen…”

“Twenty, twenty-four, twenty-eight…” Sam murmurs. Slowly, a memory surfaces of her doing exactly this with someone she loves. The name peels back. “Lena. You’re Lena.”

“Yes.” Lena embraces her. “Yes, it’s me.”

“But you — you’re not real.” Sam clings to her and a sob clogs her throat.

“I am. I really am.” Lena cards her fingers through Sam’s hair. “Supergirl and her friends helped me reach this place. She’s here with me, see?” She turns to look back, her arm still tight around Sam’s shoulders.

Two people stand behind Lena. One in a red cape with a red and blue suit. The other dressed in black with red hair cut short. Both familiar but the names escape Sam.

“Hey Sam,” the red-head says. “Remember me? We hang out a lot with your daughter. Gone clubbing a few times. You can drink me under the table.”

“Alex.” More names and memories bubble through the fog. “Supergirl?” She looks at the caped hero.

“Yeah, it’s me.” Supergirl smiles sadly. “Lena found a way to help you, but we need to find Reign first. We got to capture her. Go back to your body and signal us.”

“I — I don’t know how.”

“Hun, you do,” Lena says fiercely. “Just like you’ve always done for me when I’m lost in the fog.”

“Fog…” Sam struggles to remember, but the memories dance just out of reach. “What — what did I do for you?”

Lena breathes in sharply. She gently brushes Sam’s hair from her face. “I’ll teach you like you taught me. Count and breathe with me. Feel your body, use all of your senses.” She resumes counting. “Thirty-two, thirty-six, forty…”

Sam closes her eyes and leans her forehead against Lena’s shoulder. “Forty-four, forty-eight, fifty-two…” The multiples of four ground her, centers her breaths, and she feels a faint tug in her mind. She smells the air, feels Lena's touch against her skin, the weight of clothes on her body. As she continues to count with Lena, that tug grows stronger until it broils over.

She breaths in sharply and finds herself in a large cavern. On either side of her, two woman clad in a grey and black suit similar to her own chant in an unfamiliar language. Beyond them stands two people dressed in black robes with hoods, but they stand silent, eyes closed.

Energy seethes from the Reign-like women’s hands and her own. More sparks fly into the well in the center of the room. To her horror, with each pulse, the well burrows deeper, the bottom almost out of sight.

Quakes shimmer outward from the well, but the energy roots them. Meanwhile, the cavern itself shakes at each pulse, and a few stones fall near the hooded figures. Behind her, she sees a control panel with a blue crystal glowing in the center of it.

A memory surges through the simmering fog in her mind. That’s the same crystal she’d found when she went to speak to her adopted mother. It came from a pod in her mother's garage. Attackers had descended on them like rabid coyotes. She'd defended her mother, until a song ensnared her with pain. A dark fog blinded all her senses. She’d been trapped in a shroud of whispers, until she woke the next day in her bed at home.

Fury ignites. Lena is right yet again. Cultists did something, and it relates to that damn crystal.

It takes all of her strength to jerk herself out of the energy circle. Sparks sear across her skin.

She throws herself at the control panel, just as the two hooded figures call out in anger. She tugs it free. The energy currents flicker and go dark. She smashes the crystal against the console.

Howls of fury screech behind her. She’s ripped away from the panel, thrown across the cavern, and slams into stone. She stumbles to her feet, angry and desperate to stay in control.

The other two aliens attack, and she blocks their punches. Falls into her defensive stance. Throws one with a breath throw, and the other she dodges. Beyond them, the hooded figures start to chant, a harsh discordant melody. Black fog rises from the ground.

Sam knows she’s running out of time, but if she’s to get the signal out, she has to take out these assholes first.

She blocks their punches and tosses one of the Reign-like woman into the console. Strength beyond what she's ever felt burns through her, and she rips apart a rock to slam into the first Reign-like woman. She slumps against the broken console.

The second one catches her by surprise and slams a fist into her head. Sam stumbles, only to get another punch in the gut. She gasps and falls to her knees.

Dark fog curls around her legs.

But her body is still in the transformed state. She lets out a roar and ignites the heat vision. It slices through the cavern’s roof, burning through to the sky above.

The other Reign-like being punches her, and she skids across the ground. Her heat vision sputters to a stop. Another kick spends her spinning, and she lands far too close to the hooded figures. The dark fog coils around her, suffocates her breath, but dammit, if she’s going out, then she’s taking them with her.

She hurls herself into the hooded figures. One raises a hand, and she bounces against a shield.

Their feet still connect with the earth though. She digs her fingers deep and tugs upward with all her strength. The ground splits and the hooded figures shout. One tumbles into the pit, and the other snags a rock, holding on for dear life.

A chant sounds behind her. The remaining Reign-like asshole and sings a grating melody that bleeds into Sam's consciousness, like a worms burrowing into her flesh.

She can feel her consciousness start to slip away. She’s running out of time.

Desperate, she gathers the last vestiges of her will and rips up the ground and hurls it into the pit. The remaining figure falls screaming. Energy shoots upward, and the cavern shakes. Rocks slam down atop her. Her vision blackens.

She tumbles through the earth and hits the misty cavern of the nightmare realm. But no one is there. Lena and the others are gone. Shadows leer, lights flicker like sparks, and the pools behind her broil with wisps of light.

Terror threatens, but Sam grabs a rock and slams it against the sandstone. Ruby needs her. Lena needs her. She must hold tight to hope. Let it fuel her and burn away the memory-consuming fog.

She resumes her carving, and hours — days? — later violet energy sears into the ground around her. Pain rockets through her, and she screams in agony. Her cells rip and reform.

She’s thrown backward, through the earth, and slams into cold tile. There she shudders against the ground, spent.

“Sam?” Lena’s sweet voice, the one with the wisp of an accent, breaks through her exhaustion.

A warm blanket falls across her body. Sam blinks upward to see Lena holding a beaker stained with a black liquid. Relief surges at the sight of her beautiful face and emerald eyes.

“Do — do you have some Tylenol?” Sam manages a faint smile.

Lena drops to her side in relief, the beaker falls, and rolls under a half destroyed table. All around her lies the remains of a wrecked laboratory, and there, seated crosslegged near them is a cape-less Supergirl. She sights Alex and two others she doesn’t recognize sorting through the rubble.

“Sam.” Lena wraps her arms around her. Her warmth a balm to the cold that still clings to her from the nightmare realm. “God, I’m so glad you’re back.”

“You did it then?” She feels weak, shaky, but whole. Like a massive weight been lifted from her shoulders. “Destroyed Reign?”

“Obliterated her to dust,” Supergirl says, softly. “All thanks to Lena’s genius and a fancy, magical rock that hurt like hell to touch.”

“We couldn’t have done it without you, Sam,” Lena protests. “That signal you sent worked.”

“You stopped the cultists too,” Supergirl says, proudly. “Found them unconscious in that energy well. And you knocked out Reign. Made capturing her easy.”

“She did get feisty during the administering of the antidote,” Lena adds. She smiles tentatively, but her eyes still shine with a deep worry and sadness. “but we handled it.”

The tears in Lena’s eyes hurt to see. To know that Sam — even if it was some creepy alien possession using her body — caused that hurt? How much did it hurt her daughter too? How will they recover?

She wants to go home and hug Ruby, to reassure her that she’s back for good this time. To return to being just a CFO for Lena’s company. Back to her singleton self — as Lena often calls her.

But first, she wants to wipe away that worry from her best friend’s face.

“What can I say?” Sam jokes. “I just got that killing punch.” Her joke falls flat, and she ends up in tears instead. Who is she kidding? She can’t ever go back to the way things were after this. Her hands are stained now, even if it was another entity that used them for evil.

Lena holds her, gently rocking her. “Let it out, Sam. You’re safe now.”

“I’m so sorry,” Sam whispers. She clings to Lena and huddles under the warmth of the red cape. “All this horror? All those people dead?”

“Hey, that wasn’t you.” Lena strokes her hair. “Don’t take on the crimes of another.”

“She’s right,” Supergirl says, gently. “Reign was forced onto you against your will. You are a victim. A survivor in this. And in time, you will heal. Take it in steps.”

Sam takes a shuddering breath. Those words are ones she’s often said to Lena. What had once been abstract prior, now blossoms into a deep understanding. Lena may not be trapped in a nightmare realm when other alters front, but the pain and fear that amnesiac moments cause? Sam understands now.

And now she can do better. For herself, Lena, and Ruby. To find a new path forward.

[friendlyneighborhoodplebeian]

There is no way that Supers are built like that in the eyes of Kryptonians. As humans to get stronger we need to work out, working out causes micro-tears in muscles that heal stronger that causes us to bulk up. But Supers are aliens, they are specifically aliens that are much stronger than humans naturally without working out, the Supers living on Earth have never encountered something that would be super difficult to lift that often meaning their muscles never experienced physical strain often enough to cause the micro-tears that lead to bulk. Meaning that Supers shouldn’t be built like that, they have never worked out a day in their lives, so if they were to meet a Kryptonian that did work out it would be comparing a babies bulk to a body builder’s. Is this a long winded way to say that I think that the Supers are actually as strong as an average Kryptonian and actually don’t have super strength comparatively to their alien race? Yes it is.

[juridical-angel-blog]

Fantastic Four & Superman ''Special Crossover''!

[ruzzsta214]

Chapters: 8/? Fandom: Supergirl (TV 2015) Rating: Explicit Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor, Alex Danvers/Maggie Sawyer Characters: Kara Danvers, Lena Luthor, Andrea Rojas, Samantha "Sam" Arias, Alex Danvers, Maggie Sawyer, Veronica Sinclair (DCU), Lillian Luthor, Lionel Luthor, Eliza Danvers, Ruby Arias Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Human/Vampire Relationship, Kid Fic, Fluff, Smut, Human Kara Danvers, Vampire Lena Luthor, Lillian and Lionel are Lena's bio Parents, Tags may be changed or added, Alex Can Be A Little Overprotective Of Kara Summary:

In the shadows of National City, the Luthors, a family of vampires, are on the brink of a new era. With the death of their son, Lex, many moons ago at the hands of a vampire hunter that is set on exterminating them and every single vampire from the face of the earth, Lillian and Lionel seek to unite the worlds of vampire and human by having their only daughter Lena, who was born a vampire rather than have been bitten and turned which was never heard of in the vampire world, produce an heir with a human partner to show that they can co-exist together in order to save their lineage.

Enter Kara Danvers, a compassionate and determined human who unknowingly stumbles into Lena’s life by accident. Unaware of Lena's true nature as a vampire, Kara must navigate the complexities of their relationship when she finds out what Lena truly is while grappling with the knowledge that their union would change the course of history.

There’s only one problem… They haven’t told the elders of the coven their plans yet.

[chaotic-super]

For Her Sake - Chapter 18

AO3 link

“Hello, hello.” Lena greets the small group at her door and waves them inside. Winn, Alex, Kara and Lori all pile into her apartment and are ushered into the living room where Sam and Ruby are already waiting in front of a stack of board games, the pair lounging back into the oversized couch.

Kara moves in first, pulling Sam up and into a hug as though she hasn’t just spent several days with her. “Hey, you.”

“Ugh, so clingy.” Sam teases but hugs her back. “Kara, this is my daughter Ruby.” She gestures to the teenager on the couch, now waving up at her but her eyes darting down to her phone every couple of seconds. 

Kara smiles at her. “Hey, Ruby. I’m Kara.” Then she opens her arms towards Lori, who is hiding behind Lena’s legs and looking at the strangers with apprehension. Seeing her mom waiting for her, Lori darts into her arms and wraps her hands around the back of Kara’s neck as she’s picked up. “This is Lori.”

Kara turns her body, and subsequently, Lori’s towards the pair of them but Lori isn’t a big fan of that and tucks her head into her mom’s neck to hide from them.

“It’s ok, baby. They’re friends.” Kara soothes, a hand running up and down her back. Lori isn’t swayed though and keeps herself buried in the safety of her mother’s arms.

Lena takes a couple of steps closer to the pair and sets a gentle hand on the back of Lori’s shoulder. She flinches at the unexpected touch and her eyes fly up to see who is touching her but she relaxes again when she sees that it’s just Lena and reaches her arms out for her.

There’s an easy transition between Kara holding Lori and Lena holding her but either way, as soon as Lori is in her arms, her little head is tucked into the crook of Lena’s neck. “You’re ok. You don’t have to speak to them, let’s just sit down and get started on some games, huh?”

The feeling of Lori’s head nodding against her tickles and Lena smiles, taking up a seat on the couch on the opposite end to Sam and Ruby so Lori can get used to them in her own time. Lori sits on her lap sideways, her head still pressed tightly against her except on her chest this time.

Kara goes to sit down beside her but hesitates and instead pulls her jacket off and puts it beside her, saving her seat. “I’m going to grab some drinks, want one?”

Lena nods. “I have one on the counter, I forgot to bring it over, if you could grab that for me, that would be great. Oh, and there’s some chocolate milk in the refrigerator, I thought a certain someone might like a glass.”

Lori’s head shoots completely up at that point and she smiles. Lena can’t help but find it absolutely adorable when she sees a little gap where one of her teeth has fallen out. “I want chocolate milk!”

“You do? Are you sure?” Lena teases.

“Yes!” She turns her head to Kara. “Please, Mommy, can I?”

Kara shakes her head at the pair. “I suppose one glass won’t hurt, will it?”

Lori’s head shakes back and forth rapidly. “No, it won’t hurt.” She repeats.

With that adorable exchange underway, Kara heads to the kitchen where Alex and Winn are pouring their own drinks. “Hey, get in there and socialize, you antisocial freaks.” Kara pushes them out of her way.

“Now that’s just rude.” Winn pouts, already heading to the living room. Alex doesn’t leave so easily though.

Kara tries to open the refrigerator but can’t because Alex pushes her hand against it, keeping it closed. If she really wants to, Kara can probably force it open but Lena’s fridge probably costs more than everything she owns so she’s not going to try it in case she breaks it, it’s just not worth the risk. “Can I help you?”

“I’m not sure, can you?”

Kara frowns, “What does that even mean?”

Alex shrugs, “I don’t know but you’re hiding something and you need to spill the beans before I beat them out of you.”

“Why are you acting like you’re a dealer I owe money to?”

“I’m asking the questions here,” Alex points a finger in Kara’s face.  “You’re acting weird and you’re going to tell me why. Got it?”

Kara tilts her head up to the ceiling, her hands finding her hips and a sigh burst forth from her lips. “I’m not acting weird, I’m just a little nervous for you guys to meet my new boss. Is that a good enough excuse for you?”

Alex’s eyes narrow. “So you admit that it’s an excuse?”

“Shove off and go mingle. I’m trying to get drinks before we all die of dehydration because you want to interrogate me.”

“I’m not letting this go,” Alex informs her, completely serious. “I know you and I can see that something is off with you, it’s written all over your face.”

Kara lowers her voice, her teeth gritting as she speaks. “I’ll talk to you at home. We’re not doing this here now go in there, you’re embarrassing me in front of my boss.”

Alex doesn’t look satisfied with the answer but her eyes dart to the couch where the others are trying and failing to sneakily look at them and she realizes that she is drawing attention to them. “Fine but we are going to talk about this.”

“Whatever, just go already.” Kara pushes her and Alex actually goes this time, plastering a smile on her face as she goes and turns on the Danvers charm that has never failed her before.

With the sister-shaped blockade out of the way, Kara can finally get the chocolate milk Lori is impatiently waiting for, her bright blue eyes watching her mom over Lena’s shoulder to see if she’s almost done.

As her hand grips the handle to open the fridge, Kara’s eyes fall on the litany of pictures hanging on the fridge, all with boring silver magnets that decidedly clash with the messy drawings of a four-year-old. It’s cute and Kara wasn’t fully expecting Lena to have been telling the truth about having them on display here before but she can see now that she was in fact telling the truth.

She gives herself a moment to take it in. It gives her a strange feeling, the knowledge that Lena loves her daughter enough to have her pictures up on display in her apartment, a place that is sleek and fancy. It doesn’t fit but Lena doesn’t care because she made a promise to Lori and so she’s keeping it. That’s someone she needs in her daughter’s life and she can’t believe how this person came into her life.

Had the plan worked, Lena’s life could have been ruined because who is she kidding, even she’s not naïve enough to truly believe that Lena wouldn’t have been hurt by that. She tried to convince herself before that there would be no real victims to what was planned but she can’t keep lying to herself, she knows that it wouldn’t have been anywhere close to an innocent, victimless plot. It would have at the very least traumatized her and yet here she is calming her daughter down and buying her chocolate milk.

With a shake of her head, Kara pushes those thoughts aside. Lena has forgiven her. She might not have forgiven herself, but Lena’s forgiveness makes her hate herself a little less.

Kara hurries up and gets the drinks done because by now, Lori is squirming in Lena’s lap because she’s so impatient and Lena’s soothing hand running up and down her spine isn’t doing anything to soothe her anymore.

Lena smiles at Kara when she hands her the drink she left on the counter earlier and Lori grabs the chocolate milk from her, her eyes brighter than usual from the excitement of finally having it.

“Thank you, Kara,” Lena says and shuffles over a little when Kara lifts her jacket and sits beside her so she has a little more space.

Kara smiles back at her and takes a sip from her glass.

Alex snorts at her from the other side of her. “Are you drinking chocolate milk, Kara?”

“Yeah,” Kara answers back, not ashamed. “Why?”

“You’re such a weirdo.”

“And it’s taken you until now to notice?” Kara’s eyebrows scrunch. A cluster of chuckles from everyone else in the room fills the air and Sam is looking at them strangely, her hand covering her mouth to hide her smile. “What are you laughing at, Samantha?”

Sam holds up a hand. “Ok so first off, call me that again and I’ll fire you and secondly, you’re the world’s biggest dork.”

A sarcastic grin covers her face. “Oh really? Do I get a T-shirt for that?”

Lena cuts in before Sam can talk. “Ok, ok, let’s not continue this and get onto the games before you people give me an aneurism.”

-

The games are getting competitive and it’s getting frighteningly aggressive as everyone yells at each other. It turns out that while Monopoly is fun, it becomes less fun when a bunch of people are passionate about winning and argue about who owes who which properties.

Lori is playing in a team with Alex because she’s a little devil whose competitive side rivals her aunts so they make a good team. She’s warmed up to Sam and Ruby enough that she’s not hiding from them now and is willing to exchange a few words with them but she’s keeping her distance from them.

It’s really showing Lena that Kara wasn’t telling her a lie when she told her that Lori is shy and it was a shock she warmed up to her so quickly but she managed it much easier than Sam is and a part of her wants to rub that in her face because it’s always felt like Sam has herself together much more than she does so this is something she finally has over on her but at the risk of sounding petty in front of everyone, she keeps her mouth shut. She’s totally going to say something tomorrow when Sam will definitely call her to gossip about the night though, she can’t hold it in forever.

Kara went out of the game early on, not really trying all that hard because she was too busy overseeing Alex to ensure she was being nice to Sam and doesn’t ruin her reputation with her boss. She’s actually having the opposite problem now though because Alex is being on her best behaviour and that can only mean one thing; Alex is flirting with her boss. She supposes this is payback for having a crush on Alex’s boss.

Lena goes bankrupt and huffs, moving from where she was kneeling beside the coffee table to sit back down on the couch beside Kara. “This game sucks.”

“I second that.” Kara huffs with her. “I swear I used to actually be good at it at some point in my life.”

“Well, I can’t say the same. I never really played board games growing up. They had a few at boarding school but playing them was a very quick way to becoming known as a nerd so I only ever made the mistake of trying them out once and never did it again.”

Kara is slouched down on the couch and is sat at quite the unattractive angle but she doesn’t even process it, just leans her head back against the cushion of the couch and tilts her head towards Lena. “But you are a nerd.”

“Rude,” Lena says, no bite to the word. “I might have been a nerd but school definitely wasn’t my main focus when I was at boarding school.”

“Then what was?”

“It was an all-girls school and I was a queer teenager trying to find myself, I’m sure you can figure out how I found myself there.”

Kara’s eyebrows furrow in confusion, her eyes searching Lena’s face for answers for a moment until the penny finally drops. “Oh.”

“Yep.”

“Well, that’s understandable. School is pretty much when everyone does their experimenting. Mine was college.”

Lena’s eyebrow raises. “Do tell.”

A blush covers Kara’s cheeks. She wasn’t planning on mentioning that, it’s not something she ever talks about and even Alex doesn’t know a lot about her time in college, mostly because it’s weird talking to her sister about that stuff but also because it’s something that deeply personal to her at the time and it was a time when she was trying to define herself without any outside influences.

“It’s probably not as interesting as yours, I wasn’t at an all-girls college or anything. My roommate liked to bring around groups of her friends and they would get drunk in our dorm so from time to time I’d end up joining in since they were making so much noise I couldn’t study. Drunk me has less trouble flirting with pretty girls than sober me. Sober me just ends up tripping over her words and making a fool of myself.”

“I suppose it helped that you were already in your dorm, the bed was close.” Lena nudges her shoulder with her own. “I used to have to sneak down behind the bicycle sheds because my dormmate was a snitch and I didn’t want my parents to find out.”

“If it makes you feel better, my roommate ended up yelling at me on three separate occasions for sleeping with her friends and they stopped coming around to the dorm because she refused to risk me being around them anymore.”

Lena openly laughs at her then, her lips curled up into the sweetest of smiles. “Your roommate thought you were enough of a stud that you were going to make your way through all of her friends.”

“I only slept with two of them and they were a group of like…seven, or something. I slept with one twice. I tried asking her out after the second time but that was sober me so I think my stuttering put her off. It kind of knocked my confidence so I just went with the easier option. Men.”

“Ew.”

“Tell me about it. I got the best thing from sticking to guys for a while though. Besides, while I figured out my bisexuality, I never truly embraced the lady-loving side of myself, I accepted it was there but I pushed it aside and figured I’d just never be with a woman again after that.”

A hand falls onto Kara’s arm, Lena’s thumb running across her skin soothingly. “How come?”

Kara sucks in a deep breath to buy her time to think. “I guess…I think I just always struggled to fit in to the point where I thought that acknowledging myself in that way would undo all of the work I’d put in to be what I deemed to be an acceptable human being. I didn’t want to stand out in a heteronormative society.”

“Now that sucks,” Lena responds simply.

“Yes, it does.”

Lena looks down at her hand, still on Kara’s arm, and keeps up the motion with her thumb since Kara isn’t pushing her off. “Do you still feel like that?”

“Like I have to be with a man to fit into a society that is going to shit on me no matter what I do anyway?”

“Hm.” Lena hums her assent.

“No, not anymore,” Kara admits and then regrets it when her answer garners a tiny smile from Lena. God, she’s leading her on and she still needs to find a way to talk to her alone and address the relationship they’ve been sliding into because she needs to hit the brakes. She can’t do this now. “I’m going to grab another drink.”

The couch beside Lena is empty before she can process what just happened, one second they are having a moment and talking honestly with each other and then the next Kara is retreating. The joy she feels about Kara admitting being open to dating a woman is quickly overtaken by worry as Kara runs away. Maybe she’s not as ok with it as she says, or maybe she’s just overwhelmed with the topic and should drop it.

Lena follows her.

She’s not going to push her but she is going to check on her so she makes her way to the kitchen, stopping to throw a look over her shoulder to make sure that the others are all still occupied, which they are and they are arguing now so they are definitely not paying attention to the pair of them.

Lena comes up behind Kara and rests a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, are you ok?”

“I’m fine,” Kara answers quickly and with absolutely no chill.

“And that’s a very obvious lie. Kara, what’s wrong?” Lena implores her to open up.

Kara shakes her head. “Can we…not here, Lena. Can we speak somewhere else?” Her words come out in a rush and a little scrambled but the message still comes across loud and clear.

“I don’t think any of them will notice if we slip away for a few minutes.” Lena offers. “Come on, we can go and talk in my bedroom.”

Kara casts a nervous glance at the group and determines that Lena’s right. They are all too focused on the game to pay them any mind. She’s still not sure as though now is a good time to talk. If this goes wrong then Lena is going to be stuck in her apartment with a bunch of people she has to host while trying not to show her true feelings, whatever they may be. “I don’t know, Lena.”

“It’s ok if you need more time to think, I’m sure they’ll get distracted again in a little while anyway,” Lena reassures her, backing off so she’s not applying as much pressure on Kara.

Kara is very rapidly filled with guilt. Lena’s still being nice to her and she’s about to reject her before anything has even happened. She can’t put it off, Lena’s just going to keep looking at her with worry-filled eyes until they speak. “No, no, it’s fine. Let’s go.”

“Are you certain?”

Kara nods, swallowing harshly and then follows Lena down the hall to her bedroom. Her hands twist together nervously while Lena shuts the door behind them softly. Her eyes trace around the room and a part of her is a little shocked at how ordinary it is. If she didn’t know better she would just assume this is the room of any random person on the street, not a billionaire. While she knows the furniture must be expensive, it’s designed simply and none of it is bold. Even her bedsheets are just a gentle teal colour, plain and simple.

Lena clears her throat to get her attention. “You can sit if you’d like.”

Kara’s head jerks into another nod and she perches on the very edge of the bed. Lena takes a seat beside her, leaning back more firmly than Kara. “I’m not sure where to start. Let me just think for a moment please.”

“Take all the time you need.”

Her fingers tap on her knees while she constructs her opening sentence in her head and the movement does nothing to ease Lena’s growing nerves. “I was talking to Sam the other day and she told me that there’s a good chance you might have feelings for me that are more than platonic.”

Lena physically rears back. What just came out of Kara’s mouth was the very last thing she was expecting to hear and she is utterly unprepared to deal with it. “She told you that?”

“Yes. She basically told me that I need to stop being stupid and admit that I have a crush on you because you feel the same way.” Kara’s fingers are tapping so fast against her knee that Lena thinks she might drill her way right through it if she carries on but that’s not her main focus, not when she just heard something she doesn’t want to unhear. 

“Was she right?”

“About me having a crush on you?” Kara’s voice is shaky.

“Yeah, do you?” Lena asks. She’s completely on edge waiting for the answer and doesn’t know what to do with herself so she crosses her arms over her chest. 

Kara drops her head down for a second before lifting it again. “She wasn’t wrong.”

Lena’s lips part into a shy smile. “So we both like each other?”

“We do,” Kara confirms before administering a nasty blow to Lena. “But nothing can come of it.”

Lena’s smile drops off her face and her eyes start filling up with tears. It’s one thing to get rejected by someone that isn’t interested in you, it’s another to get rejected by someone that is. “Oh.”

“I wish we could. I would really like that but we can’t.” Kara’s words are choked and as Lena looks at her through her own tears, she can see Kara struggling too. “I have Lori to think about. I can’t mess up her life any more than it already is. We’re just getting back on track and you’ve become a stable figure in her life. I can’t risk that in any way. I’d rather have you as a friend than as nothing at all, Lena. I can’t risk you leaving because something went wrong between us.

“You’ve done so much to help us and I’m so incredibly grateful for everything you’ve done but that’s not why I need you to stay. I need you to stay in our lives because you’re really kind and funny and thoughtful and everything I’ve needed. I really do like you, Lena. I just can’t lose you when I’ve only just got you into my life.”

Lena’s whole face scrunches, her confusion levels skyrocketing. “So, you’re telling me that we can’t be together because you like me too much?”

Kara shrugs in response.

“Kara, for a woman as smart as you are, you’re acting kind of dumb and I don’t think there’s a nicer way for me to tell you than that.”

Lena almost laughs as Kara’s head flies up and her eyes narrow at her in offence. “What did you just say?”

“I said you’re acting dumb. I get that you want stability for Lori, especially after everything you guys have been through but that doesn’t mean you have to stop living to give her that. Change doesn’t equal stability, it’s just different.”

“But if that change means you’re not around anymore, that would devastate her,” Kara argues weakly.

Lena shrugs. “Well, that’s a pointless line of thinking because there’s nothing that’s going to stop me from being around.”

“Even if we try being more than friends and it doesn’t work out? Would you really be comfortable being around me because I’m pretty sure no sane person would stick around?” Kara makes her points as directly as she can manage, her voice strained the entire time. “She talks about you every day. She’s always asking me when we’re going to see you next and asking me to invite you over to watch movies with her. If I were to tell her that she won’t be seeing you again, it would break her heart. If I let anything happen between us, I’d be putting her heart on the line just as much as mine.”

Lena’s shoulders sag. She hadn’t thought of it that way. The risk involved in dating someone with a child is much greater than if she were dating someone childless. Even if she has no intention of leaving their lives if it doesn’t work out, that doesn’t mean that Kara will be comfortable with having her around and even in the best-case scenario of that, she would have to slowly phase herself out of Lori’s life. “I see where you’re coming from.”

“I’m sorry,” Kara says into the quiet of the room, the words heavy and dripping with sadness.

“Kara, you don’t have to apologize for looking out for your daughter. I understand your reasoning even if I don’t agree with it.”

Kara’s glossy blue eyes meet hers. “Why don’t you agree with it? You said you understand.”

“I understand why you’re so worried. I would be too but you’re only thinking in worst-case scenarios. In reality, we’re both level-headed women who care about each other and that little girl out there. Neither of us is about to do anything to hurt anyone on purpose. Besides that though, even if we tried and failed at a relationship, I wouldn’t want to end our friendship, it means more to me than I can say.”

Kara’s lips twist to one side, her brain working at a mile a minute. “Do you really think that we could stay friends after that?”

“I do but if I’m being honest, I’m hoping that it wouldn’t go wrong anyway. We might have had a rocky start but since then all we’ve done is build a relationship up on honesty and kindness. Switching our relationship status from platonic to romantic won’t change that core foundation. That’s why I said I don’t understand.” Lena explains, getting brave enough to reach out and trace her fingers across the back of Kara’s hand, prompting her to flip it over.

Kara feels Lena’s fingers slip between her own. “If we were to try, would you be ok with taking things slow?”

“More than.”

Kara’s gaze is deep as she searches Lena’s eyes for any hint of discomfort or hesitation. “And you’d be ok keeping it quiet for a while so Lori doesn’t find out? I don’t want her to get her hopes up just for us to go on a couple of dates and realize that there’s no spark.”

“She’s your daughter and I fully respect any decisions you make over her as her parent. If you want me to keep my mouth shut, I can do that.” Lena’s grip on Kara’s hand tightens in excitement because Kara is actually starting to agree with her, she can see it.

Kara breathes deeply. “Ok.”

“Ok?”

“Ok,” Kara confirms. “If you want to do this, let’s do it.”

“You make it sound so romantic.” Lena teases, a grin blossoming across her face.

Kara reacts beautifully with a bright blush and a breathy laugh. “Sorry. What I mean to ask was if you would please do me the honours of going on a date with me sometime?”

“I would love that.”

“Great,” Kara mumbles happily.

“Excellent.”

“Magnificent.”

“Cheesy.” Lena taps a finger to Kara’s nose. “Now that we’ve got that out of the way though, there’s one more thing I want to do before we go back out there and have to deal with the others.”

Kara’s eyebrows scrunch in mock confusion, her eyes shining brightly. “There is?”

“Yeah, something like this,” Lena leans towards Kara, meeting her halfway and letting their lips meet for the first time.

They both lean into it, their hands still entwined throughout. It takes a second for them to find their rhythm because Lena’s going in soft and delicate so she doesn’t scare Kara off and Kara is throwing caution to the wind and finally letting herself give in and have what she’s been talking herself out of since her crush on Lena grew noticeable.

They settle into a pace that is somewhere in between and breathe push against each other, both fighting to control the kiss. Lena puts up a good fight until she comes to the conclusion that it doesn’t matter who wins this one, she’s going to get the chance to kiss her again anyway. She lets Kara take over and instead focuses on just enjoying the moment.

There’s a gentle tap at the door that breaks them apart from each other just in time for the door to swing open.

“Hey, sorry to interrupt but there’s a little girl out there searching for her mommy.” Sam points a thumb over her shoulder but a smirk is seated firmly on her face. “I see you two have been having a productive time in here.”

Kara stands up, pulling Lena up with her because of their joined hands. “What makes you think that? We were just talking.”

“Oh honey, there’s lipstick all over your face. You should clean up and then come check on your daughter, she’s getting nervous with you gone.”

Kara’s hand flies up to her face as she looks at Lena’s which is covered in smeared lipstick. If her face is anywhere near as bad as Lena’s then she looks a mess too. “Can you tell her I’ll be out in a minute?”

“As long as I get all of the juicy details of this interaction later on.” Sam barters. “I’m looking forward to hearing about how you changed your mind about taking a bite of that hot ass.”

“Can you not?”

Sam shakes her head. “That would be no fun, now go clean up, Lori’s waiting.” She leaves the room looking smug and chuckling to herself evilly.

Kara and Lena share a look before Lena speaks. “You told her you didn’t want to date me.”

“Yeah but to be fair, she’s really good at extracting information.”

“That’s true.” Lena’s head flicks to one side as she gives Kara that one. Sam has always had the power to get her hands on the latest goings-on without putting in much effort. “We need to go and clean ourselves up.”

“Yeah, Lori will be nervous if we’re gone much longer, let’s go.” Kara goes to pull her towards the door so they can go to the bathroom down the hall but Lena pulls her back.

“Kara, did you not notice the bathroom that’s been six feet from you this whole time?” Lena points to the door behind her.

Kara’s mouth drops open. “Apparently not.”

“Come on, nerd. We’ve got a little girl waiting in the other room.”

“Ok.” Kara lets Lena drag her into the ensuite and does her best to hurry so she doesn’t keep Lori waiting but there are definitely a couple of setbacks in her lipstick-cleaning process.

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[kent-farm]

—Supergirl, "Human for a Day" + Superman and Lois, "Heritage"

[arlos-warm-drpepper]

Connor and Kara or Conner and Kara

[bisupergirl]

i make this same post every week but society if cbs/cw supergirl was genuinely inspired by supergirl vol 2 and adapted storylines from the gates run of sg vol 5 instead of completely ignoring all of kara’s comic canon and turning her into what so many people accuse her of being (girl superman):

anyway this post was inspired by me reading the synopsis on the back of the tpb of supergirl vol 2 which calls it a "collection of classic stories that helped inspire the hit tv show" ok LIARRRRR

[dinovia-grant]

You see these two?

It has been almost eight years since I realized I was going to ship them. I believe my exact words were, "Oh no. I'm going to ship them so hard."

Have I stopped? No.

If anything, I've doubled down. I currently have *counts* nine - NINE - SuperCat WIPs in progress. Three of them have actual deadlines because I can't stop myself from entering the yearly exchanges and rarely say no to pinch-hitting.

Nine.

It happens to be my favorite number, so I'm good with it. But still...

Nine.

[yourlocalmisthios]

Miss Katie McGrath, if I were a bard and these were medieval times I would sing to you something like this

*Proceeds to hide under a rock 🫣*