#i will never get over how kara looks at cat's face and how her eyes trail down to her lips

[mitski]

so much intensity in one scene 

from ( ◕‿◕) to (¬‿¬)

[midnightlizard]

Kara Danvers x gn!spidey! reader

Love square

Summary: Kara loves the reader, but they're in love with Supergirl. None of them knows who the other secretly is. (it's basically the miraculous plot if you've ever seen it)

Warnings: nothing really. Reader has Spiderman powers but the superhero name (Y/S/N) is not specified

Word count: 5080

-

-

It was a quiet night out in the streets, you already swung over the city a couple of times looking for people getting robbed, attacked or even murdered. But to everyone's luck, except maybe yours, National City was very peaceful tonight.

Hanging from a streetlight, you were pondering ending your patrol and just going back to bed, until you noticed something small moving out of the corner of your eye.

It didn't trigger your senses but you still decided to get on the ground to check it out.

What seemed to be now a small animal shierked away from the sudden movement, hiding under a bench.

Looking through the cracks of the wood you saw a pair of yellow eyes looking back at you.

"come here kitty, come come" you knelt on the cement, trying to get it to come to you. Surprisingly enough, it slowly advanced, coming out to sniff your outstretched fingers.

"oh sorry baby I have no food with me" but thankfully the cat didn't seem to mind, as it started headbutting your hand in search of cuddles. Now that it was under the light you could see its black fur and white spots, that made it look like it had socks on and a mustache.

"ahw look at you, you're so cute!" he wasn't wearing a collar, but you could tell he was a boy.

Between finding the best place to pet him and thinking how you could sneak him into your apartment at this hour without anyone noticing, you suddenly felt a shiver run down your spine and heard a gunshot a second later.

"sorry baby, got to go" you hurriedly said, and the cat almost seemed to miss your touch as you sprung into action, shooting a web at the nearest building and launching yourself into the air, swinging towards the sound.

When you arrived, not too long after, all you could see was a big red cape twirling around and three men around it.

There she was, the girl of steel, in all of her glory, fighting bad guys and not breaking a sweat. They didn't seem too dangerous and you both knew she could handle them herself. But that way you wouldn't get a chance to flirt with her.

You silently crawled the walls, as to not alert the men, and with every bad guy she sent flying into the air, you trapped them with your webs.

"what took you so long?" she asked, removing dust from her hands.

"I was with a kitty! I came as soon as I heard" you leaned close to her face "why, you missed me?"

"not a chance spidey" she put a hand on your cheeck and turned your head the other way. "where is the woman?" she took a step back, searching around. When her gaze turned to you, she saw your head tilted to the side in confusion, and decided to explain.

"there was a woman with them, they were trying to rob her, I jumped in but she must have escaped. Did you not see anyone on your way here?"

Even tho she couldn't see it, you smiled and shook your head "sorry beautiful, but you're the only woman I see" that made her groan out loud, though you knew she wasn't seriously bothered by it.

Since the moment you two met, you were instantly drawn to the blonde, to the confidence in her steps and the undeniable sweetness of her heart, and the fact that she was gorgeous was definitely a plus.

And from the first moment you decided to make it clear, you were never one to hide your feelings no matter the nature, hence the constant flirting.

Unfortunately, she never seemed to return the sentiment, turning you down every single time claiming she already had someone in her heart.

"I need to take them to the police station" she replied, ignoring the flattery "wanna help me bug?"

"You know" you started, already attatching two of the men on your back "for someone who insists on refusing me, you sure like using pet names"

You didn't give her time to reply when you gave her a mask covered kiss on the cheeck "race you there sweetheart" and with that, you started swinging, leaving her to scoff and pick up the remaining criminal.

The rest of the night went by smoothly, with only a couple of people speeding at a red light, but you weren't a traffic vigilante, so you didn't intervene.

- - -

It was almost five a.m. when you got back to your apartment. You went to check on your phone, not really expecting anyone to text you during the night. Much to your surprise, someone did.

Two hours ago, almost at the time you met supergirl, Kara texted you. It was nothing really, she just said how excited she was for your lunch plans for tomorrow, but it still made you laugh that she felt the need to say that in the middle of night.

Throwing your phone back on the nightstand, you took your suit off and got into bed, trying to get as much sleep as possible, to not look like a zombie in front of your friend.

- - -

Turns out, she looked just as sleepy as you. In fact, as soon as you two sat down at noonas, she let out a big yawn, covering her mouth with her hand "sorry, I didn't get much sleep last night" she apologized, light blush on her cheeks.

"oh I believe it" you said, picking up the menu "with texting me in the middle of the night and stuff"

Had you not been so focused on what to order, you probably would have noticed the darker shade of red that took over her face. "yea I was uhm, I couldn't sleep and I was thinking about it"

"We could have met another day, I wouldn't want you to fall asleep on me" you stated jokingly but she instantly started shaking her head.

"No! No, I mean, we haven't seen each other in a long time and I wanted to see you. Besides, I'm fine, really"

You almost wanted to laugh at her eagerness, she always managed to look cute without ever trying to. While on the other side of the table, Kara felt so embarrassed she wanted to fly away and never come back.

You resumed talking after the waiter came for your orders "You wanted to see me? You need something?"

yea to be your girlfriend.

"No it's, it's about next week's game night" she seemed to take a breath, pondering her next words "I was wondering if you could come earlier to uh, to help me prepare"

You squinted your eyes at her request, she never wanted any help setting things up, and she always ordered take out so it's not like she needed help in the kitchen.

Taking your silence as an answer, she started fidgeting with her hands. "Yea you're probably busy sorry, don't know why I-"

Kara stopped mid sentence, feeling your hand on hers. "No it's okay hun of course I can, I was just confused." she just nodded, raising her free hand to adjust her glasses.

When your food arrived, you removed your hand and the blonde immediately missed your warmth.

Nothing special happened after that, except for Kara blushing one too many times for her liking.

Once you two finished she had to excuse herself to run back to the office, before Cat would notice she's late. She went to reach for her purse but you stopped her, wrapping your hand gently around her wrist.

"Today it's on me beautiful"

If she hadn't felt her knees buckle at the petname and at your smile, she probably would have been more stubborn; instead Kara just hangs with her mouth open and nods, quickly running away.

- - - -

As soon as she entered the building, she was told by an intern that Cat was looking for her, so with a heavy sigh she ran into her office.

"Is the article I asked you last week-" she asked as soon as Kara got in, sending the blonde a slight glare "finally ready?"

Kara pushed her glasses up "Yes miss Grant, I just need to fix the layout" and she was about to add something, but the breaking news report displayed on the big screens behind Cat caught both of their attention. It was about a bank robbery (Y/S/N) alone just thwaterd.

With an intrigued glint in her eyes, the CEO turned her head to face her employee. "amusing, isn't it? Just a few months ago we all thought they were just Supergirl's side kick, turns out they're equals."

Hearing a scoff coming out from the blonde, she raised an eyebrow "you don't think so, Keera?"

"Of course they're a hero and they're saving people but they're definitely not like Supergirl" taking her boss' silence as a question she continued, and the words left her mouth before she could ponder them.

"Supergirl is serious and wants to get it over as quickly and as efficiently as possible, but they always plays around and get distracted constantly, and they're not serious at all."

"You seem to know a lot about them" she leaned forward, with her arms on her desk, and not caring about the blonde's stuttered excuse, she shrugged her shoulders "well considering you and supergirl are basically best friends"

Kara found a way to get out of this situation "yea she talked to me about them a coup-"

"I want to interview them. Give your current article to Jim or Finn," who was probably Winn "and get me that interview as soon as possible. They've never been in a real interview so it will be a scoop."

Knowing she couldn't even try to argue with the CEO, she nodded her head "you'll have it miss Grant" and got out of her office.

- - -

"what do I do Alex? It's not like I can go as Supergirl and ask them, they'll know something is up and will probably figure out who I am."

Unlike for (Y/S/N), where no one knew who they were, a lot of people knew who Supergirl was, and Kara thought it would be better if no more people knew about her other identity, and that meant hiding from you too, both of you.

"You're giving them a lot credit, I thought you thought they were dumb?" Alex asked with a small smile on her lips.

The kryptonian raised her head from the couch of her apartment, where it was previously buried, and looked at her sister with a frown. "They annoy me because they play around too much and constantly flirt with me but I never said they were dumb, they're actually really smart, and a good hero."

Alex has worked a lot with you so Kara knew she was just joking, but for some reason she still felt the need to defend you. The agent looked at the blonde before suggesting her idea "what if I ask them? They know you're my sister and it wouldn't be weird that I want to help you with your super demanding boss."

"mhh yea, that could work." a soft smile appeared on her lips "Thanks Alex"

Alex just nodded, waving her hand around dismissively. "More importantly," she started again, with a glint in her eyes that made Kara fear of what she was going to say "how did it go with (Y/N)? Are you two a thing yet?"

She started laughing as soon as she heard her sister's loud groan. "ugh I knew you were gonna ask that"

"you didn't tell them, did you?" Alex leaned her arm on the backrest of the couch, leaning her head on her arm.

"I mean I tried to" she glared at her sister's laugh, but she knew she couldn't really blame her "I just, stutter so much around them they must think I'm stupid"

"Ahw I'm sure they don't Kara" she stopped her teasing to reassure the kryptonian "first of all, you two are friends before anything else, second of all they're such a sweet guy they'd never think of you like that"

She stopped for a second, seeing the hopeful gaze in her sister's eyes "and most importantly, I'm sure they like you back, with all the pet names they give you."

"that doesn't mean anything, they call everyone by a nickname"

"you're the only one they call beautiful or pretty or honey or sweetheart or-"

"okay I get I get it" the flustered blonde hid her head between the pillows of the couch, face red from the tip of the nose to the top of the ears, just by thinking of all the times you called her any of these names.

"I mean...(Y/S/N) uses those on me too" the kryptonian resumed, and for some reason the blush didn't leave her cheeks.

- - -

Two days later, you sprinted from your house all the way to the D.E.O. and landed on the balcony, running to find Alex.

You started looking around, the big screens that often showed info about the mission were turned off with no one around, but that's not what caught your attention. Supergirl was nowhere in sight, she must have been called in too right? Unless she couldn't come.

When you noticed dark brown hair sitting at a chair from afar, you got into the director's office, probably breaking the handle with the sheer force you used.

Alex turned her head to look at you.

"What's going on Alex? Where's Supergirl? Is she okay?" The agent got up from her seat to face you.

"Calm down (Y/S/N), she's fine nothing happened" she reassured you "I just need your help with something"

Even though she couldn't see your face, frustration could be heard from your tone. "Nothing happened? You sent me a 911 signal" your shourlders slumped.

"yea because I need your help now"

You loudly groaned, though you were mostly grateful nothing serious happened, especially to Supergirl. "What do you need short Danvers?"

Making fun of her was a privilege you could only have while wearing your suit, given you were normally afraid of her.

Knowing you had the upper hand with your powers, and that it was all just playful teasing, she let it go, voicing her need. "My sister needs to get her boss an interview with you and she knows I work with you and supergirl so she asked for my help"

You opened your mouth to agree but closed it right after, thinking you could get something out of this too. "If I agree to the interview-"

"oh my god" Alex rolled her eyes "I'm not getting Supergirl to go on a date with you"

You loudly laughed at that, everyone knew where your head was at. "that's not what I was going to say!" you took a brief pause "but if that's what your offering..."

She crossed her arms, raising her brow, successfully shutting you up.

"I want to know who she-"

"definitely not" she interrupted you.

"oh come on, why not?" you move your hands in the air "you know who she is, John knows who she is, even Winn knows!"

"It's just safer this way spider, don't argue with me" her excuse didn't really hold up but you let it go for now, it should be Supergirl's call after all.

"fine" you rolled you eyes. And besides, "when's the interview?" you couldn't say no to Kara.

- - -

The next day you were on the roof of CatCo, your legs dangling off the edge.

"oh good you're here" you turned around at the sound of Kara's voice.

"your sister said you needed me" you got closer to her.

"yes hi" she replied quickly "but I will not be the one doing the interview, my boss Cat will" she glanced at the door. "but I need to tell you a few things first"

With a confused look, not that she could see it, you shrugged your shoulders, letting her go on "okay first" she took a big breath, speaking rapidly after that "do not let her drag you into her office, she will have the upper hand and you will not be able to withold information. Second, do not answer any personal life question, no matter how useless you think they are, she could always use them to find out who you really are. Third, don't even think-"

"with all due respect, my lady" you stopped her rant with your hands on her shoulders, and she regained her breath with a slight glare. The reason for it was unkown to you. "I am the superhero between us, so I know what I can and can't say"

And she didin't have time to rebut when she suddenly heard heels clicking their way up the stairs, making her jump away from you.

"Keera, glad to see you were able to do what I asked"

"isn't it Kara?" you spoke loudly, faking innocence, wanting to correct the older woman without being too obvious.

The woman gave you look, but didn't say anything. "can you leave us alone?" she turned to the reporter "I'd like to interview them alone"

- - -

The interview went well, you think, you didn't say anything about yourself and ended up following Kara's instructions. You thought about telling her how it went, but as you got to her desk you noticed her bag and jacket were gone.

"where did Kara go?" you stopped Winn is his steps, knowing he wouldn't be surprised by your presence.

"oh she went home early. She had a thing with (Y/N)- a friend" he corrected himself, thinking you wouldn't know them.

You forrowed your brows, but when your eyes landed on the clock hung on the wall you felt a shiver run down your spine. You were very late. You should have been at Kara's huose over half an hour ago.

You let out an exasperated sigh, "great- uh, I have to- I have to go now. I''l see you at- the DEO...soon?"

Winn only looked at you weirdly but he didin't have time to respond before you patted his shoulder and jumped out of the window, drawing some curious looks.

If Winn didin't know about your crush for supergirl, he'd probably thing you were jelous of yourself.

- - -

After picking up the backpack you left in one of the allies near Catco, you quickly put on some clothes, hiding your suit. You run up the stairs to Kara's apartment, frantically knocking on her door, still breathless and with your hair messy.

She had been pacing around the room for quite a while now so she quickly opened the door to your apologetic smile. "I'm so sorry I'm late love, I had a work thing and I thought about getting you something but it would have just been worse so I didn't"

You tried to explain, but to be honest her mind was still on how cute you looked with your cheeks flushed and how you breathlessly called her "love".

"oh it's fine. It doesn't matter now" she said letting you in, closing the door behind you.

"why? I thought you wanted help with something?" you shrugged your coat off, standing in the middle of the room. Hearing footsteps behind you, you turned around, your eyes meeting Alex's.

"hi, I didn't know you were coming here earlier too" you said, going in for a hug.

"she didn't come here early" Kara answered with a light edge to her tone, going into the kitchen.

"did you forget?" Alex whispered, and her tone wasn't as harsh, but it did sound like she wanted to scold you. It couldn't have been that serious, right?

You shook your head "no I told her I got caugth up in-" James knocking on the door stopped you, and soon after everyone else was there.

- - -

The night was going on smoothly, except for the fact that Kara didn't seat next to you like always, and she was persistent on avoiding your gaze, even tho you could feel her looking at you from time to time. She seemed to fidget more with her hands than usual, so you were sure something was up.

Thinking that asking Alex was not an option, you leaned towards Lena, whispering in her ear when it wasn't her turn to play.

"you know what's wrong with Kara?" she subtly turned to look at you, her lips in a thin line, she didn't need to look at her best friend to know what was going on inside her head.

"she's been like this all night, did she tell you anything?" you pleaded

Said blonde jumped up from the couch, claiming she was going to get another round of snacks and went into the kitchen. The Luthor gave you a nod, silently prompting you to follow the kryptonian, and as you got up to do so, you felt another pair of eyes on you.

You quietly made your way over, Kara's back facing you while she got herself a glass of water.

"uh are you okay?" you uttered, leaning on the counter so you could see her face "I noticed you were acting a bit..strange" you lowered your head, but she was once again avoiding looking at you, using her glass as a distraction.

"did something happen at work?" you met Cat, so you woulnd't be surprised "or-" you gulped, you'd hate to be the reason why she was acting like this "-are you mad I got here late?"

She slammed the glass back on the counter letting a few drops spill out, surprising herself when it didn't break. Kara took a deep breath, before replying "I'm not mad at you, (Y/N)" but it was really hard to believe it.

"okay, then what is it?" you got closer, putting your hand on hers, so she would look at you, and she did. The reporter raised her head, her eyebrows furrowed and her mouth agape, as if she was thinking on what to say. But when nothing came up she resumed to looking at your conjoined hands.

Kara could feel her wrist burning from your hold, and all the whispers and heartbeats she could hear from the other room prevented her from thinking.

"come with me"

You followed her closely, making up a stupid excuse on why you're exiting the apartment, even if none of your friends seemed surprised.

Kara brought you all the way to the roof, and still hasn't uttered a word. And you let her, giving her time.

But after a minute of silence and her pacing around you got in front of her, making her almost bump into you.

"Kara" You called "it's just me. What's going on?"

You smiled in reassurance, but she just forrowed her brows, letting out a big sigh. That wasn't much you could do to help her if she didn't talk unfortunately, you could only look at her.

Look at how her hair was slowly coming out of her ponytail due to the wind, how her eyebrows were so close together you were surprised she hasn't got a headache yet, and how her eyes seemed darker under this light.

And this sight was so familiar, but it didn't feel like you were looking at Kara, not really.

"I know what you want to tell me" you breathed out, and the fact she was looking at your lips is probably the only reason why she was able to hear you.

"you do?"

"yea" you smiled, shaking your head in disbelief "I can't believe I was so blind"

She felt her cheeks heat up, but her heart fell right out of her chest with your next words.

"you're Supergirl"

The super profusely tried to deny it, claiming you drank too much or had a wide imagination. Even going as far as commenting "I wish"

"oh" you raised your brows "so you don't have super strength, laser eyes, ice breath, and you can't fly?"

"no oh my god I could never be her" she let out a shaky laugh, adjusting the glasses on her nose, you couldn't believe they deceived you for such a long time.

You started walking around, getting closer to the edge "mhh you're right, I just thought because you're blonde you might be her" you reasoned, pointing to your hair.

"not the only blonde in National City" she replied and shrug her shoulders, hoping you would just drop the subject, the idea of expressing her feelings long gone.

"such a shame" you were able to see Kara turning on her heels in your peripheral vision "I really hope the real Supergirl comes to my rescue then"

She couldn't have spun her head around faster, but you were already out of sight, falling down the building.

The kryptonian shouted your name, jumping off the edge using her powers. When she couldn't see you anywhere she started panicking even more.

"(Y/N)? (Y/N) where are you?"

"behind you, beautiful" You were smirking with your arms crossed, your feet glued to the wall, steadily keeping you in place.

"what were you thinking about, jumping like that, you could have died, how are you even-" she said it all in one breath, stopping only when a look of realization took over her face.

"I've never seen Kara so pissed at me, it's new"

She let out a big groan, and not sparing you another glance, she got back onto the roof, you following after her.

"were you ever planning on telling me?" she squinted her eyes

"I mean, were you? You and your sister always made sure to tell me how I should keep my identity a secret"

"that's different, I didn't know it was you" she knew she wasn't making any sense, but her brain wasn't working properly at the moment, her heart still hasn't recovered from the scare you gave her, and she had so many things to process.

"come here" you took both of her hands in yours, bringing her closer to you. "I know who you are and you know who I am, doesn't that just mean we can trust each other more?" you offered, running your thumbs along the skin, effectively calming her down.

"I've always trusted you, even when I didn't know who was hiding behind the mask"

"oh, oh I'm sorry" her smile turned into a face of confusion "is it Kara or Supergirl talking? because I know Supergirl would never say something so sweet to me" that earned you a slap to the shoulder.

She rolled her eyes "shut up I take it back, we both think you're annoying"

But you didn't laugh with her, something else occupying your thoughts.

"do you like me, Kara?" you took a step closer, and she didn't have it in herself to take a step back. "you always say it's useless to flirt because there's someone else in your heart and I never asked, but now I'm asking you" you took a brief pause "do you like me?"

She sighed, knowing she couldn't lie to you anymore, so she slightly nodded, curling her eyebrows.

"but you like Supergirl"

"you are Supergirl" you answered matter of factly, but you had a feeling you knew what she was getting at.

"I like her because she has the biggest heart I have ever seen, she' s passionate about her job, both of her jobs, I love how her cape bounces around as she walks and how she can't seem to keep her glasses from falling off"

You brought your hand up her chin, making her look at you, while your other hand adjusted said glasses.

"I've always liked you Kara, all of you, I just thought of this part of you too much of a friend to notice"

Kara was totally hanging from your lips at this point, not only because she was looking at them.

You leaned your head down as she circled the hand that held her face.

"can I kiss you?" you murmured, making her nod vigorously.

"please"

It only took you half a second to close the distance, and you instantly felt Kara reciprocating the kiss, moving her lips against yours in an almost desperate demeanor. Her other hand gripped your shirt to pull you closer and when she felt you fingers on her sweater she gasped lightly.

you broke the kiss after a minute with a bite to her bottom lip, making her let out another small sound and left her chasing after you.

She blinked quickly a few times after she recovered, a deep blush still present on her cheeks. "I like you, too" the blonde replied breathlessly and slowly lowered her hands, not sure what to do with them.

"yea i guessed that" you teased, stealing another kiss.

Soon after that you two decided to head back, after Kara told you everyone knew she was planing on telling you today, and thanking you for the interview.

When you got back into the apartment everyone suddenly stopped talking and looked at you.

"so, did you two kiss?" it was of course Winn who broke the silence, voicing all of their thoughts. You looked over at Kara, and seeing her flushed face, you decided to answer, nodding.

"and I know she's Supergirl" you added, trying to ease the mild akwardness

"and I know you're (Y/S/N)" she retorted, not realizing what she said until she heard gasps all over the small apartment

"Kara!" you tightened your grip on her hand for a second, but she could see you weren't really annoyed. Various confused questions followed your statement, Alex's voice sounding above them

"so, the person who likes to make fun of me and never does as I say" she crossed her arms, letting her lips curve into a smirk as she watched you get behind the krytponian, now aware of the strenght she possessed.

"you know, you should probably focus on something else" you spoke up from behind Kara's shoulder, while gripping the end of her sweater "why don't we go back to the game, you were winning right? isn't it right Kara?"

Said woman smiled at your antics, playfully rolling her eyes "let them go Alex, you can torture them another day"

"no she can't" you tried to argue, but the brunette was already off to get another bear from the fridge.

You suddenly felt the sweater slipping away from your grip, and lowered your head to find Kara now looking at you, with a small smile on her lips.

"come on, let's go play" she pulled on your hand, making you follow her.

She did seat next to you now, still stealing glances when she thought you wouldn't notice, and instantly looking down every time you caught her.

Kara Danvers Masterlist - Supergirl Masterlist

General Masterlist

[supercorpkid]

The Secret Life Of Lena Luthor

Supergirl. Lena Luthor x Reader!

Word Count: 2785.

Lena Luthor has a secret. Probably many of them, but there’s only one that bugs you so much.

Who are those friends of her? Why are they so tight that you feel like they are in some sort of cult? Why does it look like she would die for them? And how come they are always more important than you?

You see, the last one's been bothering you for a while now.

Some time last year.

The world is saved. Again. For the third time this month. And while Lena sits to celebrate with her friends/ teammates she is content. A kind of feeling she hasn’t experienced much before, but that’s been constant ever since the big fight. Ever since Lex is gone gone.

She looks at J’onn and M’gann reminiscing about something from their planet. Looks at Alex and Kelly swooning over something cute she is sure Esmé just did. Nia looks at Brainy as if he is the most interesting being and all of existence. All of them have somebody. Well, she looks at Kara alone. But Kara is never truly alone. She has Supergirl. All these people around her and the people she met in different universes.

But Lena? Outside of this room she barely has anyone. Sam, Ruby, Jess. She scrambles to find more names.

So Lena looks around, more certain than she’s ever been before. She needs someone. Someone outside this group of friends, so she can get back some sort of normality she most certainly lost since she discovered her witchy ancestry and joined the super friends for real.

And then Lena finds you. 

You run through the door of the Lena Luthor Foundation, and since she wants to be more hands on with everything, Lena is right there to see it.

“Do you, um, take strays?”

“Strays, ma’am?” The receptionist asks, raising one perfect eyebrow at you. “You mean like, cats?”

“What? No! I mean me.” You smile widely. “I mean, do you take walk-ins? Like, can I just walk in and find myself a station and start working?”

“Oh. Ah.” She looks around for help. Unsure of what to tell you. And because Lena herself is around, she jumps in to help.

“Hi.” Lena shows you her hand. “Lena Luthor. How can I help you,” she looks at both of your hands. No ring. “Miss?”

“Y/N.” You introduce yourself, shaking her hand. 

“You want to work on something?”

“Well, you see, I have this idea. It’s really bugging me and keeping me awake at night.” You point at your own face. “I’m sure you can tell. But I don’t have everything I need to work on it. It says online it’s what this foundation is for.”

“Well, we don’t work on everything. Our resources are vast but still limited. There’s a board. If you want to present your idea.” Lena suggests and you shake your head agreeing, then just like that you’re running out of there as fast as you came in. She looks back at the receptionist with a smile. “Strange little cat, that one.”

You don’t give her time to move on from you at all, when you run back in. A prototype in hand, and several loose papers on the other. 

“Ok, I’m ready.” You smile at her and she furrows her brows.

“Oh, I didn’t mean right now.”

“Please, ma’am. I need to sleep.” And to demonstrate, only one of your eyes blink. She seems to take pity on you.

“Well then, come in. Let’s see what I can do for you. And please, call me Lena.” 

And what she can do for you, is help you with every little thing you need help with. And what you can do for her, is help her see there’s more to life than work and a few friends.

Present days.

“You’re running off.” You mumble. Eyes still shut, voice thick with sleep. 

“Emergency. Sorry, my love.” You hear shuffling so you know she is getting ready to run off to her super secret, super important duties.

“What is it this time?” You finally open your eyes and watch her putting her clothes back on. “Kara got stuck on a tree and you have to go get her down?”

“Oh no, my pretty stray cat. I only climb trees to save your pretty butt.” She jokes, coming closer to kiss your lips. 

“Lena.” You beg when she moves away from you. “Please stay. Please wake up with me. Please let me make you eggs and a strong coffee.”

“That would be lovely.” You open your mouth to repeat, stay. But she knows it’s coming, so she speaks before you. “Can’t today. Rain check?”

You press your lips together, annoyed at her way to deal with this. But she doesn’t notice, because she’s already running out the door one shoe on, the other one still in hand.

“Have a great day, Lena.” 

You don’t want to be jealous of Kara. You’re not even the jealous type. But this whole ‘my friends call and I run out the door’ is not working anymore. Not that it ever did. But recently this has been bugging you extra hard.

And when things bug you this much, you can’t simply forget that easily. You can't even sleep on it.

"Heeey," Lena grabs the bags from your hands, giving you a quick kiss on your way inside. "glad you came, I felt bad leaving you this morning."

"Yeah." You place the rest of the bags on top of the counter. "Maybe we should talk about that."

"Definitely. But after a nice dinner, maybe?" She gives you a little smile, and you're quick to accept. 

The talk doesn't come right after dinner, when Lena climbs on your lap and you two start a heavy make out session, you decide it is better to wait a little. 

"Shit. Fuck." Lena says out of breath, parting your lips. You look down at your hands still on her waist.

"What? Already?" 

"No, not that." Lena laughs, and you notice something vibrating in her pants. 

"Oh," You raise your eyebrows playfully. "Someone's packing."

Lena takes her phone out of her pocket, and you roll your eyes at it. She reads the name, and starts apologizing right away. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry." She gets up looking at the phone.

"Are you serious?" You ask, but she is already answering her phone after mouthing one more 'sorry'.

"Kara, I'm in the middle of something really important. This better be a 10 or higher." She paces around the room and you watch her from your place on the couch. "Shit, ok. Ask Supergirl to come pick me up. Yeah, ok. See you soon."

Lena looks at you with pleading eyes, and you look up trying to hold the tears and the anger inside you. "Darling, I'm really sorry, but it's an –"

"Emergency." You complete her sentence and her face drops, looking at you.

"I'm sorry, I'm truly sorry. I know I did the exact same thing this morning…"

"This morning? Lena! You've been running off every time Kara called you ever since I've met you! I don't get it. What's up with all these emergencies? Why is Kara always more important than us?"

Supergirl's feet touch on the balcony and you hear a light tap on the balcony door. She looks embarrassed, like she heard more than she wanted to. She waves lightly and points to the city with her head, so Lena knows it's time to go.

"I promise I'll tell you everything, but I really have to go now."

“If you leave right now, you won’t find me here when you get back.”

“No, please Y/N. Please wait. I’ll tell you everything when I get home, I promise. Please stay, eat dessert, and make yourself at home. I promise I’ll be back soon.”

So you wait. An hour. Two hours. Three hours later and you’ve seen enough of television, eaten enough of her food and got tired of wasting everyone's time. It is clear Lena doesn't take you seriously and that you'll never be her first priority. So you leave.

It's only in the morning when you grab your phone to notice the missing calls and texts from your… girlfriend? Ex? You haven't decided yet. But if you're being honest things aren't looking too hot for her.

Lena has helped you many times before. You have no problem admitting you are where you are right now because of her. If your invention hadn't played out, you wouldn't have found a new job and you wouldn't be working on something you are very passionate about. 

But she means more than that to you. With Lena you can talk about anything. You can be your quirky self without any judgements. In fact, you always thought she seemed to appreciate it. Now, you're not so sure.

She's always hiding something. Always running off. One phone call and she is gone. No time to even tell you what she is running towards. You feel like you're dating someone who has a secret life. And you can't help but think you're the secret part. 

You're still finding energy to answer her latest text, when you hear the doorbell. You force yourself out of bed, and open the door to see Lena right on the other side.

You furrow your brows, "What are you wearing?"

Lena stares down at her outfit, a large hoodie and sweatpants. "I was fairly uncomfortable in my jeans and so Kara let me borrow something." She looks at the hem of the pants. "She is a lot taller."

"Glad you came to my house wearing some other girl's clothes." You make space for her, because you know she is not leaving and you don't want to have this conversation out in the open.

"It's Kara's." She justifies.

"Yeah, and who's Kara, exactly? Is she just your best friend? Is she your lover? Your dealer? Your boss? Why are you always running out the door when she calls?"

"Those are fair questions. Well, not the dealer and lover part. But I guess I should explain why I always go when she calls.”

You look at your coffee machine. It's too early for this conversation. For the truths you'll inevitably have to listen.

"Coffee?" You ask her, but it's mostly because you need it so badly.

"I'd die for a cup." 

You set up the coffee machine while Lena makes her way to the other side of the counter, sitting on one of the high stools to look at you. 

"I'm sorry I didn't come back home sooner." Lena starts, and you sigh.

"I stood there like a ghost and I don't even know why."

"I don't want to run off every time, it's just – Sometimes I'm the only one who can help so they call me." You stand there waiting for more, for an explanation. "I told Kara to only call me for real emergencies from now on."

"You know, you said a bunch of stuff, but you still haven't told me what kind of emergencies they need you for." 

You're not stupid, it's not like you haven't put two and two together. Supergirl shows up to pick up Lena right after Kara calls for an emergency? Yeah, like they have Supergirl on their speed dial so she can offer Lift services when one of them needs it. It's obvious Lena is a part of a group that helps National City or whatever. It was actually kind of obvious because every time she ran off for an 'emergency', you only had to turn on the news to see something crazy happening in town.

"I'm a part of the Superfriends." She bites her lower lip when you don't show any real reaction. "It's supposed to be a secret."

"Lena, Supergirl showed up at your house yesterday to give you a ride. It wasn't a well-kept secret, anyways."

"Wait, so. You knew?" Lena's voice comes out so shocked it's in a high pitch you have never heard before.

"Had my suspicions, sure." The conversation is briefly put to a stop while you pour coffee for both of you, but even before you have your first sip, Lena speaks.

"I don't understand why you are mad at me then. If you knew all along what I was doing, how could you be mad? How could you think Kara is something other than my friend?"

"Well, first of all, I had my suspicions, but not convictions because you never told me anything so I could've been completely off. And second of all, I didn't know all along. I had to go slowly piecing it together by myself because you wouldn't come out and be honest with me. And third, and most importantly, how can I not be mad when you left me high and dry at your place last night and ran off with Kara again?" 

"Nia was hurt! I had to go help out. How could I not have run out?"

"That's not what I'm saying. You don't get it, do you?" She doesn't. She looks at you so damn lost you know for sure she doesn't get it at all. "I'm not telling you shouldn't go help your friends. I'm asking you to just tell me about it. Don't tell me that you have to go because you have an emergency. Tell me Nia is hurt and I will tell you to go help her, I'll offer you my help. I not only won't be upset about you leaving, but I'll admire you even more."

You round the counter, looking at her with doe-eyes. 

"I'm tired of this double-life. It's like you're two different people. I – I don't know what to tell you, I just feel like I'm dating a CIA agent who's been lying to me about who she is. And it sucks."

Lena blinks. "I know." Because she didn't even realize what she was doing in the first place, but now that you have laid all on the table for her, it makes more sense than ever. She felt the same thing before and she can't believe she's been doing the same thing. "God, I know how you feel. And I'm sorry I kept you in the dark. You have every reason to be upset. Please forgive me. I promise I will be completely honest from now on."

"That's all I'm asking."

"Well," Lena looks at your coffee mug to see you didn't have much of it. "Why don't you drink some more? I feel like you'd have to be pretty awake for what I have to say next."

"Oh…kay?" You gulp on your coffee and look at her wide-eyed.

"Well, it's complicated. But, more than a year ago, before we met, I set out to find more things about my mother." Lena says and you agree with your head, because she has told you before all of her story and the fact that she lost her mom when she was younger. "It turns out that my mother was a witch."

"Huh?"

She takes a deep breath. "And so am I." 

"You're a what, now?"

"You wanted the whole truth." Lena smiles sheepish and you furrow your brows hard at your new discovery. Yep, you didn't see this one coming. Honestly, if she had told you Kara was Supergirl, you would've been a lot less surprised.

"I did, didn't I?" It's a lot to process, but you take one good look at Lena and you know it took everything in her to tell you this, and so, even though you don't truly understand what it means and what she does exactly, you know she needs support right now. "So my girlfriend is a witch and a genius and she is part of the Superfriends, and helps out with saving the world and stuff?"

"I guess you could put it like that." She says, tentatively.

"You're awesome, Lena. I'm happy you told me everything. It helps me understand you a lot better, and it only makes me love you more."

Lena's eyebrows raise and she can't help her surprised face, "You love me?"

"Yeah, I do. I love you."

"I love you too, my little stray cat."

You feel your worries melt away in the kiss and you're happy Lena trusts you enough to tell you about this other part of her life. It also feels good to know her secret and where she runs off to everytime. Plus, how did you get so lucky? She's hot, she's smart, she's a goddamn goddess and she also saves the world? She is more than you could ever dream, and you’re so glad she is yours.

[redlancey]

Chapter 1 is up!!

She takes a deep breath in as she exits CatCo, and the smell of pollen and grass and wind fill her nose, and she smiles to no one but herself. Humming as she skips down the steps. Cat has granted her an extra long lunch break, but not just because she’s nice.

Kara may have let it slip that she’s meeting Lena for lunch, and Cat is always ready to pounce on any Luthor drama. Always wanting to be the first to publish the groundbreaking news.

So she lets her feet bop as she walks a couple blocks down to a cute Japanese-style cafe. The owners love Kara, and always want all her life details. Super sweet people, and who cares if sometimes Supergirl is seen with their coffee or milk tea in her hand? Free PR is free PR.

She spots Lena as soon as she rounds the corner. Or well, spots her car parked outside the cafe. A sleek, black BMW whose windows are tinted much darker than allowed by California law, but Lena gets away with it.

Kara knocks on the window, and can see Lena jump inside, before her friend rolls down the window.

“Jesus Kara! A text would have sufficed.” She scolds, unbuckling herself and grabbing her phone. Kara smiles to herself as Lena gets out, and she shrugs when her friend looks over at her again. “Maybe you should start trusting your environment more.”

Lena shakes her head, walking beside Kara and holding the door open for her. “After six assasination attempts, one is always going to be wary of what’s around them.”

Kara tsks as she guides them towards the menu boards. “The last one was almost a year ago.” She emphasizes. “No one will try anything as long as your friends with you-know-who.” She remarks, looking at her friend who sends her a beaming smile.

The ‘coming out’ was one of the scariest things Kara had ever done. Shaky hands around a coffee in Lena’s office; nervous reassurance that she trusted Lena, tears when she started rambling, warmth as Lena held her and calmed her, relief that her friend still cared for her.

Maybe after all that, Kara should consider Lena as her best friend. They are already as close as Kara and Alex are. Maybe closer.

“Ah Kara! How are you sweetheart?!” Ann exclaims as she comes from the back. The owner is a sweet, older lady who moved to National City after the Cold War, opening up this cafe and meeting her husband, James, during her first year of college.

Kara leans over the counter to give Ann a hug. “I’m doing great! I got that promotion I told you about!!” She says, and Ann claps with a smile. “I’m so proud! Good for you!” Kara beams, eyes flickering to Lena and back to Ann.

“Are you getting your usual?” Ann asks, and Kara nods. “Yes please,” turning to Lena, “What would you like?” Lena hums, squinting at the menu and biting her cheek as she thinks. A habit Kara has become so used to.

“I think I’ll have a raspberry green tea please” she says with a smile. Kara insists on paying, but Lena steps in front of her with a hand on the small of Kara’s back, and the fluttering in her stomach distracts her.

They find a seat in the corner of the cafe by a window, and Lena hums after her first sip. “This is delicious. I can’t believe we’ve never come here before.” She says, eyes meeting the smile on her lips.

“I know right! I come here all the time for lunch. Ann is like a second mother to me.” She takes a sip of her strawberry and oat milk tea, and hums at the richness. “It’s expensive, but it’s so worth it.”

Lena shrugs. “Rather this than McDonald’s.” Her eyes land on Kara’s chocolate scone. “I always feel bloated afterwards. Even a coffee makes my insides turn.” She makes a face, shaking her head.

“But it’s so good!” Kara argues. Her friend just rolls her eyes. “Not all of us have an insane metabolism.” A remark Lena makes frequently, and Kara glances around, like someone is watching them. “I know you like my body Lena but don’t make it so obvious.” She smirks, and Lena throws a napkin at her. “Shut up.”

[fearlessbythebeach]

Seeing Inside-a supercat fanfic

Kara does have x ray vision but she doesn’t usually use it. It’s like stalking someone on Instagram. You feel guilty and it’s hard to face the person afterward. If you’re Kara that is.

Alex is a major social media stalker. She has whole playlists that are just songs other people listen to, and she shows no shame about liking someone’s photo from 2013.

“If I had super vision, I’d check people out sometimes,” said Alex. “Like Cat Grant.”

Kara giggled and blushed, smushing her face in her hands.

“No you wouldn’t!”

“If I were you I would. You stare at her butt enough anyway I’m surprised you don’t know what kind of underwear she wears,” Alex snickered. “Also I myself would like to know.”

“Nooo,” said Kara. “Stop it,”

The next day, Miss Grant was sitting on her chair, one high heel resting on the table, and she heard Alex’s words in her head. How bad could it be? Especially if she wasn’t caught.

Cat had on these grey boyshort panties. Not what she expected at all, and super hot. It matched her outfit of the day in a way, this black pinstripe suit dress, channeling Claudette Colbert in It Happened One Night.

Kara was staring at the underwear and how Cat’s legs moved under her skirt, forgetting to look away.

Cat quickly put her leg down, thinking maybe when it was up on the desk people could see her underwear for real.

“Kara, why are you looking at me like that?” asked Miss Grant.

“Fuck! Nothing! I mean no reason,” she trailed off.

“I didn’t you could curse,” said Cat. “You learn something new every day.”

Aagh Kara was right, now she couldn’t look her boss in the eye. But also now she couldn’t stop herself.

The next day, Cat was wearing her blue pencil skirt with her white long sleeve shirt tucked into it, showing her adorable, soft, tiny curves.

Kara saw her soft stomach, brushing against her shirt, her little round breasts and pointed nipples underneath a thin pink bra. The one nipple was halfway outside her bra, and if she looked closely, she could see it brushing against the white shirt, but she couldn’t do that, she’d be looking too hard, and then Miss Grant would know, and

“Well Kiera!” Miss Grant sighed. “I’m flattered but I don’t pay you to stare at me, go over my schedule for God’s sake!” Kara felt herself flush deep red with humiliation. Miss Grant gave her a smirk.

She looked again when Cat Grant sat down in her chair. This time she had these yellow panties riding up her ass, and good god she had a nice ass! It was so much bigger than Kara expected, and as Cat was absentmindedly swinging her legs to a song she was humming, it kept moving, so more of it was outside the underwear, softly leaning on her pencil skirt.

We know from the series but also from this story at this point, that Kara is not a subtle person. And she was once again caught.

“Kiera!” Snapped Miss Grant. “Tell me what the hell is going on with you lately.”

“Uh but I-“

“Now or you’re fired.”

Oh shit. She never should have let the idea get in her head, if no one talked to her about it, it wouldn’t have been so easy to carry out! It really wasn’t her fault, right?

“Oh god it’s all my fault,” said Kara.

“What is?” asked Cat concernedly. She lowered her voice. “Is it a supergirl thing?”

“Well kind of,” she said. Was she really going to tell her?

Cat knew Kara was supergirl ever since the bizzaro incident, where she doubted it for one crazy second, but then admitted she knew all along and would never tell a soul.

“I’m not going to tell you,” Kara said. “Sorry Miss Grant.”

“Oh does Sunny Danvers have a backbone now?” said Cat. “Hmm or maybe you don’t have enough of a backbone,” she tapped her finger on Kara’s collarbone area, “to tell me your little millennial problem.”

“Um, I never really used x ray vision and now I am and it’s giving me these problems and I saw your underwear!” Kara blurted out.

Cat’s eyes got big, a little blush dusted her cheeks and then she burst out laughing. The ice queen of National City burst out laughing.

“Oh my god,” she did this cute little snort. She had a high pitched sweet giggle Kara wanted to replay in her mind all day. “X ray, oh damnit, Kara darling.” She composed herself and took a breath.

“I want to make a deal with you,” she said. “If you saw my underwear, it’s only fair that I see yours.”

“I promise you, I’ll like it,” Cat purred in a sultry voice. Her sharp fingernails clutched the hem of Kara’s skirt.

“I didn’t really just see your underwear,” she said softly.

“Ohh you bad girl,” said Cat. “You’ll just have to bare your whole ass for me then, won’t you?”

“There are people looking through the window,” said Kara.

“Right,” Cat tsked. She ran her fingers across the hem of her skirt once more and stuck her cold hand up her warm shirt for a couple seconds, squeezed her skin, and said,

“There’s an empty floor a few floors down. Chop chop.”

They went in Cat’s private elevator. It smelled like lavender and snow and something sweetly unexpectedly Cat, like a bit of or banana bread or something.

“I’m going to have to punish you,” Miss Grant said. “I mean maybe I will,” she said more quietly.

“Oh yeah, I think you should,” Kara assured her. “I’m still going to feel really guilty otherwise.”

Cat snickered and the doors opened.

They were standing in the middle of the floor with all the empty desks. Cat stood on her tippy toes even though she didn’t need to and touched her chin. She let her hand wander down across her neck, her chest, her stomach, until she got to the hem of the skirt and yanked it down. The cold air blew on Kara’s ass and she felt it, she felt everything.

She gave her one hard slap and cleared her throat.

“Okay let’s go back to the office,” she said, like she regretted it, but she still had the deep honey in her voice.

“Let’s go back to the office, and do it again,” whispered Cat, and pressed a warm banana bread flavored kiss to her lips.

[waytooinvested]

Vengeance, Victory, and Undying Love - pt 7

Chapter 7 of my Supercorp fic in which Lena still creates something called Non Nocere to deal with her broken heart after finding out Supergirl's identity, but this time she gives the name to a different project. A more personal one. And now she’s coming for Supergirl.

This and previous chapters also available to read on Ao3

................

Kara dropped the lump of kryptonite and leapt backwards, bracing for the wave of agony and nausea she knew would follow.

A beat passed.

Her breath continued to move easily in and out of her lungs. Her blood pumped painlessly, the usual acidic burn of kryptonite in her system entirely absent.

So… it… wasn’t kryptonite?

She dared to take a tentative half step closer and peered down at the thing Lena had given her. It certainly looked like kryptonite – the all-too-familiar sickly green glow making the hairs on her arms rise in anticipation of pain, but that’s where the similarity ended.

The pain never came.

She glanced from the lump of rock to Lena and back again, waiting for her to make it make sense.

‘Lena? What is it?’

‘Pick it up, have a closer look’.

She did so, a little tentatively. Even in the face of her undeniable lack of pain, her fingers flinched away from touching it, but she forced them to wrap around the stone and lift it anyway.

It felt warm, like a pebble that had been sitting out in the sun all day, but it didn’t burn her. The sensation would have been quite pleasant if not for the nagging, instinctive fear of touching the one thing on this Earth that she knew could kill her.

She tried rising a discrete inch above the ground, just to check that this wasn’t some new more subtle variation of kryptonite that caused powerlessness without the pain. But nope, she rose smoothly. When she focused in on her super hearing she found it undiminished. There was a cat purring three floors down. Someone blowing bubblegum and allowing the bubble to burst with a snap a couple of blocks away. Lena’s heartbeat, drumming a little too rapidly for her outward calm.

‘Okay, I don’t get it. Why would you make fake kryptonite? What’s the point?’

‘I didn’t. The kryptonite is real Kara, I’ve just made you immune to it. Non Nocere. It means no harm. No harm to you. You could swallow that piece if you wanted and it wouldn’t hurt you. I wouldn’t recommend it as it’s not exactly pill sized, but you could’.

‘Oh...’

Kara’s eyes filled with tears and she choked down a sob as she took in the truth of what Lena had injected her with. How was this even possible? She had never imagined anyone, even her bright, brilliant science genius friend, could do something like this.

‘Lena I- I don’t know how to thank you. This is amazing, it’s the most incredible gift. But… why would you do this? I know how you feel about me’.

Lena laughed, half bitter, half disbelieving amusement.

‘No you don’t. You clearly have no idea how I feel about you, or you never could have done what you did to me. Kara, you have hurt me more than anyone in my life, and coming from my family that’s really saying something. But I’m not a machine, I can’t just switch off caring whether you live or die, no matter how much I might want to. Not now I know that it’s you in that cape, risking your life every other day and completely, stupidly helpless against a shiny green rock that turns up all too often for something from another planet. So, I fixed it. Kryptonite can’t hurt you anymore, so now you won’t get hurt. And that means I never have to spare a moment’s thought for you again. Do you see now? This means I’m over you’.

There was a hint of desperation in Lena’s voice, gilding the edges of what she clearly thought was a reasonable, rational explanation for what she’d just done for her.

‘Wait… what do you mean, you’re over me? When were you… under me?’

Oh god, had she really just said that?

She must have done, because Lena’s cheeks had gone as pink as hers felt and they stood there in silence for a moment, sharing a look of agonised helplessness that felt almost like they had slipped into an alternate time line where all the hurt between them had never existed, and instead this was the moment when…

Without realising she was doing it, Kara stepped closer to Lena, her eyes flicking to her mouth of their own accord.

‘Lena, I…’

Lena had cured Kara of her physical vulnerability. It was only fair that Kara gave her a gift in kind and confessed her emotional kryptonite, for Lena to do with what she would.

Her teeth raked her lower lip and she swallowed against the sudden dryness in her throat. Heart thumping she took a breath in readiness to admit her deepest, still unspoken truth and give Lena the opportunity, if she wanted, to make Kara truly feel the depths of her pain. She just had to hope that they weren’t so very far beyond saving that she was about to have her heart crushed all over again.

‘I-’

Lena broke the eye contact that had been drawing Kara inexorably closer, and the walls that divided them slammed back into place.

The moment snapped like a dry twig.

‘Well, that’s all I came for. You can keep the kryptonite if you like. Consider it a parting gift. Goodbye, Kara’.

With that, Lena turned and swept out of the apartment.

Go after her!

But Kara couldn’t. She stayed fixed to the spot, lips parted around the confession she hadn’t managed to make, kryptonite still cupped in her outstretched palm like an offering.

Had that really just happened? Had all that business in the lab really been about this? Curing Kara’s one great weakness, and framing it as revenge?

Tears flooded down her cheeks.

Oh Lena.

Of course she hadn’t really believed that Lena would try to kill her, but she had never for a moment imagined this either. Her very best case scenario had been that Lena had injected her with something inert, just to make her feel the shock and betrayal of being hurt by someone you should be able to trust completely.

But this?

It was too much to take in by herself. She didn’t care what time it was, she needed Alex.

With the kryptonite still clutched in her fist, Kara leapt skyward and went to find her sister.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

‘ARE YOU KIDDING ME?’

It was the fourth time Alex had said this since Kara had shaken her awake at 1am to talk through what had just happened.

The first was a sleepy grumble at being disturbed on what was supposed to be one of the few nights when she wasn’t on call at the DEO.

The second an incredulous murmur when Kara recounted her conversation with Lena.

The third followed almost immediately when, to prove that no, she really wasn’t kidding, Kara had held up the chunk of kryptonite to show her.

Alex had slapped it right out of her hand and called her a moron for touching it with her bare skin all this time, because what if it was some sort of trick? What if Lena had just found a way to add a protective coating that would wear away over time and poison her once her defences were down? Did she even consider that possibility??

And Kara had to admit that she hadn’t. Ever since Lena had told her, she hadn’t doubted the truth of her words for a moment, and she still didn’t.

Now they were at the DEO, and Alex had just finished testing both the kryptonite and Kara to confirm the veracity of Lena’s claim.

And… it was true. The kryptonite was real, and Kara was immune to it.

‘I can’t believe it. She really did cure you! It’s incredible. It’s- it’s- but then what the hell was all that about? The ominous hints, injecting you by force when you were practically unconscious, letting us lock her up and interrogate her? Wouldn’t it have been easier to just tell you up front what she was making and hand it over to you like a rational human being? Why all the fake villain business? Don’t get me wrong, I am grateful to her for making it, but this is just... ridiculous’.

‘No, I get it. If Lena had just given me the cure it would have looked like she was doing it for me. It would have been about our friendship and she doesn’t want that anymore – she didn’t want me to be grateful, so she delivered it in the worst way she could think of. This way she could make me feel the betrayal she felt when she found out I lied to her, and make it clear that although she was helping me, it was her way of ending things, not her letting me back in. I get why she did all that... What I don’t so much understand is why she would make the cure in the first place when she hates me so much’.

Alex dropped her head into her hands and groaned.

‘Kara, you know I love you but you can be the most annoying, oblivious person in the world sometimes. Are you and Lena ever going to just be normal about each other? Please? So I can get some sleep?’

‘Hey! I’m not oblivious, I’m a reporter! Noticing things is my whole thing!

...Why, what do you think is going on?’

‘I think that going to a huge amount of effort and, I assume, expense, to make someone invulnerable just so you don’t have to worry about their safety anymore is not how you express hatred’.

‘So... do you think she made it before she found out, then decided not to let it go to waste? But that doesn’t make sense. Lena and I clashed all the time when I was Supergirl, it’s part of why I never told her the truth, so I don’t see why she would have wanted to do that for her’.

‘… No Kara. That’s not what I think happened’.

‘Well then, what-?’

‘NOPE. I’m done. You’re going to have to figure this one out for yourself dingus. I’m going back to bed. DO NOT WAKE ME unless someone is dying. Goodnight’.

[chaotic-super]

For Her Sake - Chapter 13

Read For Her Sake on AO3 here!

The past two weeks have been impossibly crazy.

Between Cat being a bitch and purposefully setting her up with impossible tasks that are just a pain in the ass to try and fulfil and the weather being non-stop rain, Kara has never been so glad to reach the weekend, especially knowing that as soon as she leaves the office in less than an hour, she’s most likely never going to have to walk back in here ever again.

Out of the corner of her eye, she can see Winn waving her over. She smiles and gets up, grabbing a little something off her desk on her way over and hiding it in her palm.

“Hey.” She stops beside his desk.

“Hey, how are you doing? How does it feel to be nearing the end?” Winn leans back in his chair, spinning it around so he’s facing her better. “You’re going to be free in right around…” he flips his wrist dramatically to check his watch, “fifty-one minutes.”

Kara shrugs. “I have no idea how I feel. It’s kind of a relief but it’s also kind of, I don’t know…sad? I’m going to miss this place, or at least miss what it used to be. I’m glad to see the back of the never-ending to-do list I’ve been working off the last couple of weeks though. I’m really excited to start over at Reign though, I think a fresh start is exactly what I’ve been needing and with Alex working at L-Corp it’s setting us up to be just fine. We’re finally getting somewhere, Winn and it feels just so refreshing.”

Winn grins at her. “You look happy.”

“I am.”

“I’m not happy.” Winn follows up on his previous statement.

Kara’s happy demeanour drops in an instant. “What do you mean?”

“I’m not happy that you’ve been using the daycare for Alex’s job to take care of Lori where I can still pick her up. You know I love that kid.”

Kara shakes her head. “Winn, that was before I found out you were taking a pay cut to finish early to go and get her. It’s free for the daycare and you can still come over whenever you want and take her out on a weekend of anything where you’re not losing money just to help us out.”

“Ok, it was like, barely any money difference and it’s not the same. Even if it’s not every day, give me like…two days a week or something? Come on…it’s just two days.” He can see Kara breaking so he leans closer, pouting obnoxiously. “Please.”

Kara leans back, giggling slightly and giving in. “Ok, ok. Two days a week. Whichever two suit you best.”

“Good.” He drops the pout, chuckling along with her and beaming. “I miss the little munchkin.”

“You only saw her like, three days ago.”

“My point still stands.”

Kara presses her fingers into the thing in her hand. “I’ve got a little something for you.”

“If it’s not the Pikachu figurine from your desk, I don’t want it.”

Kara smiles and puts that very item on his desk, watching closely as his eyes light up. “You’re in luck. I won’t have a desk at Reign so this is for you.”

Winn snatches it up the second Kara’s hand has retracted, lifting the little figurine up and closer to his face so he can look at it closely. “Really? You’re serious? You’re giving me your desk Pikachu?”

“I am.” Kara folds her arms feeling kind of cool because she’s giving Winn something he’s been asking for since she got the little thing a couple of years back.

“You’re really giving me the Pikachu that you found in the parking lot at Comic-Con?”

“I am. Please cherish it, it took a lot of energy for me to bend down to pick it up.” Kara laughs taking it from him and positioning it between a few of his other collectables. “It’s also to help keep you company since we all know you’ll be super lonely here without me, I am like, the best person ever.”

Winn looks at the Pikachu fondly before looking up at Kara with the same look in his eyes. “I know that’s a joke but I’m really going to miss seeing you pretty much every day. I mean, I’ll still come visit you and I’m really happy you’re happy but I am going to miss you.”

“I’m really going to miss you too. You’re what made working here so fun.” Kara grabs his arm, pulling him up so he’s standing and she can give him a proper hug. “Thanks for making my time here so good, it wouldn’t have been half as amazing as it was if you weren’t here.”

She goes to pull back but Winn’s strong arms stop her, keeping her in the hug and she realizes why just moments later when she feels something wet hit her shoulder. Rather than call attention to it, she just holds him tightly, her arms strong against his back as she lets him take his time.

Kara had no idea that he cared about her enough to cry about her leaving. He’s her best friend and they are still going to see each other but he’s taking this hard, obviously not putting up any resistance for her sake so she doesn’t second guess a decision that is good for her and Lori.

He pulls back after a long sniff, frantically wiping at his eyes. “Sorry, it just got real.”

Kara runs her hands up and down his upper arms, trying her best to soothe him. “Don’t be sorry, Winn. Hey, why don’t you come back to our place tonight? We’ve managed to put some money aside for takeout and we’re ordering pizza so if you want to come and hang out with the coolest people on Earth, you’re welcome to.”

“Ok.” Winn nods, taking no convincing. “I want to play Mario Kart though.”

“Whatever you want,” Kara says. “Now get back to work, we still have like, forty-five minutes left before we’re free and while it doesn’t matter for me, you can still get fired.”

Winn grumbles. “Uh, I hate that. Is Reign hiring? I am not above following you.”

“Unfortunately not and we both know you couldn’t do a job that doesn’t involve computers, you’re very smart but I would not trust you to carry plates across a room without tripping.” Kara backs away, a big grin on her face. “Now, hop to it, Winslow. Work, now.”

Winn twizzles his chair back around, mumbling what sound like some very inappropriate words under his breath.

Kara heads back to her desk, plopping down in her chair with a thump. It’s half broken, about to give way any day now but she put in a maintenance request weeks ago and it never got replaced, she doesn’t have to worry about it anymore.

With just a little bit of time left, she decides to pack up the few things she still has on her desk. Most of it has been going home with her each night over the past couple of weeks but there are a few things still to come home with her so she grabbed an empty box on her way back from lunch and has had it stored just behind her chair since for this exact moment.

Kara places it down on the floor at her side and slowly begins piling things into it starting with the little plant she has had on her desk which she still hasn’t figured out if it’s fake or real but she has been watering for the past year with the dregs of her coffee at least twice a week. It is placed in the corner of the box, leaving lots of space for the few books she’s got in the bottom drawer of her desk, the ones she has sneakily been reading whenever there’s a free few minutes at work and Cat is out in a meeting. She’s never taken them home because the thought of the weight of them hanging off her shoulder was too awful to think about but now, she’s got no other choice.

There are several knickknacks and random objects that she’s not even sure when they migrated from her place to the office but she’s taking them home anyway. Just to be petty, she ends up taking her good pair of scissors and her stapler too because she bought them a while ago when it was taking too long for her requests to go through, that was back before the accident when she had the money to do things like that.

There’s just one thing left to go, a picture of her, Alex and Lori. It’s just a small one, mostly because she was always too afraid to show off her personal life too much but looking at that picture and seeing what she was working for has always given her the strength to get through the days that were otherwise unbearable. She’s spent a lot of time looking at it since she put her resignation in.

As soon as her desk is clear of everything except for her laptop and CatCo schedules and such, the things she can’t take home because it’s CatCo property, she closes the lid of the box and pushes it to one side. There’s not a lot she can do now, she worked through lunch to make sure all of Cat’s scheduling is done for the next week just so it can’t be said that she didn’t treat her fairly in her leave so there’s literally nothing left for her to do.

A glance over at Winn and his screen shows her that he is fully focused on his work so she can’t just annoy him so she’s got to look busy. She grabs one of her notebooks that she put in her box, she found several because she used to have a problem with buying notebooks she will never write in, and flips it open to a random blank page and then starts scribbling random lines, zigzagging along the page just to pass the time.

With only fifteen minutes left, she does that for a solid five before giving up and tossing it into the box again and then lifting it onto her desk. She then wanders around the bullpen and starts saying her goodbyes.

Most of the people there have been lovely to her and she knows a lot of them well through short conversations in the break room and through early morning elevator chitchat. They are all surprised that she’s leaving since she never told anyone and well, in most cases where someone is an assistant at a big company like this one, it’s so they can progress there and climb rank so it’s odd that she’s leaving whilst still only on the bottom rung.

She makes her rounds, getting a lot of well wishes and hugs along the way and then heads back to her desk where Winn is waiting, his bag slung over his shoulder.

“Are you ready?”

“Can you wait a couple of minutes? There’s one more person I need to say goodbye to.”

“Sure,” Winn says but tilts his head at her, confused and unsure who else she could need to speak to.

His eyebrows practically shoot up into his hairline when she walks past him and knocks on the glass door of Ms Grant’s office.

“Ms Grant?”

“Yes?” Cat looks up from her computer looking bored.

“I’m leaving now so I wanted to come and say goodbye.” Kara walks through the office, stopping just short of her desk. “I want to leave on good terms with you, I have a lot of good memories here and this place still means a lot to me so I was hoping we could just put the past behind us and I can just go without any regrets.”

Cat stares at her suspiciously as Kara sticks her hand out towards her. “Why?”

“Because before everything happened, I thought we were friends and I’d like to leave that way, even if we never end up seeing each other again. Besides, it’s good for your reputation if everyone out there sees me leaving on a good note.” She nods her head aimlessly towards the bullpen where most people are packing up their things to go home.

With a touch of reluctance, Cat reaches over and shakes her hand, her grip a lot stronger than Kara imagined someone of her stature would be capable of. “Kara, I may not agree with your choices, especially your choice to leave but I do admire your drive to take care of your family, I can respect that. I wish you well.”

“You too, Ms Grant. I did your schedules for next week to give whoever you’re replacing me with a chance to figure their crap out. Call it a parting gift. Try not to make them cry.” Kara smiles warmly at her one last time before leaving, aware of Cat’s piecing gaze pinned on her back as she makes her way out for the last time.

Winn is holding her box, having been not-so-sneakily watching their interaction from his spot leaning against her desk. “You ok?”

“I am,” Kara answers and goes to take her box but Winn holds it out of her reach.

“Not a chance, now let’s go, I’m starving.”

“Me too.” Kara mumbles, somehow, not quite as sad as she thought she would be to see the back of this building that has been a major part of her life for years.

-

Kara and Winn get back to the apartment before Alex does because she’s picking Lori up too so for the first time in a while, she gets the place to herself, well almost to herself but Winn doesn’t count.

“Why don’t you set up Mario Kart while I go and run and have a quick shower before Alex and Lori get back?” Kara says, her question really a demand.

“You got it, boss,” Winn answers, taking one of Alex’s beers that Kara offers to him on her way through the bedroom to the bathroom.

She’s purposefully quick because she doesn’t want to make Winn wait and she doesn’t know exactly what time Alex will get back because usually, she’s home long after Alex gets back because she takes public transportation but Winn drove here today so what is a trip that usually takes over an hour was little more than fifteen to twenty minutes.

Hopping out of the shower, she throws on some comfy pants and a blue cotton tee, dressing mostly for comfort and dries her hair, not bothering with make-up.

Winn is on the couch scrolling through his phone when Kara wanders back out into the living room. “Hey, it’s all set to go, want to start now or are we waiting until Alex and Lori get here?”

“We should probably wait until they get here, I love that little girl but man does she get competitive and I don’t want to hear her spend the night complaining that we got a head start.” Kara sinks into the couch beside Winn, her head instantly leaning back into the cushions and her eyes half-closing.

“Your closed eyes tell me you’d like to sit in silence while we wait for them.”

“That’s one hundred percent correct.” Kara mumbles.

“You’re a terrible host but ok.” Winn snickers, his eyes falling back to his phone right away. He doesn’t mind just sitting here with Kara, it won’t be the first time they have gone to hang out and just ended up sitting in the same room doing two separate tasks in complete silence.

Within a couple of minutes, the past two weeks and the relief of finally leaving that place in the past where it belongs has Kara snoring, her head thrown all the way back and Winn silently laughing at her, his shoulder shaking and his fist clenched between his teeth so he doesn’t wake her. His laughter dies down after a couple of minutes but every once in a while he does look up from his phone to smile at her.

She’s still snoring when Alex unlocks the front door and sighs her way through it, Lori skipping in right in front of her. Lori spots her mom and Winn and runs over to them, her eyes bright and joyful. She clambers into Kara’s lap, effectively waking her up and wrapping her little arms around her. “Mommy! You’re home before us!”

“I am, I missed you today, baby.” Kara pulls her close for a cuddle. “Have you had a good day?”

“Uh huh, the best, we got to play in the sand pit and then Aunty Alex invited Lena to come for dinner and she said yes!”

Kara’s eyes widen and she looks over to see Alex standing in the kitchen with none other than Lena Luthor. “Oh yes, I see that. Why don’t you and Uncle Winn catch up so I can go and say hi?”

Winn wants to argue, he wants to meet Lena, she’s basically his idol, but he settles for an excitable little girl instead who is already wrapping her arms around his neck.

“Lena, hi!” Kara greets Lena, heading into the kitchen. “I’m so glad you could make it, especially after I had to cancel on you for dinner before. I’m sorry about that, I was really looking forward to it too.”

Alex throws her hands up. Kara has yet to greet her but is already all over Lena. She shouldn’t have invited her because now she’s stuck watching them moon after each other, neither of them ballsy enough to notice the way the other has a very obvious crush on them.

Lena rests her hand on Kara’s forearm. “Don’t worry about it. It sounds like you’ve had a hell of a time finishing up your time at CatCo. How does it feel to not work there anymore?”

Kara lets out a heavy puff of air. “I don’t even know. It’s strange, I think I’ll miss it but I’m also super excited to start working with Sam. I’m sure you’ve heard all about the time I saw her for lunch a couple of weeks ago, she was lovely. I managed to part ways with Ms Grant in a nice way really, we shook hands and agreed to leave the past in the past so I guess I can’t wish for more.”

“Sam did tell me about that, I should probably warn you that while she’s nice, she’s a blabbermouth to the people she’s closest to, so anything you tell her, she’s probably going to tell me and our other friend, Jack, if you don’t specifically tell her to keep it to herself.”

“Noted.” Kara nods. “Now, shall we order? I’m starving.”

“I’m so down for that.” Alex interrupts them with a small stack of takeout menus, “Winn, Lori, want to come and help pick where we eat?”

Winn grabs Lori, swinging her around as he stands up, making her squeal as he does so and for a second, Kara’s heart is in her mouth because while she trusts Winn, she’s terrified of Lori potentially getting hurt. Her hand flies to her chest, covering her rapidly beating heart. “Careful.” She warns when he settles beside her with Lori propped on his hip.

He sends her a sheepish look before focusing on the menus. “I know we agreed on pizza but I’m thinking that maybe we should order Chinese too, it’s been far too long since I’ve seen you inhale an ungodly amount of potstickers in one sitting.”

Kara clears her throat awkwardly in a mixture of embarrassment because he just really said that in front of Lena and because she feels bad because they have guests over and they can’t afford to get both pizza and Chinese food. “I don’t know, Winn. Maybe we should just stick to the pizza.”

“How about a deal then, you get the pizza you seem to so desperately want and I’ll get the Chinese food, deal?” Winn argues and then sticks out his hand like it’s a done deal.

“Ooh, How about I order Big Belly Burger too?” Lena asks, spotting a menu for there. “I haven’t had one of their burgers in way too long and it’s kind of my guilty pleasure. Come on, let’s make a feast out of it. I’ll order those, Winn gets the potstickers and you guys get the pizza, fair and square.”

Kara knows what they are playing at. Alex does too, to be fair, but she doesn’t really care. Kara feels bad that they have invited Winn and Lena over yet they are going to be paying for a good chunk of the food, it doesn’t feel right but she can’t do much about it, they know what they are doing and this is their way of doing it as delicately as they can without outright saying that they are helping to pay because they know that they are broke.

Well, not broke, not anymore. Alex has been getting paycheques now, weekly ones that help them get on top of everything, but they have mostly just been using it to get up to date on everything so they have been paying off their debts and starting to backpay the rent they missed. As soon as that is done, a couple of months more they think, and then they can think about moving out and getting a better place, one where they all have their own beds at the very least. For that to happen though, they are following a very strict budget and even splurging tonight is a treat they shouldn’t really be splurging on but Alex insisted on celebrating Kara’s new job.

“Fine, fine, but just you guys wait until we manage to move into a new place, we’re going to buy so much food that you will have to roll out of the door when you want to leave.” Alex accepts their offer when it becomes clear that Kara’s not about to.

“Good.” Lena grins, already slipping her phone out of her pocket and starting to order her portion of the food, Winn and Alex doing the same too while Kara plucks Lori off of Winn’s side and pulls her close into another cuddle, only getting slightly offended when she starts wriggling and trying to get to Lena, her little arms reaching out towards her.

Lena, despite being guilted into sitting beside her on the way here, reaches out and lets Lori climb her way over from Kara’s arms into hers, propping Lori’s butt onto the edge of the counter so she can still finish placing the order of a bunch of cheeseburgers, fries, onion rings and milkshakes. They are all eating well tonight.

“Lena, Lena, Uncle Winn set up Mario Kart!” Lori grabs at Lena’s shirt, bunching it in her tiny fists as she excitedly speaks.

“Really? Can you show me?” Lena asks, smiling at how adorable Lori is and putting her down, her heart melting when Lori grabs her hand to take her to the couch.

Kara follows them with her eyes first, her blue orbs soft with the joy that comes with Lori having so many people around that love and care for her. There’s not a person on the planet that she couldn’t force to love her. With that thought in mind, she follows them, sitting on the other side of Lori so she’s sandwiched between her and Lena.

Winn and Alex come and perch on the floor on cushions, their backs to the couch and their focus on the screen, this is about to get competitive.

-

Lena has made it to the kitchen having managed to finally extract the clingy little koala of a girl off her. She’s now fully leaning into Winn’s side, cheering him on in his game against Alex, who seems to be outraged that her niece is cheering against her.

She’s super thirsty and since the food and milkshakes haven’t arrived yet, she’s just planning on grabbing water or something out of the refrigerator but when she opens it, she’s hit with a wave of desire she thought she had banished to the past.

Alex’s beers sit on the shelf enticing her. She hasn’t had a drink in weeks, something she’s really proud of, but the longing is still there, especially when she gets home at night to an empty apartment and there’s nobody around to disappoint but herself. This is a new low though, she’s in Kara’s apartment, gagging for a cheap beer just because she could get a taste of what she’s been depriving herself of.

Without really thinking, her hand reaches out, softly encasing one of the beers but before she can pick it up, Lori appears beside her, tugging on her pants. “Lena, Lena, juice please.”

It’s enough to snap her out of it and make her hat herself a little because of how close she was to taking a beer. With Lori at her side though, she knows she can’t do that, she can’t get away with doing that, so she pours out some juice for Lori and then some for herself. She sends Lori off back to the others but takes a breather, leaning back against the counter and purposefully not looking towards the refrigerator because of the shame.

She stares down into her glass, taking small sips every now and again whilst ignoring the tiny voice in her head telling her that it would be better if it had alcohol in it.

Lena purposefully chases away that voice though. She was an alcoholic, maybe not as bad as other people are, not by a long shot, but she was dependent on her drinks at the end of the night to get her through to the next morning and her yearning for drinks is her body telling her that something is missing, a part of her routine that she became addicted to so she could soothe herself enough to sleep through the night. She doesn’t need that now, she can find meaning in her life without it, she has reasons to get up the next day that aren’t found at the bottom of a glass.

She’s so caught up in her own mind that she barely notices Kara sliding next to her. “Hey.”

“Hey.”

“Are you ok?” Kara questions, her brow knitted in worry. “You had…a moment.”

Lena nods slowly, even more ashamed now she knows that Kara saw her, and what she almost did. “I did.”

“It’s normal to have moments of temptation, Lena, and for the record, I’m so proud of how long you’ve gone. I think it’s really brave, what you’ve been doing.” Kara rests her hand on Lena’s forearm tenderly, her lips curved into a small smile.

“Maybe but it wasn’t appropriate of me to have almost taken one of those beers. I was close.”

“But you didn’t. You came through.” Kara’s voice is soft and gentle in a way that makes Lena want to cry big fat tears until she’s got no more to cry. “Besides, if I had known you were coming I would have made sure there was no alcohol in the apartment before you got here so you wouldn’t be put in the position where you have to make hard choices.”

Lena ducks her head. “You don’t have to do that for me.”

“I don’t but I want to. You’ve been so good to us and let’s be real, Lori loves you more than me, if there’s anything I can do for you, you know I’m only a call away.”

“There is something you can do for me.” Lena tries carefully.

Kara’s head whips up. “Anything.”

Lena almost laughs at how eager Kara sounds and takes a tiny bit of joy in bursting her bubble. “Stop acting like you owe me something, you don’t. The truth is, helping you guys out, and spending time with you, it’s benefitted me a lot more than it has you. I only have two friends in the city, Sam and Jack, and we don’t get to see each other nearly as often as we’d like because of how busy we are, it makes planning times to get together awful and difficult. You’ve opened your home to me many times now when I had no one else to spend time with, nobody willing, it means a lot to me.”

Kara scrunches her face thoughtfully and Lena can’t help but think that she looks kind of cute. She takes several long moments to come up with something to say and each passing second makes Lena’s nerves grow. “Lena, I didn’t know that hanging out with us means that much to you. I kind of thought we were annoying you by asking you over all the time and that you’ve just been humouring us.”

“Not at all.” Lena shakes her head. “I love it actually, as sad as that sounds. I haven’t had friends that I get to see this often since I was in college and I know that sounds clingy and weird but just getting to see you pretty much every week helps me a lot and if it weren’t for you, I don’t think I could’ve stopped drinking the way I did. I don’t think I would’ve had the balls to. I mean it sucked, especially at the beginning. I didn’t realize how bad it was until I stopped, but I have to give you credit for that choice.”

“The only person that deserves credit for that is you, Lena.” Kara bumps her shoulder with Lena’s. “And just for the record, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to stop thanking you or feeling indebted to you because you saved our asses but I’ll try if it makes you uncomfortable.”

“It does,” Lena confirms. “I think you would have managed to save your own butts anyway.”

“Not from that much debt we wouldn’t have. You gave my daughter a chance at a life she wouldn’t have had if we hadn’t met. I do regret what I did but I can’t find it in me to regret being at your building that day.”

“Lena takes a long sip of her juice. “I don’t regret hiding you from the guards.”

Kara and Lena share a look, one of mutual amusement, before falling into a fit of giggles. They get a few strange looks from both Winn and Alex but ignore them, their giggles too much for them to contain.

Once they manage to reign in their laughter, Lena looks over at the couch where Alex and Winn are sitting with Lori, her face thoughtful as her gaze settles on Winn. She nudges Kara with her elbow. “So, Winn seems nice. Are the two of you—”

“No, we’re just friends,” Kara answers, not needing to hear the end of the question to guess what she was thinking. “He’s been my best friend ever since I started at CatCo. He bumped into me in the elevator when I was going for my job interview and we’ve sort of just stuck together ever since. I don’t know what I’d do without him, he even changed his shift pattern at work to be able to look after Lori when we needed him to and he was always available to pick her up from school, all without asking anything in return. He’s been incredible and he’s the best uncle Lori could ever have.”

Lena feels a rush of admiration for the guy. She had no idea that he was doing all of that and shifted his life around to make it easier for Kara and Alex to juggle everything they had on their plates. “I didn’t know that.”

Kara shrugs. “He’s a big softie. He loves Lori and would do anything for her, just like the rest of us. As much as I love him though, there’s never been anything romantic between us. I mean, he did try to kiss me once and asked me out but he was very respectful when I turned him down and just went back to being my best friend, with no hard feelings or weirdness. He’s one of a kind. Why are you asking about him anyway? Are you interested in him?”

Lena shakes her head quicker than she ever has before. “Oh, no, no, no, nothing like that. I just thought you two were close and maybe you were together. I prefer the company of ladies myself, as adorable as your hobbit friend is.”

Kara chuckles. “He has been known to be called that every once in a while.” She ignores Lena’s other statement, unsure what to make of how it makes her somehow happy and trying to will away the thunderous beating of her heart.

Lena clears her throat. “I have another request.”

“Shoot.” Kara’s surprised to hear it but she’s more than open to it.

“You guys had to cancel on coming over for dinner on me twice now and while I get it, I still want you to come over so if you could make it tomorrow or Sunday, I would appreciate it.”

Kara’s face splits into a grin. “Well, it would be rude of me to turn that request down, wouldn’t it?”

“It would, so when are you free?”

“Tomorrow.”

“Good, call it six?”

“Six it is.” Kara agrees and then jumps when there’s a loud knock at the door. “That’ll be the food.”

Alex has to grab Lori to stop her from charging for the door. She’s Kara’s daughter through and through so she loves her food just as much as her mom does and would happily tackle the delivery person just to get the first bite of the pizza.

Kara and Lena open the door and accept the food. Two of the three deliveries arrive at once, the pizza and the Big Belly Burger order and just as Lena is swinging the door closed, she spots the delivery person for the Chinese food too, catching the door just before it slams so she could take it from him. “Thank you very much.” She slips him a tip, one much too large for what would be deemed ordinary, especially for the building they are in. He probably thinks he just got paid to keep quiet about something he isn’t even aware he saw.

It all gets piled up on the coffee table and it quickly becomes a free for all, each of them snagging whatever it is they want right out of the bags, Kara managing to wrangle a full container of potsticker for herself with no remorse, only sharing with Lori because she got given puppy dog eyes that she’s all too aware mirror her own. It almost makes her feel bad that she uses it on other people. People like Winn.

“Winn, please, you have two burgers, please give me one,” Kara begs, pouting for good measure and then cackling evilly as soon as he gives in and hands one over, taking a slice of pizza for himself as a trade-off.

Lena smirks at the exchange around a bite of her burger, trying her best not to moan at the incredible taste of it. Big Belly Burger is her go-to cheat food and it never gets old, if she weren’t worried about her health and the possibility of blocked arteries, she’d eat it every day.

The sound of milkshakes being slurped and lips smacking fills the air and while the noise would usually make Lena want to burst her own eardrums just so she can stop hearing it because it’s so grating, today it’s a symphony she could listen to on repeat. She’s surrounded by people that are genuinely good and actually care about her.

She was shocked earlier when she stopped by to check on the L-Corp building where Alex works. She made a point of only checking on Alex after talking to a lot of other employees first to not blow her cover and nobody seemed to suspect a thing, definitely not thinking anything of it and not suspecting Alex of secretly recording them doing a hell of a lot of illegal stuff and slowly but surely gathering evidence on them.

While she was checking on her, Alex mentioned them celebrating Kara’s last day at CatCo and invited her over and well, Lena is struggling to say no to any chance to see Kara. She might have a weak spot for the blonde.

Lena looks around at the small group, her eyes lingering on two people in particular and sighs happily, her heart jumping for joy knowing she’s going to be able to do this again tomorrow. Winn belches loudly, making Kara laugh loudly and she makes a mental note to invite him over too. He seems like a good guy and a great person to have in her corner.

As she’s looking around, she notices Alex staring at her and when they make eye contact, Alex smiles at her, sending her an awkward thumbs up, one that she returns just as awkwardly.

If anyone had told her that she could find some semblance of happiness on the floor of a run-down apartment in a building that should probably be condemned, she would have laughed in their face, now, she’s just thankful she’s found it and is going to keep a firm grip on it with both hands.

Read the next 3 chapters early on my Patreon here!

[multifandominfj]

A New Beginning: A Supergirl 6x20 Re-Write

Chapter Ten: Down The List

To say she was nervous asking Cat Grant for her blessing to marry Kara was a severe understatement. Lena knew Cat had an icy cold stare, a sharp wit, and was fast on her feet. She also knew that Cat was also very protective of Kara in her own way. Asking the right way, and leading into said question would be tricky.

Pulling into an empty parking space, and taking the familiar route up to the bullpen, Lena tried to remain as cool as possible.

That all went out the window when she saw Kara in charge, directing the other reporters to their assignments, with Nia at her side. Seeing Kara fully comfortable, happy with her job and thriving was beyond attractive to her.

“So everyone has their…” The minute Kara’s eyes locked with Lena’s, her heart skipped a beat. “That will be all, everyone.” She super speeds over, nearly knocking Lena off her feet.

“Hi to you too.” Lena laughs heartily before placing a delicate smooch on her girl’s cheek.

“What are you doing here?” Kara was still clueless about everything; just as Lena hoped.

“Do you know if?”

And right on cue… “Miss Luthor.”

“She says she doesn’t have any powers; I don’t believe her. Also, holler if you need help.” Kara returns Lena’s peck on the cheek as she gets back to work.

Following right behind, Cat shuts her office door behind them and pulls the blinds. “I know why you’re here.”

“Do you?” Lena sits in one of the chairs present, raising that ever famous eyebrow of hers.

“You’re here to ask for my blessing to marry Kiera.” Cat hands Lena a class of whiskey.

“Seriously, how do you do that?” Lena was left aghast, not daring to refuse the free drink.

“She talks about you any chance she gets, and your voice and body language were about as easy to read as a teen drama on the CW.” Cat nonchalantly takes a sip of her drink. “Of course you have my blessing, Miss Luthor. That photo she has of the two of you on her desk, I know how much you mean to her; I will catch her staring a moment too long before she gets back to work. You have made her the happiest she’s been in quite a long time. When I interviewed her, you came up a lot; the mushy feeling was a bit much for my taste, but it made Kiera happy. I just want you to promise me a few things.”

“Anything.” Lena sets her glass down nervously.

“Entertain any crazy idea she has, chances are it has merit and value behind it. Make her feel like she’s the best journalist in the world, even when she has a couple of misses. Most importantly, whenever she begins to get that sad puppy look on her face, and stops talking…non verbal communication will help heal whatever she’s feeling when she says, “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“I can do that.” Lena stands to exhale, and shake her hand. “Thank you, Miss Grant. And I will send you the details of the party as soon as it’s all ironed out.”

“Of course. Best of luck, Miss Luthor.” Cat shuts the door behind her.

And while Kara was nowhere to be seen, Lena slips out of sight. Next stop: Her other future Mother-In-Law, Eliza Danvers.

Her drive to Midvale definitely felt longer than it actually was. The amount of lead-ins, questions and pleadings she had going through her head was even a lot for her. Lena had never been this much of a perfectionist, but that’s what Kara did to her: she made her crazy and self conscious, but in the best way possible.

Recognizing the house from photos Kara has shown her, she pulled right up to the driveway. Scanning her surroundings, she looked for her future mother in law. “Doctor Danvers?” Lena called out.

“In the backyard, Lena.” Eliza hollered from far away.

Following the echoed tone of the voice, Lena would come to find Eliza doing…

“Target practice? Picking up a new hobby, Doctor Danvers?” She chuckled, watching.

“It’s never too late to pick up a new hobby.” Eliza smirked, putting down her bow and arrows. “And please, it’s Eliza. We’ve known each other long enough, Lena. By the way, to what do I owe this surprise?” She greets Lena with a warm, motherly embrace.

“I actually came up here because I…” She starts to reach for the ring box in her jacket. “Wanted to ask your permission about something, and hopefully your blessing.”

Being the incredibly smart woman she was, Eliza immediately figured it out. “Oh, Lena. This is stunning. I gotta say, I was hoping for this moment. The entire time Kara sang at Alex’s wedding…it’s like you were the only person there for her. It was like she was singing to you. And I think I’ve lost count of how many times you’ve come through for her…you not only have my permission, but my blessing as well.” With a joyous grin, she cups the ring back into Lena’s hand, and gives her another hug.

“So I don’t have to plead my case? Provide reasons?” Lena was surprised at how easy it was.

“I mean unless it would make you feel better… “ Eliza heartily chuckled.

“No, not at all.” Lena’s tensions were nowhere to be seen. “Thank you, Eliza. It means a lot. As soon as I finish asking the rest of the people closest to Kara, I will start sending out the party details.”

“Looking forward to it.” Eliza bids her goodbye as she watches her future daughter-in-law back out of the driveway.

“Up next, Barry and Iris. This is going to be interesting…” Reason being, the Central City Citizen was one of the many publications there to cover her foundation's opening, and the first big fundraiser a month later. Even then, she knew convincing Iris would be easier than convincing Barry, who had known Kara for longer. But considering Kara attended their wedding, and was the one who sang for them…this would be quite the task.

Driving up to the main CCC building, she takes a few deep breaths before she enters. With every step she climbed, she could feel her heartbeat speed up. Opening the doors, she strode up to the information desk. “Hi, is Mrs. West-Allen in?”

“She’s currently in a meeting? I can call and leave her a message. Who may I ask who’s requesting—…”

“Lena Luthor.”

“Lena!” As if appearing out of thin air, Irish was at the door of the stairs. “Right this way. This is quite the surprise. What brings you out to Central City? How’s Kara?”

“Kara is great, more than great actually. I’m sure you saw the interview Cat did.” She couldn’t help but have her heart swell any time she mentioned it. That was her girlfriend.

“We did.” Iris invites Lena to sit in her relaxed area of her office “Everyone at STAR Labs saw it, and Barry is now bragging that Supergirl is his best friend.”

And like a fresh gust of wind. “Someone ordered Lunch?” Barry, with his signature grin, holds up two big bags of Big Belly Burger. “Lena, hey. What brings you by?”

“Barry, good you’re here. Now I can tell both of you.” Like she did with Eliza before, she takes out the small box and shows them the ring she had designed for Kara.

“Is that? Are you?” Barry was immediately speechless.

“It is, and I am.” Lena blushes as she pockets the ring. “I wanted to stop by to see if…if could bet your blessing. You two were her friends before I ever was, and having just met at Alex and Kelly’s wedding, I felt the need to do this. But, with Kara bringing up singing at your guys’ wedding, and all of the crazy missions she’s done with you both, I feel like I know you to some degree. I know how much she means to you both, and…”

“Lena.” Iris takes both of Lena’s hands in hers. “You wholeheartedly have our blessing. We saw how you two were together at Alex’s wedding. To use my favorite analogy, you’re her lightning rod. You two are drawn together, and whenever you two are together, you’re unstoppable.”

“And to add to that, Kara has always told me she wants someone who gets every part of her life. That’s you, Lena. I couldn’t be happier for you both.” Barry congratulates.

“Thanks, you guys.” Lena brings them both into a hug. “I will send you the party details as soon as I check off everyone on my list.”s

“We’re looking forward to it. And say hi to the others for us.” Iris waves her friend off.

“I will.” Lena bids adieu with a warm grin as she heads off to see Sara and Ava. Kara had told her about the both of them so she knew what she was getting into: Warmly welcomed by them, and their daughter, Laurel, a little small talk followed by the reveal of the ring, nervous on how to present her news, and a resounding yes for all three of their blessings.

She had everyone in the loop. Time to start planning a party.

Hope you enjoyed the very cute, and very adorable Chapter Ten of Lena asking those closest to Kara! I had fun writing it. 🙏🏻

[elizabethxolsenn]

Mirrorball

(Kara Zor-El x Cat Grant)

Warnings: Angst, Major Character Death, blood, Soft smut, oral, fingering, squirting, Fluff, Easter, Cat Grant needs a hug.

Summery: Cat and Kara just being love birds :)

Minors DNI !!

Cuddling up on the couch with Carter was Cat's favorite activity, even if she’d never admit it. Kara was late coming home, and even though Cat tried to protest, her son insisted they start the movie without her.

Now, with Carter's head on her lap, and chicken little playing on the big flat screen, she scratched his scalp lightly, only wishing she had this with Adam. It broke her heart how she’d never been around when her oldest was in his early years.

Keys jingle at the door and Carter's head pops up, Kara walks through, a small tear in the sleeve of her suit and dried up blood on her arm.

Running to hug her, the boy barely notices the wound, he smiles up at her, “Kara you’re home,” He looks at the television, then back to his stepmother, “Mom said to start without you, it wasn’t me at all!” Kara gasps and puts a hand over her chest, “That is just mean, Cat, I can’t be-” She stops talking when she sees a hard look on Cat's face. She bends down to Carter's level and whispers something in his ear, he looks at her arm and nods quickly, going to his room as asked.

“Are your powers weakening again? If they are, I don't want you going on missions, Kara, you know how dangerous that is.” Though she seems angry, Kara knows she’s just looking out for her. Being with a superhero worried Cat enough, but knowing her powers could blow out made her more cautious.

“Bullet made of kryptonite grazed me, I’m fine, babe.” Though the way she cursed in pain when she went to take off her shoes showed she was, indeed, not fine. Cat raises an eyebrow and sighs, going to get the med kit from under the sink. Clicking her tongue as she comes back, Kara is already sat on the couch, ready for a long speech about being safe.

Surprisingly, it never came.

The yelling, the tears, the hug. None of it. Cat looked up, a million thoughts in her head as she moved to Kara. Butterfly stitches in hand and a wet cloth. The fact that a kryptonite bullet grazed her arm when it could’ve hit somewhere vital scared her. She can’t lose her supergirl.

As she patched Kara up, she was quiet, which never happened. Cat always had something to be mad about, or just needed to talk all the time, she never got to speak up when she was little. So she does it as much as she can.

“I’m sorry. I’ll be more careful.” Blue eyes looked to the light blonde, Cat kissed her lips gently, taking in her blueberry taste, humming softly as she grabbed the other woman’s hips. Moving her softly to lay down. Straddling her waist and her hands go to take off her suit. Kara pulls her off and smiles softly.

“I do this to protect you and Carter, hoping it’s enough.” Cat smiles and pushes her to her back, “You worry me, Kara Zor-El. I try to trust you,” There's a lump in her throat that she swallows to mutter her next words.

“But you can’t promise you’ll come home..” Kara sighs and leaves a trail of kisses on Cat’s lips that could be repeated a million and one times. They’re soft and sweet, peck’s with so much affection.

“I know.”

~

Laid on the bed, her legs wide, waiting for Kara to, “make it up” to her for being home so late. Cat smiles at the ceiling.

A soft gasp erupts when she feels a soft kiss on her thigh, her skirt being lifted slowly by a blonde in a blue sweater.

She feels euphoric as her black lace is touched softly, muscular hands pressing as soft as one could.

“Such a cute choice, baby.” The blonde finally spoke, she looked up and smiled. Grabbing the hem of her skirt and pulling it down, finding the hen of her panties along the way.

Pulling them down to the older woman’s ankles, she smiled and folded them, putting them on the chair of the vanity in their room.

Cat props against the headboard and takes off her buttoned blouse. She’s rather quick with it, she’s been stressed and this is what she needs. She sighs and tosses it to the ground, along with her push up bra.

Kara laughed and kissed her tummy, thin, yet covered in stretch marks. Wishing to kiss them all, though she knew Cat would grow rather impatient.

She reaches up and grabs her wife’s breast gently, smiling at the small squeak that comes from her. Rolling her nipple gently between her fingers, she leans and kisses Cats lips. “I love you.” She mutters against them.

She pulls away and kisses down the valley between her breasts, sucking and licking gently.

She grins when she gets to where Cat needs her. Arousal running down her thighs, her puffy folds. So pretty and pink.

She kisses Cats clit and runs a finger along her slit. Cat groans and her hips buck into the air, causing Kara to giggle.

“Baby, I need you..” Cat whines, Kara slowly inserts a pair of fingers in Cat's entrance. The short hair blonde moans softly and bites her lip in fear of being too loud.

Kara went slow, not wanting to hurt Cat, but she’s just so in love with how Cat whimpers and moans when she moves.

Kara groans when she can just hear how wet her lover is. She speeds up, finding a soft spongy spot that makes Cat go crazy.

“Fuck- I- Kar-” Cat whines and grabs Kara’s hair, pressing her into her clit.

While Kara focuses on pumping her fingers, Cat focuses on humping Kara’s mouth, breathy moans escaping her red lips.

“Kara, baby, I’m gonna- I’m gonna cum.” She whines, just before cumming, she feels Kara lick her clit and press her G-Spot hard, she pulls a pillow over her face to suppress a moan she lets out as she squirts on Kara, who laughs softly.

“Feel good?” Kara asks while pulling out. Cat nods and pulls off the pillow. Wiping hair from her face and giggling down at Kara. God that giggle. Kara could have that on repeat.

Cleaning her hands, as well as giving Cat a nice, warm bath.

As of now, the two lay in matching pajamas, (Cat insisted they were dumb.) holding one another. Soft kisses placed causing each other.

~

Carter runs to his mothers room, his supergirl pajamas, his hair in his face and his teeth freshly brushed.

At first, he knocks, no answer. He knocks again. No answer. He gives up and just walks in, seeing Kara wrapped in Cat’s arms. He smiles, happy his mom found someone, he hated seeing her sad and alone, even when no one else would.

Cat hid from everyone but him before Kara came along. She truly helped out.

Running to the left side of the bed, he shakes his mother violently. Receiving a slight push from the older woman.

“Mom mom mom! Wake up! It’s Easter!!” He says excitedly, Cat groans and looks at her phone. She buries her head in Kara’s shoulder to drown out the sound of her loud child.

She was never this excited about holidays when she was young..but then again.

“It’s 6 AM. Go back to bed.” She groans, it’s too early for this shit, honestly, he’s late for school, but can be up this early on a holiday? He huffs and crosses his arms, thinking of ways to get the two women up and ready for the ever so exciting day.

He smiles and walks around the bed to Kara, her eyes open, she smiles as she sees him. “You heard your mom, Carter,” she laughs, wishing to help the boy out, but knows that Cat will be so terribly cranky if she doesn't get her sleep.

He furrowed his eyebrows, “Kara, you’re SUPERGIRL. You don’t even need sleep..or something.” He mumbles the last part, not quite knowing if she actually needs sleep. He quickly makes another excuse as he brushes his curly hair from his eyes, “And you’re my step-mom, you’re supposed to like..sneak around with me and help me break rules.”

She laughs lightly, shaking her head. “We gotta listen to your mom, you know how she gets,” Kara gasps when a small slap from behind her comes down on her unharmed arm, even if it didn’t hurt.

He pouts and starts to make his way back to his room, clearly unhappy with the rejection, but is pulled back softly by a strong arm.

He looks back with a pout and is met with a small lip bite from a thinking Kara. “Lay down with us, bud, I’m sure your mom won’t mind.” His eyebrows raise up, he thinks about it for a second. There’s one pro and one con. A pro: Kara does give good cuddles, especially when feelings are hurt. A con: he’s 12, he shouldn’t have to sleep with his mommy and her girlfriend when he’s upset, he’s not 5 anymore.

Then he looks back to Kara, she has a warm and inviting smile. Truly, could anyone say no? He shakes his head and lays beside her, sighing, a little disappointed in himself. Then again, he doesn’t quite care

“But this is a one time thing, okay?” Kara nods gently, hearing him lie makes her grin. “Sure it is, Carter.”

Cater rolls his eyes, but smiles as she kisses the side of his head. He closes his eyes, breathing softly. He feels Cat reach a hand over and grab his own. He smiles, content with this situation.

“We love you, baby.” Cat mumbles tiredly. Finally realizing how they’re not around forever.

~

She’s sitting with coffee as she watches her son happily grab his Easter basket. Her wife is taking pictures as she breathes in this moment. Carter won’t be this young and innocent forever.

“Mom, Kara! The Easter bunny got me the drone I wanted!” He smiles and shows the two older women. Kara looks at Cat with a smile before taking a picture. Carter got everything he wanted, all the time. It was to make him happy, sure, but it was for Cat too. She spoiled him with the amount of presents two kids would get, so she didn’t feel bad about not getting Adam presents when he was young.

She didn’t even realize she was crying until a soft hand on her thigh came from Kara. “Thank you, babe.” She whispers.

Kara smiles brightly like always, her big white teeth shining. Kara was always so happy, it never made sense. How could someone who fights everyday be so glad?

Cat shook it off as she smiled, her son giggling and her wife checking the pictures she took. Everything was almost perf- Cats head looks to the door when there’s a knock. What barbarian would knock instead of using the doorbell?

Kara got up from the couch immediately, grinning at Cat.

“Your present is here, Cat.” She runs to the door and opens it dramatically. Truly a ray of sunshine if you asked anyone in National City.

“Hi, mom.” Said a tall boy with shaggy hair. Carter looked up, a big smile on his face. Cat’s eyes teared up a second time. She got up and dragged him in, hugging him tight.

“Adam..”

Carter pulled her off him, oh did he have a million questions. “Are you my brother? Mom talks about you a lot!” He says it so quickly his words slur together. Getting told to slow down multiple times.

The rest of the evening is spent between the four of them. A true family.

~

Typically, Cat Grant is not a minute late, nor a second early. On the dot she is. Now when she’s nowhere to be found, the person most worried is Kara.

Kara waits at her desk. Expecting her girlfriend to walk through that door any second. “She’s fine..she’s fine..” Kara mumbles. Cat has to take Adam to the airport, so maybe that’s why she’s late. Smiling to herself as she thinks about yesterday. How she spent it with her favorite people, her thoughts snap when her phone rings.

It’s Alex.

She picks up immediately. Anything could be wrong, a problem at the DEO, problems with Maggie, problems with Eliza. She’d be there for her sister no matter what.

“We need you, Kar. Livewire got out.” Kara sighs, but knows she’s not able to refuse. She grabs her purse and looks at James knowingly. He nods and silently agrees to cover for her when Cat arrives.

She runs out of the building and down the stairs, grabbing the top of her shirt and unbuttoning it as she runs, the only thing on her mind is to protect her family. Taking her hair down as it flows behind her like the fur of a golden retriever, and if we’re honest, she is one. Her happy demeanor was hardly ever broken.

She jumps and soars into the blue sky, flying around buildings, faster than the cars, searching for a certain hidden building.

Crashing down in front of the DEO doors, chipping the cement, she ignored it and ran inside. Hastily she looked for Alex, who came up next to her with a slight frown. She gets in front of Kara, slowly walking backwards so she’s face to face with her sister.

“Okay, don’t worry, but,” This automatically worries Kara. A dangerous villain is out on the loose, someone who hates her guts, of course she’s worried. “But she has Cat.” Kara stops walking forward, her world stops as a matter of fact. She can’t help the tears that come to her eyes, this can’t be happening.

If Kara knew this had happened, she would’ve arrived faster.

She would’ve been more prepared.

“Give me the location.” She spoke as they walked behind Winn, who apparently took a bit of his sweet time, “Now, God damnit!” Kara snapped at the smaller person, who flinched under her touch of his shoulders. He quickly typed and tracked them down, before he could even mutter a sentence, Kara was gone.

~

Kara didn’t expect to walk into an old abandoned warehouse today, but it’s happening anyway. With her DEO team in the parking lot for backup, she breathed and walked in slowly, it was dark, spider webs hung in the corner. A great place of hide out if you asked her.

She swore she heard the distant voice of cat sassing Leslie. She rolled her eyes, but, deep down, she worried. Keeping this up, Cat could die sooner than later. She hurried toward the voice, finding her lover quickly.

She smiled as tears ran down her face, she quickly kneeled behind the chair to untie Cat, but she’s pulled back by her hair, she bit her own tongue and looked up to the owner of the hand as she was thrown backwards onto the hard, dusted cement.

The white haired woman chuckled, hiding Cat from Kara's vision. “Well, look what the Cat quite literally dragged in.” She smiled brightly, Kara's face opposed Livewires. She got up and took a step closer, but was stopped when her former co-worker came behind them both, holding a knife to Cat's throat.

“Another step and the poor kitty gets it.” Siobhan whispered with a grin. Kara Stopped, she can’t risk Cat’s life. She thought slowly, but seconds later, she used her super speed to round Livewire and pull the other villain away from her wife. Siobhan being thrown to the wall, her knife still in hand. The Knife grazes Kara and only then does she realize it’s green hue. She curses softly but pays no other mind, hoping it won't come back for her in the end. She unties Cat before anyone can do anything, carrying her bridal style as she speeds to the parking lot, the other two sure to follow behind.

She puts Cat down and shoves her in the direction of Alex, she turns around quick and is met with a stab to her stomach, blood seeps out as the knife turns, she groans and holds her stomach when its removed, trying to stand straight, she throws a punch to Siobhan, who falls to the ground. Livewire goes to shoot electricity to the way of security, but is stopped by Kara, whose mouth is slowly filling with blood. Her wrist being caught as she’s flipped and thrown to the ground.

Security of the DEO go to grab the two villains as Kara falls to the ground with a huff.

She’s ran to by Cat who holds her in her arms softly, tears in both their eyes. Kara smiled goofily, holding her stomach.

“Hey, Cat..” She giggles but winces in pain. A finger is brought up to her lips from a sobbing Cat.

“Hi, Love,” she brushes Kara's hair behind her ear with a frown, she can see Kara's eye grow heavy, this only makes her cry harder, Alex comes beside Cat and puts a hand on her shoulder, Tears of her own falling.

“You did great, Kar. You- You did really great.” Alex bits her lip, not sure what else to say as she watches her sister die. Cat presses a soft kiss to Kara’s forehead, swallowing the lump in her throat.

“Love you, C-Cat.”

“Love you too, Kara Zor-El.”

~

Cat opens the door to Alex’s car, finding her home lit up. She smiles softly, but it becomes the opposite when it crosses her mind she has to tell Carter.

Walking to her door, trying not to look behind her at Alex who just wants to make sure she gets in safe, she unlocks her door and finds Carter on the couch playing Mario Kart With a slumped Winn.

She sits next to Carter and sighs. Biting her lip, he turns to her, a soft, happy expression. “Where’s Kara?” He asks, it wasn’t unusual for his mom to come home alone. Tears flood her eyes and she picks her nails.

“She’s not coming home.

That night is spent with Carter laying in Cats arms while he sobs. Cats trying to keep it together. She fails slightly as she rubs his back softly.

“I love you, Carter.” She whispered into his ear before it was too late.

[majoringinsarcasm]

WHAT THE HECK IS UP PARTY PEOPLE THIS EPISODE WAS MADE FOR ME SPECIFICALLY LETS GOOOOO

Well if we didn’t know from the title alone what was gonna happen heheheheh

WAIT THE INTO CHANGED E SEE JAUNES FACE SHUT UP AHHHH

Oh ok I see this chapter was made to hurt me personally ok cool

HE SAW CRESCENT ROSE????

what the fuck

This is a literal horror movie HE PICKED A CLOCK FROM A TREE AND TIME WENT BACKWARDS HES ALL ALONE

Hey uh here uh hey what the FUCK

HE HAD TO WAIT FOR THEM TO FALL im sick I’m so sick

NOT A GROUP HUG I SAID I WOULD DISSOLVE AND NOW IM CRYING NOOOOOOOOO

I’m so serious if he dies or cannot go back home I will not be able to handle it. Like y’all don’t get it I will Not be consolable

AYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY AYYYYYYYYYYYY KARA MUST BE LOVING THIS OK WHITEKNIGHT OK OK I SEE YOU

I know a lot of ppl don’t like it bc early volume Jaune was a total dork loser nerd almost nice guy but really he wasn’t he was just a dork but I don’t have many super strong opinions about ships besides the bees, Renora and I think Rosegarden is cute. So while I’m not like an active Whiteknight shipper…. Girl get it lmao WEISS YOUR FACE HAHAHAH

Im gonna Cry

Like I just wanna be clear I’m not Mad at Jaune At All. This poor guy has been here alone for years and has had plenty of time to “lick his wounds” but he had to do it Alone with no outside input or kind words or a friend to cry with. Him being harsh makes me sad bc it just. When Ren yelled at him after they lost Oscar he didn’t lash out or Anything but the girls sitting and talking and arguing sets him off bc. He’s been ALONE I’m so sick

His village 🥺 he knows the names of places I’m

What if he really doesn’t go back I know there was talk of Neo staying behind but y’all

Im. Going. To. Scream.

WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ONNNNNNNNNNNNMN also I can’t tell if the Ever After has independent weather as well as reaching to Ruby OR if it’s now reaching to Jaune

Im scared

WHO

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO bitch we are getting Lore

Is the cat Louis / Lewis

This cat leave my man ALONE

BITCH WHAT IS HAPPENING

A PUNDERSTORM???? Or like Ponder said a different way THIS IS SO MUCH

And it does have its own weather lmao

UM WEISS HELLO

she really is the star of this volume like I’m sorry that’s the truth

“Must’ve had something bigger to work out” OK OK OK OK OK

Ok but I hate heights so I would throw up or pass out if I was Blake and Yang like bruh

HOW DO WE TSKE THE NEXT STEP AHHHHHHHHHHH

LOL Jaune please

Ok so time loops and time trickery are hard. So. Jaune turned back time enough for Alyx and Louis to show up which was. A long time ago maybe idk. So it’s not Neo bc Neo had not yet fallen.so what the hell did Herb show her

POISON?????

Stop it oh my god they’re too cute the emotional whiplash of me crying over Jaune and me crying over Bees I can’t handle it

SHE THINKS HER CAT EARS ARE CUUUUUTE

MAYBE ITS SAYING THINGS WE NEVER SAID TO EACH OTHER

Blake loves how honest Yang is. Adam only ever told her lies or tried to convince her that his way was the correct way. Yang listens to her and never sugarcoats; she never tries to trick. She Does What She Says

Blake never gave up on her even when she showed similar signs of being like Adam she decided to trust her. She wasn’t intimidated by how loud and brash and in her space Yang was. She knows what matters to her and has never been afraid to go for them

ANY BIG TRUTHS WE HAVEN'T DROPPED ON EACH OTHER YET

NOBODY TOUCH ME THE COLORS ARE SO BEAUTIFUL YANG IS AFRAID TO STEP OUT ONTO THE OPEN AIR SHE IS AFRAID BUT BLAKE ITS OK ITS OK YANG BLAKE WILL BE THERE WITH YOU

Also the blushing here is like idk what but it looks so good. Like I can’t describe what I mean but the way it makes their eyes look so bright it’s just very good AND SEEING YANG BLUSH SO MUCH SHE'S SO CUTE

EVERYONE SIT DOWN NOBODY MOVE GET ON THE GROUND LOOK AT THIIIIIIIS LOOK AT THEEEEEEM

BLAKE LMAO BLAKE WAS READYYYYYY

STOP ATOP STOP IM CRYING OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOOOD THEY ARE SO CUUUUUUUUTE THE BLUSHING IM TELLING YOU ITS SO GOOD THIS IS ALL SO FUCKING BEAUTIFUL

DO YOU LOVE THE COLOR OF THE BUMBLEBY SKY

and then back to my saddest boy ever GOD the whiplash

Alright cat I understand how you feel. But the girls up front told you they were trying to go home. Yes they were trying to get you to take them there but they didn’t offer you any deals or say they would bring you to Remnant. Unless you’re Louis and we’re betrayed by your sister in which case that’s fucked up and I’m on your side it all depends on WHAT THE FUCK ALYX DID DOES ANYONE KNOW CAUSE WE STILL DONT

but like we have four episodes left WHAT are we gonna do gang

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

NOT BLAKE WITH THE PRINCESS DIARIES FOOT POP

JAUNE SHIPS IT TOO LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOO LMAO HES BEEN WAITING THE LONGEST OF ANYONE

oh my god if that’s crescent rose I’m gonna scream

Oh but she doesn’t want it / isn’t ready to pick it up again GOD IM CRYING

so. Is she gonna trade crescent rose in order to leave is that the vibe I’m getting.

GOD THAT WAS SO FUCKING GOOD I won’t lie I was spoiled about the kiss but that was my own being silly fault but I only knew that they did kiss and not THE COMPLIMENTS AND CONFESSION BRIDGE and also like. Y’all I love Jaune Arc of the Arc Family so goddamn much so this episode was for me THEY CHANGED THE INTRO TO SHOW HIS SAD FACE god lordy what the fuck is next week gonna do to me

[imawholeassmood]

Hi, Friend! Hope you don't mind :) I've been in slump lately and I couldn't resist.

Kara pulls up to the storefront of her latest assignment, new notepad in hand. She taps her pen on the yellow paper a few times to let out some of the nervous energy that built on her drive over. Cat Grant, her boss and owner of Catco Media, finally trusted Kara enough to take the lead on a story. It didn’t matter that Kara never heard of Lena Luthor, the woman she was here to interview. That’s the thing about being a journalist - you can’t Google your subjects when you’re the one writing the search result articles about them.

With one final deep breath, Kara scoops her mini recorder from the passenger seat – Cat’s orders – and exits the car. She smooths the wrinkles from her button down, checking her appearance one final time in the reflection of the blacked-out window. Kara doesn’t make much of it until the door opens and she’s met with…boobs. A body. A body with boobs and a head, hair, eyes. Wow. Gorgeous eyes and boobs. Kara can’t keep her eyes from flicking everywhere over this woman’s body, unsure where it’s safe for them to land.

“You must be Ms. Danvers.”

Rao, that voice. Deep and sultry, tinged with a hint of something, amusement maybe? almost makes Kara lose feeling in her hands. The clacking of her recorder against the pavement snaps Kara to attention as she realizes she did lose feeling her hands. She drops to the ground to pick up the pieces of her shattered recorder and looks up to find herself eye level with the bottom hem of the leather apron cutting across the woman’s bare thighs. Her face burns and she resists the urge blow out a slow, deep breath considering her proximity to…she jumps to her feet and thrusts a hand out.

“Kara Danvers,” she says, “Catco Media.”

A perfectly manicured eyebrow rises along with the corners of this woman’s red-stained lips and Kara thinks she maybe hasn’t ruined her first job yet.

“Lena Luthor,” the woman says, taking Kara’s hand. “Luthor Leathers.”

Lena’s hand is calloused and small in Kara’s, but she can feel the strength in her grip. It surprises Kara to find she likes how firmly Lena holds her hand.

“Miss Luthor,” Kara begins, but is interrupted.

“Please,” Lena says, pulling Kara closer, “call me Mistress.”

Kara’s mouth goes dry, but she’s determined to get through this interview. Pulling her hand back to herself after Lena releases it, Kara continues.

“Mistress Luthor.”

“No,” Lena says, unmoving. “Just Mistress.”

Looking into Lena’s eyes, Kara resolves herself. “Yes, Mistress,” she says, catching what she hopes is a glint of approval.

Lena hums softly. “Good girl,” she says. Kara preens and stands a bit taller.

Now that they’ve made it past introductions, Kara steps fully into the store, allowing the door to close behind her. Without the harsh sunlight filtering inside, the atmosphere dims to a more intimate feel. Glancing around, Kara expects to find purses, coats, boots, or any of the usual hand-crafted leather goods she’s used to seeing on the shelves of successful consumer-based businesses. Instead, she finds, well, she’s not sure what exactly she finds. There’s something that looks like a riding crop, if she remembers what she used to know about horses correctly. There are a few other handled items with multiple leather strips hanging on a wall display next to a series of leather cuffs. Before Kara can ask, Lena turns and walks deeper into the store.

Kara’s eyes focus on Lena’s milky white backside as if drawn there by magnets. Ok, she thinks, Lena isn’t entirely naked under her leather apron. She’s wearing…straps. And now Kara is thinking about what the straps across Lena’s front looks like as her feet follow Lena on their own accord.

“Please,” Lena says, holding open a door, “let’s talk in my playroom.”

“Playroom?” Kara says, stopping in the doorway. “It’s not a workshop?”

Lena smiles like she’s proud of Kara for asking, and a warmth settles in Kara's stomach.

“Workshop sounds so…serious,” Lena says. “I’m in the business of pleasure. Sit.”

Kara sits where Lena indicated. The seat isn’t exactly comfortable and looks like a miniature half picnic table with a narrow bench and a narrow top, though the leather is divine. Circling behind her, Lena drags her fingers across Kara’s shoulders. The sensation sends a shiver down to Kara’s toes. She tries to keep her focus straight ahead and not follow Lena’s barely covered body as she takes her own seat on a leather sofa across from Kara.

“I agreed to this interview, Miss Danvers,” Lena says, crossing one leg over the other. Kara keeps her eyes laser focused on Lena’s face. “Because Cat Grant assured me of your discretion and focus on women’s empowerment.”

Wanting to put Lena at ease, Kara nods and says, “yes, miss-, yes, Mistress.” Her cheeks still flush with the term, but Lena’s cool composure slips momentarily, and Kara suddenly doesn’t feel as awkward. In fact, she feels downright amazing, a fire igniting inside her.

“I’m sure by now you’ve noticed,” Lena says, “my business serves a rather niche clientele.”

Kara looks around the room, taking in the bed for the first time. And the silk ropes hanging from a chain in the ceiling. A wall of leather goods, similar to the ones in the storefront. And in the middle of it all, a craft table with leather-working tools.

“Is that where the magic happens?” she asks without thinking, turning back to Lena who is biting back a smile.

“Yes, Miss Danvers. This is where the magic happens.”

Kara’s so excited thinking about Lena working at the table, her strong hands working the leather with precision, she allows herself to voice her question out loud.

“Could I get a demonstration?”

At that, both of Lena’s brows shoot up before her gaze drops into something more sinister. “Off the record?”

Saw an ad for a company called LuthorLeathers and it gave me the most ridiculous idea for a fanfic premise…

My thinking is that Kara’s first job as a reporter is to help write an article on successful self made businesswomen. She’s assigned to Lena Luthor, a lady she’s never heard of. She doesn’t realize until she arrives at the interview, that this Lena Luthor is the craftsman and owner of the acclaimed leather and bdsm gear company, LuthorLeathers. Whatever will this innocent ball of sunshine do? Can she make it through the interview without combusting?

[hobiefan]

EVIL OR NOT PT FOUR . the song to listen to for this is link up on Spotify 😁😁😁

The next thing you knew your sisters were snapping a pic giggling like children and they were well over children’s age. You immediately got up and snuck into your sisters room taking their phone and deleting the picture. We’re not a thing you said sassily. Yes you are you and him are so cuuute! You rolled your eyes and left out her room tossing the phone. So who was that you heard from a corner. Good morning sleepy head. You teased laughing at hobies messy hair. It was ….. cute you would admit to your self but never to him. Like ever…… you thought. As soon as he got his stuff you got your suit for the morning it was a cropped shirt and pants/shoes. You grabbed his arm and jumped out the window into an alley where there. We’re 7 other motorcycles they were your sisters they were also in the stealing business you gave him a spare helmet and he grabbed your waist he prefers swinging but you were insistent. You drove him to his new home and dropped him off. Hey uh “Kara” why weren’t you fighting me last night you took a moment to answer but it got clear after a second. I’m not interested in fighting just stealing the faster I steal the more I can get. You drove off tossing him the keys. Bye spidey you yelled chuckling. When you got back to your house your sisters were waiting. So what happened Ariyah asked she was one of your seven sisters. Ariyah,Adria,Leloni , Kaylen , Genesis, Tori and Chloe. Nothing literally nothing cause we’re not a thing chloe knew what happened she followed you. She dropped him off at a house and then left. But he was holding her waist the whole ride like they’re totally a thing. They made a big deal of everything. I literally hate you you didn’t really hate them but it was annoying. Shut up and get ready for our concert later, you had a female band called the figure eights and you guys were probably the most famous band in the whole world.  You were putting on your make up and watching tv when it started to ran very hard. Leloni came in asking if we should still have the show. Of course just have water proof make up. Now let’s go. You were the youngest but the most on time too. When you got there it was raining but pouring with fans they were all screaming and cheering. You guys gave out hugs and said hi to some kids recorded with some people before the show.when you started singing there were fans making crowns symboling you were the queens of music. Next thing you knew there he was hobie in the crowd cheering. You were is favorite ba- group of musicians that came together to make music. You immediately started smiling while dancing. After your third song you all had a radio interview but since you couldn’t be there you told the fans to quiet down so you could hear the face time. They could see and hear your every word. When you were done you walked off the stage and greeted more fans than smiled and waved at hobie. He didn’t know you were y/n or cat woman. As you were walking kaylen pulled your high pony. Ouch what the heck Kayla. She stared at you and hobie. You rolled your eyes and scoffed. All your sisters stared. You flipped them off and the whole crowd went ooOOoOoOhhhh. You laughed and went to the Uber that was going to pick you all up. You took off your makeup and took down your hair then you heard a thump on top of your car, you took adrias police taser ,opened the sunroof turned it on and BZZZZBZZZ. You stuck your head out the roof and it was………. Spider punk ya..hoo. Hey driver make a u turn you right away. It threw hobie off the roof and put him in the grass. It was honestly kinda creepy how he was followed you. Or he was on a mission and just jumped on your car. Oh well you thought to your self. You sat back in the car and looked like you saw a ghost.

 You finally sat down and just thought.

[from-a-reckless-writer]

here's me jumping into the bandwagon :D

(read on ao3)

It's just after sunset when Kara finally gives in. She veers off from her patrol down to a route she knows by heart.

The moment she lands, the first thing she notices is how the sliding doors are a fraction open. It’s a small thing, nothing to even be thrilled about, yet still, her drumming heart cannot be helped.

"Knock, knock," she says, stepping inside.

Her heart turning anxious when she takes in the sight in front of her. The room is a mess; books on the floor, drawers open, Lena’s frazzled appearance. She's standing over a suitcase thrown open in the middle of the bed, a mountain of clothes on top of it.

She was told that Lena was going on a trip, that it would probably take three weeks tops.

Packing for a trip doesn’t look like this, this looks a lot like... leaving.

Going on a trip, Kara remembers that’s what her family told her too.

You and Kal are going on a trip but you don’t have to worry, we’ll be with you the rest of the way, they told her.

A trip implies there would be a home to come back to. And Kara believed it. She believed it for a total of ten seconds before her planet exploded and a shard of her home knocked her off-course.

"Need some help?" Her voice doesn’t tremble. Kara considers that a miracle, really.

"I didn't know Supergirl helped poor hapless women pack suitcases,” Lena retorts, walking over to her and kissing her cheek in greeting. It doesn't go unnoticed by Kara how clingy Lena's been since she's been back.

"Well, I wouldn’t exactly consider you poor and hapless," Kara counters.

"I may have had a slight,” Lena pinches her thumb and forefinger together, “panic over which and what to pack earlier.”

Yeah, Kara can definitely see that.

"Good thing I’m here then?”

"It's always good whenever you're around,” Lena says in such a casual way and it’s like the past year didn’t happen. As if it has always been this good. And...is this even allowed? This much affection from Lena? All the sweet words, the gentle touches, and the constant close proximity? It shouldn’t be allowed, not if it will be taken from her almost immediately after.

Unfair, is what it is.

******

“Okay, so why don’t we just move this out here yeah?” Kara voices, leaning over and hugging the lump of clothes to her chest, dumps it out from the suitcase and onto Lena’s pillows.

Lena’s fabric conditioner filling Kara’s senses entirely. For a brief moment, she considers stealing one of Lena’s shirts then and there. Something to tide her through once Lena leaves.

“Great. You’re on folding duty then,” Lena declares, “I’ll just go sort my babies, quickly. I’ll be right back.”

(Her 'babies' being the thick books lining every inch of this place.)

Lena disappears through the door. The domesticity of it all pulling at Kara’s chest.

In another world, where life ran a little differently, Kara would be packing their suitcases for a trip to Argo, or maybe one of the planets she’s always wanted Lena to see, or maybe it’d be nothing that grand. Maybe, just a trip back to Midvale. Lena would read to her on the whole drive there, her hair whipping from the winds down coastal roads.

Maybe not even a trip. Maybe in this other world, she’s assigned on folding duty, while Lena tinkers around their house. Maybe, even a dog or a cat. Maybe, something small at first, just an aquarium of fishes.

She doesn’t notice how deep into the fantasy she’s gotten till Lena speaks up from the door.

"My, my, CatCo would pay a million dollars to see this."

"Uh-"

"Supergirl found in bed, folding Lena Luthor's undies."

Kara looks down at her hand. She’s holding a lacy purple panty, she spots the matching bra laying a few inches away. She drops it lightning quick, feels her face flush.

"Oh, Rao. Lena, I'm so sorry I didn't mean to- I wasn't- It was just there and I-"

"Relax, Kara. I was just teasing,” Lena reassures her, she’s got three books tucked in her arms, she lays them down on the bed, before picking up the underwear Kara’s dropped and folding it neatly.

The contrast of the dark fabric against Lena’s pale fingers makes Kara flush an even brighter red.

Kara tries hard to exclude Lena's lacy panties in her fantasy.

She fails.

******

They give up on packing entirely two hours later. An all out pillow fight breaks out somewhere between Kara fishing out her favorite hoodie from the pile--discovering t'was not in fact missing like she thought it was--and Lena denying that she stole it.

They’ve fallen right on top of Lena’s clothes. Laying opposite each other, Lena lying upside down, her feet propped up on the pillows, toes touching the headboard, whilst Kara’s legs dangle at the end of the bed. Their heads close together.

From this angle, she can see the defined slope of Lena’s nose; stares at the way her lashes curl every time she blinks.

“So, what do you think you’ll find there?” Kara breathes out into the silence.

“I don’t really know,” Lena whispers.

“Let me rephrase then; what do you want to find?”

“I- I don’t know either.”

She tries to crane her neck to take a better look at Lena. Her eyes are closed, and it takes every ounce of self-control for Kara not to lean over and just press a kiss to Lena’s lips. It would be so, so easy. She settles for shifting just a bit closer instead, their temples touching.

It’s good enough.

“That’s okay," Kara murmurs, "not knowing is part of the adventure, right?”

She tries not to think about how she isn’t really part of this adventure. It isn’t about her, really. Kara’s decided the next three days will be about Lena. Kara will have time for breaking down once Lena leaves. The three days pales in comparison to how much Lena’s sacrificed in getting her back.

“I guess so.” she hears Lena say.

On the ceiling, Kara sees two shadows dancing with each other, tries not to look too deep into it.

And then,

“I had Jess trace down a couple of documents for me,”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. There’s an orphanage that could help me, she thinks.”

Kara’s ears perk up at that, she imagines Lena as a small child crying for her mom and then being whisked away from everything she ever knew. Kara wishes she could hold that little girl’s hand. Why did nobody hold Lena’s hand through it all? Kara wonders if somebody did, would Lena even have met her? Would she have needed somebody like Kara in her life? She likes to believe that Lena would still have met her. A reality without Lena was too painful, Kara knows all too well.

“Is that where you’re going to visit first?”

“Yeah.”

A brief silence engulfs them.

“Hey, Kara,” Lena calls out. “Do you think-”

There’s a deep exhale and a sigh.

“Do I think what?”

“Do you think my mom would want me to find her again? Do you think she’s proud of me?”

The question was so full of uncertainty and insecurity and there's nothing that Kara wants more than to just wrap around Lena and tell her how goddamn amazing she is.

“Oh, Lena," Kara whispers, "your mom would be so happy if you found her. I’d even say she’s been waiting for you. And of course, she’s proud of you!” Kara sits up at this, can’t contain all her awe for Lena.

“You’re amazing! Have you met you? Your mom would be so proud of you. I just know it, Lena.”

Lena opens her eyes, smiles shyly at her, reaches up to cup Kara’s cheek. Even though the angle is awkward, Kara feels her entire being light up at the touch.

“Thank you. You always know just what to say.”

Kara's right hand comes up to keep Lena’s hand steady, before tilting slowly to press a kiss to her palm.

She registers the up-tick in her heartbeat before letting go and laying back down again.

Kara’s beginning to understand, now. Lena doesn’t want to wonder anymore, maybe if she knew where she came from, who she could’ve been, and what kind of life she could’ve led, existing wouldn’t be as hard as it is now. Maybe Lena wanted to know that a Luthor isn’t all that she is. Even though Kara has repeated again and again that she is so much more. Lena needs to figure that out for herself, Kara guesses.

Maybe, Lena finally needs a name other than what has been ingrained in her. Maybe Lena needs to name the parts of herself she never had before.

“Maybe you came from a family of thieves,” Kara murmurs, closing her eyes too.

“Kara.” she feels Lena shift, she opens one eye to see Lena propped on her elbows leaning over her. “Are you saying you think being a hoodie thief is genetic?”

“You never know, Lena you never know,” Kara manages to say, her brain a loop of, Lena’s eyes are so pretty, so pretty, so pretty, her hair smells so nice, please kiss me, please kiss-

Kara closes her eyes again to make the chanting stop.

“You do know I'm a scientist, right?”

“Mm. Doesn’t make you any less of a hoodie thief.”

That earns her a pillow on the face.

“Personally, I think you’re some lost princess though," Kara divulges.

Lena lets out a loud incredulous laugh at that.

“What?" Lena blurts out, "You think I’m a princess?”

There’s a cheesy pick-up line there somewhere that Kara chooses to ignore.

“Well, you have the whole Snow White look down to a T, after all. Pale skin, dark hair. The whole ensemble really.”

"I can't believe I'm agreeing to this," Lena groans, “but, I think you might be right. God, I even have the whole evil stepmother-stepbrother dynamic down. Does that make you one of my dwarfs?”

“Dwarf? Really? Lena, really?”

She’s glad to learn that Lena had picked up a thing or two from their Disney marathons. That doesn’t mean Kara appreciates being called a dwarf though. She sits up and leans back on her elbows too; their faces inches from each other now. Lena’s eyes gleaming with mischief.

“You turn into Grumpy when someone eats your ice cream.”

Kara gasps, clutches her heart as if wounded and falls down dramatically. Lena just laughs at her, lies down again before asking, “Think I’ll find Prince Charming there, then?”

“You don’t need Prince Charming.”

I’m right here.

“True,” Lena agrees. Lena doesn’t need anybody, although would it really hurt if she says that she needed Kara the way Kara needs her?

“Ireland seems like the best place to run off into the sunset though," Lena wonders aloud.

“Is that what you wanna do?” Kara asks, “Just run off into the sunset?”

Because, because, if it is, I can do something even better. I can fly you off into the sunset. All you have to do is ask. Her heart is galloping in her chest and she’s grateful that out of the two of them, she’s the only one with super hearing.

“No, I don’t think so,” Lena answers and Kara lets out a none too subtle breath of relief.

“You don’t have to search for a home, you know,” Kara whispers. She just- She just needs Lena to know this, okay?

“I know,” Lena answers. “I still need to do this though.”

Once Lena Luthor makes up her mind there’s no changing it, it’s something Kara’s come to know through the years.

“You’ll come back soon though?”

“Maybe. Honestly, Kara? I don’t really know about ‘soon’. How close is ‘soon’ anyway? Would there even be a good reason for me to come back?”

How Kara held her all screams in the moment Lena said that, she doesn’t know.

******

There are balloons and cake and confetti but it doesn’t feel anything remotely close to a party.

It feels more something along the lines of, train wreck and heartbreak and building on fire. In short, disaster.

She vaguely registers Kelly asking her to hover and hang the banner. Why would she want to hang a banner screaming “We”ll Miss You!” in glittering blue? Kara grabs the ends of it and hangs it up anyway.

We’ll Miss You doesn't even begin to cover Kara’s feelings about Lena’s departure and oncoming absence.

But then again, this isn’t about her.

The door buzzes before Kara can spiral down her blackhole again.

Andrea comes in through the door with a bottle of champagne, which she hands off to Kara along with her coat. Kara fumbles after Andrea.

This isn’t CatCo! I’m not your employee! And champagne? Really? What is there to celebrate?

Lena arrives shortly after and streamers are let out. They make in-jokes and everyone’s laughing and Alex keeps telling Lena to bring home ‘some of the good stuff’ and Brainy keeps asking if he’s allowed to tinker with Lena’s projects while she's away, and Nia’s handing Lena an old film camera, “Document everything for me? Alright?" and Kara’s trying, she really, really is.

Even though she can’t understand how all of them are happy and smiling at the thought of Lena leaving them.

She doesn’t even notice what she’s doing till she’s bracing herself for take-off out in Lena’s balcony, when a hand lands on her wrist.

“Hey.” Lena anchors her back to the ground. It’s a mistake to turn and meet Lena’s eyes.

“Stay? Please?” Lena asks.

Unfair, Kara thinks again. It’s unfair that she gets to ask that.

******

Kara stays.

She stays till the lights are off, the blankets drawn and Lena’s snoring in her arms.

She’s eyeing the suitcase at the corner of the room.

I forgive you, she thinks, I forgive you for taking my heart in the suitcase you packed.

She didn’t even know it was trapped inside till Lena’s zipping everything up and Kara couldn’t breathe.

“Please, please, don’t go,” she pleads into the dark. .

Lena shifts, mumbles incoherently and burrows deeper into Kara.

******

The runway is shimmering after the early morning drizzle, and Lena Luthor looks like someone from a magazine, standing there in her velvet coat and aviators. There’s only the two of them, and there’s a smug pride in Kara about the fact that Lena didn’t want anybody here but her.

She’s leaving today. In a few hours, they’ll be on different continents. Kara wouldn’t be able to trace her heartbeat anymore. Lena made her promise not to chase the plane. She’s still pretty bummed about that.

“You know I’m gonna call you everyday, right?” Kara mutters in her ear, arms wrapped tight around Lena.

“I wouldn’t expect anything less from Kara Danvers.” Lena squeezes back, before pulling away.

“G-good.”

“Well, this is my ride,” Lena tells her, gestures to the jet behind her. “This is goodbye then.”

“For now.” Kara insists.

“For now.” Lena confirms, “Goodbye, for now.”

She turns to go but Kara can’t-

“Lena, wait.”

She tugs on Lena’s hand and she comes back to her willingly. Before Kara loses the nerve, she presses into Lena’s lips. She cups her face gently, feels the warmth of the sun on her cheeks, feels the moment Lena’s brain catches up to what’s happening.

It doesn’t taste like goodbye, Kara realizes. It tastes like a promise of something more.

“What was that for?” Lena breathes out, Kara can hear their hearts hammering in sync.

“Your reason to come back home.”

[special shoutout to @mssirey who gave great writing advice to this poor hapless writer（〃｀ 3′〃）i kith u on the forehead. ]

[pippytmi]

16 + 4 + 2 (werewolf supercorp?)

It is not uncommon for Kara to wake up in a puddle of blood.

At this point she is immune to the shock that comes with it, really. She has adapted; knows all the best tricks to get stains out of her clothes, knows all the best laundromats that don’t ask any questions. Heck, she even has Alex’s ex-girlfriend on speed dial, just in case there is a freak chance the blood Kara wakes up in might be human (it has not happened yet, knock on wood).

But there are other parts that still take some getting used to. Like, for example, the loss of memory that comes with every night of the full moon. Because yeah, she understands why she wakes up in a pool of blood. What she doesn’t understand is why this time around she wakes up in a pool of her own blood, and in so much pain that it hurts to open her eyes.

“Ow,” Kara whispers to herself, twisting onto her side with a groan. Her clothes are gone—no surprise—but even as she is laying down on the cold, rocky forest floor, the only thing she can focus on is how much her head hurts. She’s dealt with branch scratches, sore legs and arms, the occasional plethora of bug bites, but never a headache. Her one comfort is that at least she has made it into the backyard of Sam’s cabin. It takes a considerable amount of strength to push herself up off the ground; walking is going to be much harder than anticipated.

If Alex saw her now, she'd—well first she would hit Kara over the head and yell at her about being dumb, but afterwards she would snicker. And probably hit her over the head again for good measure.

“Oh my God—!”

Okay, it’s official. Kara is now dead. Even if the stranger gawking at her is not the one who kills her, Alex definitely will.

And it’s that thought that makes Kara drop right back down on the floor, knocking the wind right out of her lungs, and she groans into the dirt pitifully.

“Oh, fuck,” the stranger whispers, almost as if to herself, scrambling to come to Kara’s side. “Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck this shit. Fuck!” Said stranger belatedly claps a hand over her mouth, green eyes widening in horror. “Holy shit, are you alive?”

Kara pitifully rests her cheek against the ground and tries not to look too offended. “Uh, kind of,” she replies. (So this must not be Sam’s cabin, then.) “Sorry. Am I in your yard? It is a very nice yard. Five stars.”

“No, it’s not my—I’m house-sitting,” the woman explains, though she is giving Kara a look that says really? That’s what you want to focus on right now?

“Well, it’s still a nice place,” Kara says, because she is polite and small talk is always a good thing to fall back on when you’re naked on a pile of dead leaves. “Wait, I don’t suppose you’re house-sitting for Sam, are you? Sam Arias, super tall, has a daughter who is freakishly good at checkers?”

Stranger-who-swears-like-a-sailor frowns. “How do you know Sam?” she asks suspiciously.

“She dated my sister. It was a whole—it’s a thing,” Kara says. “You know?”

“Wait. Are you Kara? Are you Alex’s sister?”

“Yes! So you do know!” Kara would grin if her face were capable of any emotion besides mind-shattering pain. “Then you must be Sam’s friend…uh, bear with me…Lena? Or Jess?”

“Lena,” says the woman, still notably wary, so Kara makes the decision to wiggle until she can prop herself up her elbows and look less, well, like a corpse.

“Hey, got it in one!” Kara says as cheerfully as she can muster. “Well, it’s nice to meet you. And can I just—uh, say—that you don’t have to worry. I won’t die here or anything. I know you would obviously be the number one suspect for murder and it wouldn’t be nice of me to put you through that.”

“…right. Never mind that you would be dead, or anything.” Lena begins to shakily unbutton her coat like a woman possessed, as if her doubt has morphed entirely into concern now that she has confirmation the freak naked in Sam’s backyard is not an entire stranger. “Here, this is long enough to cover you. Do you—do you need help getting up?”

“No, no, I’ve got it, thank you,” Kara insists, and gradually, she manages; she shifts sideways and then tentatively onto her butt, and accepts the coat when it’s all but thrown at her face. There is blood mixed in with the leaves and general guck beneath her, and she winces at the sight. “I’ll come back and clean this later,” she’s quick to add, and Lena frowns in response.

“Are you serious? Forget cleaning, you need—stitches, at the very least. I can take you to the hospital if—”

“Oh no, you don’t have to do that!” Kara blurts out, and with the adrenaline from that burst of energy she’s able to scramble to her feet. She is shaky, unsteady, but she manages to stay upright at least and she’ll count that as a win. “Shoot. I’m sorry for yelling. I just—no hospitals. I can’t do hospitals.” She has never had to form an excuse for this, and her mouth can’t quite wrap around the right words.

But Lena—green eyes wide and unsure, skin pale in the early morning light—nods, like she understands. “Okay,” she says. “No hospitals.”

“Thanks,” Kara mumbles, wrapping the coat tightly around herself. There are startling black spots in her vision and her head still feels like it was used as a piñata; she wonders what the heck her next move should be now. If Sam needs someone to house-sit, she must be out of the city. And if Sam is out of the city, Kara can’t exactly waltz into Sam’s house to wash all the blood off her body (and then call up Alex from the couch while stealing whatever ice cream Ruby picked). Sam lets her do that, sure, but that’s Sam. It would be pretty rude to do that when Lena is right here.

“Do you…” And Lena pauses, nose scrunching up as if something has just occurred to her. “I can give you a ride somewhere else, if you’d like. Back to your house?”

“No, that’s okay,” Kara hurries to decline, because how can she really explain that she lives in an apartment, and that if little old Mrs. Jensen saw her coming up covered in blood she’d finally succumb to her third heart attack? “Can I just use Sam’s phone to call my sister? Then I’ll come right back out here, I promise.”

“Why would you come back out here again?” Underneath her coat, Lena is wearing plaid pajama pants that are rolled at the ankle (Sam’s, most likely), and a tank top that is extremely fitted. Very, very well fitted. Like, you-can-tell-it’s-frigidly-cold-outside-kind-of-fitted.

Kara coughs and tries not to let on how her train of thought has twisted. “Because…I’m a stranger?” she tries. “I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Remember, if you die I’m going to be the first one they question,” Lena says, tilting her head expectantly in the direction of Sam’s cabin. “Come inside, warm up. Call your sister.” All things considered, she is far more concerned than Kara expected her to be—as if, somehow, ridding herself of the weirdo walking around bloody and probably concussed isn’t the very first thing on Lena’s mind.

So Kara doesn’t look a gift horse in the mouth; she accepts the offer. It’s a small comfort that if she really does get murdered by a total stranger, it won’t be while cold and naked.

Lena goes right into Sam’s room the instant they go inside, already gathering a million outfits for Kara to pick through. “The shower is fickle, but it does have hot water,” she says, adding a towel to the pile in Kara’s arms when she re-emerges. “You just have to—”

“Hit the wall twice, and give it a few seconds,” Kara finishes. “Yeah, Sam reminds me every time.”

“So you…visit Sam often, do you?”

“Uh.” And suddenly, despite the long, cold night she’s had, the air indoors feels a bit warmer than is comfortable. “Only sometimes.” Once a month, Kara thinks, and Lena crosses her arms and just stares.

Really stares, dragging those sharp green eyes up and down Kara’s whole body. Squints at the scratches on her face, scrunches her nose at the way Kara awkwardly shifts from side to side. Finally Lena speaks, and it’s only to say, “It’s you, isn’t it?”

“...come again?”

“It’s you. Sam told me she’s been helping out a friend with a—furry predicament—”

If it were possible to choke on air, Kara would be dead right now. “Did she really call it furry? But she’s also—!” She has to pause, now, because she feels an urge to clarify, “Wait. Are we talking about the same thing right now?”

Lena narrows her eyes slightly. “You mean talking about how you’re a werewolf?”

“Oh!” Head lighter, Kara sucks in a laugh that makes her ribs feel like they are splintering open. “Then yes. That’s good, I didn’t want you to think I was a—anyway. I didn’t think Sam told anyone.”

“Sam and I have been friends for a long time,” Lena says slowly. A beat. “She actually ate my hamster once.”

Kara winces. “Recently?”

“No! Back in the fifth grade,” Lena frowns, like she might’ve added dumbass at the end of the sentence. “I’m a grown woman. I don’t own hamsters.”

“What? Come on, having pets isn’t just a kid thing,” Kara says. “I used to have a cat, but he…”

“Oh my God, you ate him?”

Kara’s jaw drops. “What—no! He turned out to already have an owner, so she took him back. He just liked to wander into my apartment.” She hugs the clothing pile tighter to her chest, and tries her hardest to scowl. “I’m responsible, okay? Most of the time. I’m not dangerous.”

“Except to deer, or rabbits, or whatever else you killed last night?” Lena quirks an eyebrow, but surprisingly not in a manner that’s judge-y. Just…curious.

“Right,” Kara says defeatedly, and her head throbs enough that her grip on Sam’s clothes begins to falter. “Sorry. I wasn't trying to be defensive or anything.”

“That's alright.” And stranger still, Lena reaches out to gently touch the side of Kara’s head. “So does the same thing happen to you?”

“Huh?” The proximity has scrambled Kara’s brain momentarily, and she finds herself unthinkingly holding her breath.

“Do you also black out,” Lena clarifies. “Like Sam does, every time she shifts.”

“Oh. Yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s—a universal wolf thing,” Kara says.

Lena hums, and her hand retracts. “And are you a serial killer in wolf form?”

“Uh, I hope not? I’m pretty sure all this is…” Kara gestures over her body with one hand, still hugging the pile of clothes with the other. “Not human.”

“Okay.” Lena casually walks away, but pauses to throw over her shoulder, “I’ll help you clean up your head once you’re out of the shower. I’ve helped Sam a hundred times.”

“Are you—do you have some kind of healing magic, or—”

“Close. I’m an ER nurse,” Lena says amusedly, and when she smiles a dimple emerges on one cheek. “All the witches I know have fled the city, so I’m afraid you’re stuck with me.”

“You joke, but Alex dated this witch once, and she hexed my sister to spill her first sip of coffee every time she went to take a drink for three weeks straight after they broke up,” Kara says, and Lena again scrunches her nose in that quizzical way.

“Seriously? Witches are real too?”

“Duh,” Kara says lightly. “What, you thought it stopped at werewolves? Please. I’m pretty sure the neighbor two doors down is a gorgon.”

“Well, it would explain her fondness of statues,” Lena says, strangely nonplussed. “I’ve never asked, but I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised at this point. How do you take your coffee?” As she asks, Lena deposits a few fingers of whiskey into a mug, and at Kara’s questioning look says, “Sorry, we’re all out of painkillers. This is as good as you’re going to get.”

“Maybe I’ll do better if it’s straight,” Kara says, unable to hide her grimace, while Lena shrugs a shoulder as if to say it’s your funeral.

So after Kara showers, she sits on the couch and sips gross whiskey out of a chipped mug that reads World’s Best Mom in bright pink letters. Lena has turned on the TV to the local news station—clearly she has stayed with Sam before—and a man on screen is recounting a tale of how he hit a giant wolf strolling too close to his farm with a baseball bat.

“If I had my shotgun I would’ve killed the fucker,” he swears, red in the face, and above her Lena gives a little scoff.

“What a dick,” Lena says, her hand steadily stitching up the wound on Kara’s scalp, and her voice has a hint of an accent; it’s really cute, actually, and Kara doesn’t even mind that the next poke of the needle is sharper than the others.

It is the strangest morning Kara has ever had. Drinking whiskey before eight in the morning, with a kind stranger who she’s barely met but is suturing her skin together, who smells faintly of lavender soap and strong black coffee.

“—National City is not safe when wolves are wandering close to homes—”

The scent of rich hot chocolate bubbling on the stove is beginning to fill the room, the ancient pipes are rumbling throughout the walls, and Lena’s fingers are soft against her head. Kara closes her eyes and decides that she will wait a little longer before she calls Alex to pick her up.

[chaotic-super]

Live With Me - Chapter 12

Read Live With Me on AO3 here!

Kara wasn’t expecting everything in her life to suddenly be revolving around that stupid balcony and the obvious assassination attempt by the government. She was kind of just expecting to move on and keep working on the article with Ms Grant but instead, she’s finding herself questioning every little thing that is happening in her life.

She’ll be walking downstairs and she wonders if someone walking behind her might come and push her or she’ll be getting in an elevator and she wonders if it’s going to break and drop her to her death. It’s much scarier than when Maxwell lord wanted her dead, maybe it’s because she already knew what he was capable of and knew he had limited resources while the government have all the resources they could ever want and need and are capable of literally anything.

Lena has been her guiding light though, always there to listen and comfort her when she feels particularly paranoid or afraid despite the fact she can see Lena’s own fear in her eyes. They both know it’s going to get worse before it gets better though and there are only so many preventative measures they can take without shutting down their lives completely and never leaving the house.

Today is the day though, Kara and Cat have officially finished the article and it’s going to be out in a matter of minutes so they’re just waiting for the fallout now.

In the meantime, Kara has been busying herself with helping move Cat back into her own office and out of hers. She’s actually shocked that Cat hasn’t insisted she moves out of her new office even though she did fix it up herself but Cat is being true to her word and allowing her to keep it so she’s now got a great-sized office with actual windows.

The windows do scare her a little though, she’s seen enough action movies to know that sitting right beside the window is a bad move so she’s moved her desk to the other side of the room where the tinted windows won’t allow anyone to see where she’s sitting. She’s not going to do anything to increase the chances of a sniper putting a bullet between her eyes, not today.

Lena is coming by later but she’s got a meeting she can’t get out of at L-Corp first so she’s going to start heading over in a little while and then she’s going to stay with her in her office for the day.

Kara is keeping an eye on the article and the reactions of the public in the meantime to the best of her abilities. She’s sure that Cat is doing the same from her office too but she needs to see for herself to see how much support they are getting because of the article.

If it works how they planned, they will have created an environment where nothing can happen to her without the government looking like they are directly involved in it, they shouldn’t be able to touch her without it being obvious that she’s being further targeted by them so they really can’t do anything.

That’s in theory though. In practice, this is the government, they can do whatever they want because they have the power to do so. It wouldn’t be the first time that they have offed someone quite obviously and it’s become old news in just a matter of weeks, sometimes less. That’s the scary part.

A knock at Kara’s door has her hollering for whoever it is to come in, hoping that Lena has managed to finish up her meeting early but knowing that she probably would have just let herself in if it was her since she knows Kara doesn’t have any interviews planned for today.

Winn’s face peeks around her door not a second after she’s called out and her face breaks out into a smile. “Hey, stranger.”

“Hey, I wanted to come and see how you’re doing, it feels like forever since we’ve had a catch-up. Well, that and I wanted to come and check out the old hidey-hole. I can’t believe this is actually your office now.”

“I know, it’s kind of crazy, right? I feel like I’ve come full circle.” Kara beckons him further into the room by reaching her leg out under her desk to push out one of the two chairs she has on the opposite side for when she has interviews.

Winn takes the offer quickly. They may have had time at the surprise game night to sort of catch up but they haven’t been able to have a good old-fashioned heart-to-heart since not long before Kara and Lena officially got together, long before the James situation ever happened and they are both at fault for that and need to fix that sharpish.

“It’s strange that there are no exposed wires. I kind of wish it looked the same as before, just for the sake of nostalgia.”

“Yeah, me too. I liked the old vibes of it but part of the deal for me having this office was that I fix it up so I did what I was told.” Kara moves her laptop off to the side slightly so she can get a better view of Winn, the screen being in her way before.

Winn looks kind of shocked at that little droplet of information. “You fixed it up?”

Kara nods, taking a sip out of the water bottle on her desk. “Yeah, I did. It was Lena’s idea, she thought that if I offer to fix it up, I’d have a better chance of Ms Grant letting me take the office since it’s been on the maintenance list for such a long time.”

“Kara, I’m in IT,” Winn says, his voice stern as he tries to convey a message that Kara isn’t picking up on.

Kara shakes her head, eyes widened she tries to figure out what in god’s name Winn is talking about. “Uh...”

“I like this office; it holds a very dear place in my heart. I’ve always kept an eye on the maintenance requests so I could know if it’s been fixed for someone to have it and it’s never been on there. If there was ever a request made, it was removed within a week of it being on there and we both know it wasn’t fixed because you did it.”

Kara’s mouth drops open. “I had no idea you cared enough to keep track.”

Winn shrugs. “We might not be as close as we used to be, especially those first couple of years we were friends, but those memories still mean a lot to me and I like to keep tabs on what’s going on with this office. It’s now in the hands of its rightful owner.”

“I agree with that but you know you’re welcome to come and join me in here whenever I’m not busy. You’re right when you say we’re not as close as we used to be and I regret that. I should have been a better friend to you, especially when everything with James came out. You two were the closest of all of us, I kind of dropped off the friend radar back when James and I decided not to date after those horrific couple of weeks of attempting to.”

Winn grins. “I’d love to start spending more time in here with you. I think we’re both at fault for the separation but it wasn’t an unnatural drift. I got closer to James and you got closer to Lena, although mine and James’ relationship was certainly much different to the one you have developed with Lena. Not gay my ass.”

“To be fair, when I told you that I’m not gay, that was before I met Lena and she awakened the inner bisexual in me, seriously, have you seen that woman?” Kara laughs, holding her hands up in surrender.

Winn tilts his head to the side, thinking it over very briefly before nodding. “I have and wow, you’ve scored big, Danvers.”

“Hey!” Kara frowns. “Don’t think about my girlfriend that way.”

A deer-in-the-headlights expression falls across Winn’s face. He’s not sure what he was meant to say to have avoided this reaction but he has no idea what to say that wouldn’t just make it worse.

“I’m just kidding.” Kara giggles, somewhat evilly. “You’re certainly right though, I have scored big time. She’s just amazing.”

Winn smiles, mostly out of relief rather than actual amusement at Kara’s prank. “And she bought you guys a house.”

Kara smiles back at him widely. “Yep, and I’ve finally just managed to get her to agree to me paying towards it too. It felt weird having my name on a house I never put any money towards but now we’ve agreed to split it proportionally to our wages between my salary and hers. That’s the best I could get her to agree to.”

“She looks after you. You deserve that, Kara. I’m really happy for you. You know, back in the day when I had a massive crush on you but you only had eyes for James, I always wondered what he had that I didn’t. I think the answer is simple now, looking back anyway. You needed someone that can love you openly and with their whole heart, unafraid of what that means and unafraid to express it. I see now that I was never that person and you deserve to have that, you deserve what Lena gives you.”

Kara doesn’t really know where all of that came from and she doesn’t know why Winn would say it now of all times but suddenly her eyes are wet, it must be allergies. Yeah, it has to be.

She swipes at her eyes, ignoring Winn’s stupid lovable face. “Ugh, you’re too sappy today. I think I want the Winn that tells me all about his upcoming Dungeons and Dragons campaign.”

“Well, I can do that too but Kara, I said that to you because I’ve always wanted you to be happy and more than anything, no matter what, we’re always going to be friends. It would be a shame if we lost that because we would have to write off those three years we spent getting tipsy and eating pizza every night while playing every fantasy videogame we could find.”

Those were the days. Kara misses it really, back when she first joined CatCo as Cat’s assistant, Winn was quick to befriend her and from there they were inseparable until James came along and then they became a trio, a trio that disintegrated when Kara and James attempted to date and failed spectacularly.

Kara leans her elbows on the desk. “We’ll have to get tipsy and eat pizza and play video games together again. I miss it and I miss you. I don’t know how I let us get this far apart when we’re so close, I mean, we literally work in the same building, how have we managed to avoid each other for so long?”

Winn readily agrees with the world’s fastest nod. “Hell yeah, we should.” He takes a breath. “I’ve actually been avoiding you.”

“You have?” Kara’s eyebrows scrunch and Winn’s eyes are drawn up to them. She looks cute, he can see why his feelings were always so strong for her, she’s pretty and funny and kind, the woman of anyone’s dreams, he almost wants to have those feelings again because there’s something missing now.

 He’s seeing her in a new light, one where she’s somehow all of those things but she looks different, perhaps stronger in a way, it’s good, just different and it makes his heart hurt to realize how much he’s missed out on.

“When we initially started growing apart, it was because I was mad at you. I was mad that you turned me down for James and then gave up on your relationship with him. I was stupid back then, I didn’t really understand that you didn’t turn me down for him, you just weren’t interested. Then, after you found out James was the mole, I didn’t think you would want to talk to me, I should have seen what he was up to, it should have been obvious to me what was happening because we were close. I’m sorry I was blind to it, you got hurt because I wasn’t looking at the red flags right in front of me.”

Winn just looks sad.

Kara rounds the desk, not pausing on her short trip until she’s pulling Winn up out of his chair and into his arms. She always loved hugging him since they are so close in height but he has wider shoulders, it feels like hugging a teddy bear and it’s always made her feel better. It’s been far too long since she’s hugged him.

She mumbles into his ear. “I don’t blame you, Winn. We were all taken by surprise. It says much more about your character that you haven’t spoken to him since. I should have reached out when you stopped talking to him, you just lost your best friend and I was nowhere to be found.”

“You were busy trying not to be assassinated and you were recovering from what happened in the parking garage. I am at fault though. I did something that helped him and I had a feeling it was something bad. It was obvious but I ignored the signs because I didn’t want to see what was right in front of me all along. I erased footage of him. I didn’t watch it; he just gave me the information for which cameras and the times he needed deleting and I did it. It wasn’t until after you got hurt that I put the pieces together. I could have said something long before you figured it out.”

Kara releases him, leaning back in distress. “What?”

“I’m so sorry, Kara. I knew he was up to something. I just didn’t want to believe it so I stuck my head in the sand. I thought he was trying to protect someone else; I didn’t think it was him doing anything but I should have known. That’s part of the reason I brought you this.” Winn fishes into his pocket, suddenly struggling to meet Kara’s eyes. “I had a bad feeling about it so before I scrubbed the camera footage, I saved it, I’ve not watched it though, I’ve never had the balls. It’s yours.”

There’s no clear-cut reaction from Kara. Her face is a mixture of several different emotions, the majority of which conflict in a way that leaves Kara reeling. She wants to hug him again and thank him but she also wants to kick him in the balls so hard he’s pissing blood for a week. He knew. Maybe not the details, but he knew.

“Why are you telling me this now?”

“Guilt,” Winn admits. “Guilt and regret. I want my best friend back, not the fake friendship I had with James, the friendship that helped to destroy the friendship we had, but the real relationship we had where it wasn’t transactional or fake or immoral. I can’t have that without being completely honest and open.”

Kara moves back around to her chair, sinking into it with a sudden wave of exhaustion with the load Winn just dropped on her.

“Watch the footage with me.”

“What? Why?”

“I need to see what’s on there but I don’t want to watch it alone. I’m super mad at you and really disappointed but I know that the hurt you caused me isn’t intentional. The hurt Alex will probably cause you when she finds out what you did will make up for that and when I tell Lena…” Kara breathes out a breath of pity, “let’s just say, hurt me and she’ll hurt you in ways you couldn’t imagine.”

Winn looks petrified. “I’ll watch it with you, just please, try not to make it sound so bad when you tell them, they are both really scary people and I’d like to come away with both of my testicles when they are through with me.”

“We’ll see,” Kara responds, not really looking at him, too focused on now shoving the USB drive Winn handed her into her laptop. She turns it so it’s sat between them and they both have a fairly decent view of the screen as it starts playing. She changes the speed so it runs through twice as fast and clicks specifically on the camera pointing to the hallway just outside of her old office.

The footage is from the day someone broke into her office and tried to destroy all of her files. This is her chance to catch James in the act. She knows he was feeding Maxwell Lord information but she wants to see him do it. She wants to see him betray her friendship with her own two eyes.

As the footage rolls on and they sit in awkward, apprehensive silence for several minutes, a figure finally strolls into the shot and then they walk into Kara’s office. It only catches their back, covered in a black hoodie with its hood up, black pants and black shoes, not the most inconspicuous of outfits, someone should have thought more about what it means to be stealthy because this person is the epitome of sketchy.

They both saw the person, now they just have to wait for them to come out of the office so they can see his face, so they can confirm that James was truly the one that betrayed her in this awful way and then used Winn and his loyalty to his friends to cover it up after he did it.

The person spends several minutes in her office, much longer than she was expecting, she thought it was more of a quick destruction and then a rapid exit rather than what she can only assume to be a lazy obliteration of what was her work.

Waiting for the person to come out of the office is bordering on painful but what goes in must come out and soon enough, they have their guy.

It’s not James.

Fuck.

“Please tell me that’s not who I think it is.” Kara gasps.

“I can’t. That’s Snapper.”

“CatCo’s editor-in-chief was in on it. Crap, he was doing the final edits of today’s article last night, I have to check he hasn’t messed it up.” Kara may have been waiting for the article to drop for the reactions before, although it was too early for anything to have come from it yet, but she never actually checked up on the article. Why would she? She wrote the thing and she trusted everyone involved in it.

Winn is frozen in his seat, staring at the now paused screen and struggling to keep his eyes off the face of Snapper Carr. That slimeball actually has a tiny, sinister smirk on his face and it’s horrid to see. Winn had this information all along thinking that he was protecting James, completely oblivious to the fact that James was protecting Snapper.

“I’ll go and get Ms Grant.” Winn stutters out.

He barely makes it two steps before Kara is gasping and staring at the words of the article that is up for all of the world to see.

“What is it?”

“He’s completely changed a bunch of it.” Kara’s eyes are wide and fearful. “He’s making it look like I’m a criminal and I was going after Maxwell Lord so Lena could buy up his company and he’s saying that I’m trying to make the government look bad because I’m trying to protect myself from legal repercussions for criminal activity. He’s wiped my name from the by-line and has left it in Cat’s name.”

“That’s it, I’m going to go and get her. Stay put, Kara. I’ll be right back, don’t worry.” Winn races from the room, leaving Kara with nothing to stare at but the article open on her phone and the face of her boss that just thoroughly screwed her over. Fucking bell end.

Her body is filled with anguish for multiple reasons. The betrayal of her boss doing this to her, the hours wasted writing the article that just got scrapped in order to put out this defamatory piece, the lack of reader support she’ll have now which means that she won’t have any protection against any more attempted assassinations, and on top of that, there’s Winn.

He may have given her the USB with the footage on it but he’s far too late. Hell, if he had given it to her yesterday she wouldn’t be in this situation right now, but she is, and it’s his fault. Not completely, but it is. She gets it but she doesn’t. he was protecting James but in that process, he neglected to protect her. She needs to speak to Lena; she always helps clear things up and boy is there a mess to be cleaned up.

Before she can find Lena’s contact information, Lena’s name pops up on her phone screen, an incoming call at the ready. She picks it up immediately.

“Have you seen the article?” Kara asks in lieu of a hello.

“I did, Kara, what’s going on?”

Kara sighs heavily into the phone. “Winn gave me some camera footage today of the day my old office was broken into. It was Snapper that did it so he must have been the one that changed the article. We’re so screwed now, Lena. I don’t know what to do.”

She hears movement on the other end of the line and waits for Lena to respond. “We’ll figure it out. I’m on my way to you now, I’ll be fifteen minutes, if that. I’m literally walking out of L-Corp right now. What does Cat make of all of this?”

“I don’t know, Winn was in my office with me when we found it all out so he’s gone to get her while I have a nervous breakdown in here. Lena, this is really bad.”

“I know, but we’ll fix it. Cat will set the record straight and the truth will come out. Do you have the footage ready?”

“I have it, it’s on a USB drive.”

“Kara, we need that drive so it needs to be safe. You need to put it somewhere nobody will find it until we need it, alright? We have to work quickly on this so put it somewhere safe until both Cat and I are with you so we can make a plan. I’m going to call Alex too and get her to head over to you as well so I’m going to hang up but I’ll be there in a flash.”

“Ok.” Kara can actively feel her blood pressure skyrocketing but she doesn’t fight with anything Lena says, dropping her phone on the desk when the call ends and taking the USB out of her laptop. Lena’s right, if this is the only copy of the footage, it needs to be somewhere safe, something CatCo very clearly isn’t.

If someone as high up as the editor-in-chief is corrupt, she can’t trust anyone so this USB needs to be somewhere it can’t be found until she has everyone she trusts in one room with her and even then, she needs to keep a close eye on it.

Her eyes quickly skim around her office. She’s still getting used to this space, she hasn’t learned each and every nook and cranny of this space yet so she has no clue where to hide it. It would be stupid to hide it on her body, she’s seen those videos of pickpocketers and she’s got no doubt that she could be fooled by one.

Her eyes are drawn to several places around the office but she’s just not sure where to put it, there are so many places but she feels that they are all too obvious. Light fixtures and inside hollow desk legs are a no-go, that’s an easy nope. Maybe inside a book? Too movie-centric. She needs to think f something out of the box.

The last time she hid files, they went unnoticed because she put them inside of a picture frame but it would be too obvious if she did that again. She needs to put them not only where someone can’t find them, but somewhere nobody would even think to look. She needs to put them in Snapper’s office, right under his nose.

There’s no time to do it right this second though. Footsteps echo along the hallway outside of her office and she panics, the USB still in hand, so she does the only reasonable thing she can think of. She stuffs it into her bra.

Cat bursts in a second later, a couple of people in tow.

“Ms Grant—” Kara starts.

“Quiet, not until the door is shut.” Cat snaps, beckoning Winn and a woman Kara recognises into the room. Lucy Lane, her cousin’s sister-in-law and also a very good lawyer.

Only once the door is firmly closed does Kara try to speak again. “I take it you’ve seen the article.”

Cat’s nose is held firmly in the air as she talks, an air of true rage and barely restrained murderous intent about her. “If you can even call that disgusting, slanderous piece of terrible writing an article. I have.”

Lucy steps past her, coming closer to Kara to stick her hand out towards her. They have met before in passing through Clark, Kara’s cousin, and Lois, Lucy’s sister.  “Kara, it’s nice to see you, even under these awful circumstances. I wish this was a social call but with what was in that article, you’re in need of a lawyer and so here I am.”

Kara takes her hand, albeit suspiciously. “Before you sign up for something you might regret, have you read the article that was originally meant to go to print?”

“The one detailing how my father was a huge part of the terrible plots of Maxwell Lord and the government? I have. I didn’t become a lawyer for the money, although it’s certainly a bonus, I became a lawyer to protect innocent people. He’s the one trying to exploit people and he doesn’t care who he hurts in the process, I say let’s get him.”

“How did you get here so fast though?” Kara has a sense of unease passing through her. At this point, she has no idea who she can trust, she barely trusts Winn, let alone this woman she’s only ever been an acquaintance to.

Cat tuts, helping herself to one of the chairs beside Kara’s desk. “We don’t have time for this, Kara, she’s trustworthy. She’s the lawyer I hired to go over a lot of James Olsen’s work prior to his dismissal to make sure we know exactly what information he stole. Well, she’s part of the team handling that, but I think you’re in need of her expertise right now, not me and not CatCo, although it’s pretty obvious that there’s going to be a very large legal battle coming up for the company as soon as we find out who did this.”

Kara speaks up, shocked that Winn didn’t already tell her. “I know who did it.”

Cat’s head snaps towards her. “Who?” Her voice sounds like liquid death.

“Snapper. I have footage of him breaking into my old office. He’s the one that destroyed all of my files on Maxwell Lord the first time and he was working with James.” Kara states, matter-of-factly.

“That little—” Cat wastes no time storming out of Kara’s office, Kara, Lucy and Winn all on her heels, rushing to try and stop her. Nobody can stop Cat Grant when she’s on a mission though, absolutely nobody. It would be ludicrous for someone to even try.

Lucy is trying to remind her not to do anything that will get her into legal trouble whilst Winna and Kara are sort of just going along for the ride, unable to do anything other than race after them.

As they are halfway across the bullpen on the way to the editor-in-chief’s office, Lena comes emerging out of the elevator, jogging to meet up with the group as they go storming through the building.

Kara shakes her head as she appears at her side. Fifteen minutes her ass. She definitely just broke a few traffic laws on the way here. “Hey.”

“Hey, where are we going?”

“Ms Grant is going to try and murder Snapper; we’re going to try and stop her so she doesn’t end up in prison.”

“Oh shit.”

The door to Snapper’s office thwacks against the wall behind it as Cat forces it open with a dainty flick of her wrist that has an incredible amount of power behind it, probably the doing of her unbelievable anger.

They all barrel in behind her, almost tripping over when Cat stops just a couple of steps inside.

The room is empty.

Well, not empty, empty, just empty.

Lucas “Snapper” Carr is long gone. He’s done his job and he isn’t here now; he has no reason to be.

With the salary that weasel of a man was on, he must have been paid one hell of a sum to go along with the plan of a madman. It’s a shame, before this, he always seemed to be a man of true integrity. That’s definitely been proven to be false now.

“We’re too late. He’s gone.” Lucy states despite knowing that everyone can already see that and she’s just stating the obvious.

Their shoulders drop. Even if they didn’t want Cat to hurt him, they did want to confront him. They’ve missed their window of opportunity. What’s done is done, all they can do now is deal with the fallout.

“I guess we should go back upstairs and figure out where we’re going from here. We have a lot to talk about.” Kara clears her throat and announces the small group.

“Great idea, let’s go.” Lena’s tone is firm and unbending where Kara’s was more timid and unsure, backing her girlfriend up at a time when she desperately needs it.

The group filters out one by one, Kara being the last out of the room, and as she does, she slips the USB drive out of her bra and in a swift movement, pretends to fix her shoe but instead digs it into the soil of a nearby potted plant, making sure to press it right against the edge of the pot where it’s less likely to get wet if it’s ever watered.

That footage isn’t coming out again until absolutely necessary. She doesn’t have a whole lot of trust right now so the location of it is staying a secret for now, just for her. She looks up and meets Lena’s eyes, who gives her a nod. So, the location of it isn’t just for her, it’s for them. She’s ok with that, Lena and Alex are the only two people she trusts wholeheartedly and she’s certainly going to rely on them soon enough, hell knows she’ll need it.

They make their way back through the bullpen and this time, they are much more aware of the eyes of every single person in the office looking their way, or more specifically, looking Kara’s way. Kara realizes this pretty soon into their trip back to her office and can’t help but keep her eyes on the floor, not wanting to make eye contact with any of her colleagues that now think she’s some kind of criminal.

Lena can see the tension sat in Kara’s spine, her whole body really, and quickly wraps her hand around Kara’s clenched fist, prying her hand open enough to try and slip her hand in there. It becomes obvious very quickly though that Kara’s mind isn’t in the right place for that, she doesn’t need that kind of reassurance right now, not in front of everyone here.

Instead of attempting to take her hand, Lena instead rests her palm against Kara’s spine, leaving Kara with the comforting pressure of it as she walks, no pressure for her to do anything in return or react in a certain way, she can just walk and know that she’s surrounded by people that care about her.

When they get back to Kara’s office, they all pile in there and when they do, they notice they have picked up a straggler in the form of Nia Nal. She’s just standing at the edge of the room, unsure and awkward but wanting to show Kara that she has her support, nonetheless. Kara was the one to show her the ropes of reporting, her mentor turned friend. Kara looked kind of down but hopeful at the last game night but this is a whole new Kara, one completely sucked dry of any kind of optimism she had before.

Cat goes to sit in Kara’s office chair since the ones across the other side of the desk aren’t as comfortable but Lena shoots her a glare that has even Cat scared and she redirects her butt fairly seamlessly into the chair she sat in earlier.

Kara is guided to her desk chair by Lena, who then stands firmly at her side like a bodyguard. “Alright, we are just waiting for one more person and then we can talk,” Lena announces.

“Who are we waiting for?” Winn asks.

“Alex,” Lena answers quickly and to the point. She’s watching Kara closely out the corner of her eye, careful to keep her head tilted out towards the group of people huddled around the room, most of them perching on a nearby table since there are only two other seats besides Kara’s chair, which are taken up by Cat and Lucy.

With her head tilted towards them, it does the job of both keeping everyone in line and making Kara feel as though she’s not being watched while she processes the fact that the people they are up against just set her up to look like a hypocrite and a criminal to the whole world. That’s a lot to unpack, especially when she thought she was so close to publishing her actual article and having another layer of protection against them.

Now, thinking about it, Kara is just putting the pieces of everything together. She’s figuring out that the chances are that it was Snapper that loosened the railings of the balcony where she and Lena always leaned against it when they shared lunch together. Her boss literally tried to murder her. That’s something she certainly did not have on her bingo card for this year.

Kara simply stares down at her desk for the first couple of minutes of uncomfortable silence, basking in the strange kind of peace that comes with it but her curiosity is getting the better of her. She needs to know what’s going on with the article.

She pulls her phone out and clicks back to the tab she had open earlier so she can start scrolling through the comments. She almost wishes she didn’t but a cynical, dark, self-loathing part of her brain just can’t stop her from reading the next comment and then the next and then the next and then her phone is snatched out of her hand.

Kara’s head whips around in momentary fright from the unexpected movement so she can find her assailant, only to find Lena tucking her phone into her blazer pocket and then resting her hand on her shoulder. “Don’t look at that, it’s not going to help right now. All of those people are commenting based on false information, darling. None of it matters so don’t bother.”

Kara musters a nod and goes back to staring at her desk but gives up on that soon after and looks at the group she’s got in the room with her. Not the worst crew, she supposes. They just have to wait for their muscle to get here though, and then the real party starts in which they figure out what in the actual fuck they are meant to do.

Read the next two chapters early on Patreon here!

[searidings]

please write the zoo au 🙇

if you’re looking for something to blame for this, here’s the culprit

“…cockroaches.”

“Yes.”

Kara squints. “Like, the creepy-crawly little bugs we freeze in the thousands to feed to the animals.”

“The very same.”

“And you want me to… name them?”

Cat sighs so heavily that had she been standing, she probably would have fallen over. “You’re not naming them, Keira. Do try to keep up. Patrons can pay $5 to name a cockroach after their ex. You will then feed these named cockroaches to the animals. For $25 people can also name a frozen rat.”

Kara gapes. “So I’m feeding animals named after people to other animals?”

“If you think that displaying the comprehension skills of an elementary schooler is going to impress me, you’re sorely mistaken,” Cat says dryly, her tone bored as she shuffles the stacks of papers on her desk. “Thank you for reminding me that I didn’t hire you for your intellect.”

Kara ignores the dig. She’s had plenty of practice over the past five years. “But doesn’t that seem a little…. mean?”

“You’re worried about the feelings of a frozen dead cockroach?”

Kara huffs, digging her hands deep into the pockets of her green NC Zoo fleece. “Not the bugs. The people the bugs are named after. The people watching themselves in bug form be fed to a lizard, or whatever.”

Cat hums, tapping her pen thoughtfully against her chin. “I suppose we’d also better appeal to the bleeding-heart animal lovers out there if we want to maximise sales. We’ll introduce a vegetarian option as well: $5 to name a cabbage after your ex to be fed to our herbivores. I’ll let Olsen know.”

“But—”

“Keira.” Cat’s voice clicks into its most chilling no-bullshit tone and Kara winces, fighting the urge to cower at her boss’ feet. “This programme will almost singlehandedly fund the renovation of our giant panda enclosure. Do you not want the pandas to have water to swim in and bamboo to nibble on, Ms Danvers? Do you want them to go extinct?”

Kara blanches. Everybody knows the pandas are her favourites. “No, of course not, I just—”

“Good,” Cat snaps. “National City Zoo’s Cry Me a Cockroach event will be going ahead from tomorrow, and I will expect your full support every step of the way.”

Kara sighs. “Sure thing, boss.”

“Oh, and Keira,” Cat calls as Kara’s halfway out of her office. “You’re going to be the public face of this event. All the naming and feeding will be broadcast across our social media livestreams. Winslow in tech support will help you get everything set up.”

“Me?” Kara gapes. “Why?”

Cat quirks an appraising eyebrow, making no secret of the fact that she’s giving Kara a discerning once-over. “You fit the image that will draw in viewers,” she drawls, eyeing the planes of Kara’s shoulders, the lines of her thighs beneath her standard-issue cargo pants. “Can’t say that I see it myself, but I suppose you do have a certain… appeal.”

Kara feels her cheeks turn an immediate shade of scarlet, shuffling her feet awkwardly. “I, um. Thanks?”

“That wasn’t a compliment,” Cat says smoothly, eyes never leaving her laptop screen. “Go away now. And do a good job on this, Keira. We really need the extra income.”

“Yes, boss.”

“Oh, and one more thing,” Cat calls. “Anything you can do to jazz up these streams, don’t hold back. This is basically a PR stunt— it won’t hurt to give the people a show.”

-

“So, we’ve got all the purchase summaries right here on this tablet,” Winn says, fiddling with the inordinate number of screens and cameras currently pointing right at Kara. “So we’ll get a shot of the rat or roach, then you read out the name of the person who made the purchase, and the name they’ve given to their animal. Maybe the background story, if they’ve submitted one. Then feed the poor bastard to the— the—”

“The snake?” Kara supplies cheerily, stroking the head of the Jamaican yellow boa constrictor currently draped over her shoulders.

Winn shudders, fighting down his gag reflex. “I will never understand how you can touch that thing.”

“You work at a zoo, Winn,” she chides. “How can you be scared of snakes? Noodle is a creature that needs our love and care, just like all the others.”

“Noodle?” Winn squeaks. “You named a snake that probably weighs more than you do Noodle?”

“Only unofficially,” Kara sighs. “Cat says I have to stop getting so attached to the animals.”

Winn gapes at her. “You know what, we don’t have time to unpack that right now.” He adjusts the lighting outside the enclosure, turning Kara this way and that until he finds the perfect angle. “So the main thing is to keep things fun and engaging. We’re aiming for numbers here. If this doesn’t go viral, Cat will have my nuts on a silver platter.”

“You’re so crass,” Kara scolds. “He’s so crass,” she murmurs to the snake wrapped around her abdomen, stroking its head again. Noodle flicks his tongue out in response, tasting the air. Kara takes it as an agreement.

“Oh, and if part of the summary is shaded red, it’s because the purchaser asked for the information to remain confidential,” Winn continues, adjusting camera angles and making sure the Facebook, Instagram and Twitter livestreams are up and running. “So don’t read that bit.”

“Red means no,” Kara salutes. “Gotcha.”

“Alright, ready?” Winn asks, and Kara sucks in a deep breath. At least Noodle doesn’t care that her palms are sweating. “We’re live.”

“Hey, hi. I’m Kara Danvers, head zookeeper here at National City Zoo,” Kara starts, eyes flicking rapidly between the three cameras trained on her. Where is she supposed to look? If she looks at one feed for too long, will the others feel neglected? Will viewers tune out? Does she have to keep glancing between the three of them like she’s watching a three-way tennis match? What if—

Behind the camera, Winn clears his throat. “Chill,” he mouths silently from the far side of the intimidating assortment of screens, and Kara forces herself to heed his advice.

“Welcome to Cry Me a Cockroach,” she continues, voice steadying as she manages to get her rapid breathing under control. “Thank you so much to everyone who’s purchased a rat or a cockroach so far— all your donations will go toward the renovation of our giant panda enclosure! For anyone who hasn’t gotten around to their vermin vengeance yet, the event will be running through the end of the month.”

She reaches up to adjust Noodle so he’s slung more comfortably over her shoulders and then grabs the first container of frozen rats. “Alright, well. This guy’s hungry, so we’d better get started before he decides to eat me!” She winks at the camera, laughing when Noodle’s forked tongue darts out to flicker against her cheek.

“I’m just joking. Jamaican yellow boas like Noodle only eat small prey like birds, bats, or today, rats!” she grins, running a hand over the snake’s sleek body. “But maybe he’ll make an exception just this once for our tech guy, Winn.”

She steps closer to the camera and extends an arm, Noodle poking his head towards Winn in interest. Winn shrieks at the snake’s approach, tripping over wires and plugs as he scrambles backwards, landing flat on his ass on the ground.

Kara grins, drawing the snake closer to her body again and extending her hand. “High five,” she grins at the snake, and Noodle flicks his tongue against her palm. “Operation Scare-The-Cameraman, Day One: complete.”

She reaches one gloved hand into the bucket to pull out a frozen rat as she scans the tablet in front of her. “Okay, so. This rat, named Dave, was purchased by Kerry in Thousand Oaks, who also included this message.”

She skims the purchase summary before holding the rat out to Noodle, who unlatches his jaw to swallow it whole. Kara stares into the camera, one eyebrow quirking. “That’s what you get for cheating, Dave.”

-

They move through most of the reptile house, Winn filming as Kara names and then proceeds to feed a bucketful of cockroaches to the zoo’s scaly inhabitants.

The longer it goes on, the more at ease Kara starts to feel, laughing and cracking jokes for the camera as she reads people’s messages to their ex with growing glee.

“Shouldn’t have forgotten to pick the kids up from school, Dan,” she sing-songs, dropping a frozen rat into the enclosure of Slinky the African rock python.

“Rachel from Gotham City, you told Dylan that is wasn’t him, it was you. Well, he wants you to know that this cockroach is definitely you,” she says with a rueful smile as the creature in question is plucked from her glove by a panther chameleon.

“Lucia hopes your new woman is ready for a lifetime of your snoring, Mason from Laguna Beach,” she says as she dumps a handful of cockroaches into the bearded dragon’s enclosure to be swallowed with great enthusiasm.

They make it to one of Kara’s favourite inhabitants, Godzilla the tiny leopard gecko. She lets the little fellow climb up onto one hand as she scans the tablet. “Alright, last one for today, folks,” she grins, grabbing one more bug for Godzilla’s dinner. “This is from Lena in Metropolis, who has named her cockroach Andrea. So Andrea, this is for—”

Kara cuts herself off as her brain registers the red shading over the message section. “Never mind, the message for this one is private,” she murmurs absentmindedly, eyes still stuck on the purchase summary. Her gaze catches on words like lies and betrayal and deception and ten years and she can feel her brow scrunching as her eyes narrow.

She looks back up at the camera, one fist clenching as she ignores Winn’s questioning look to clear her throat. “Alright, Lena’s message is confidential but let me just say: Andrea, if you’re watching, you’re lucky that all you’re getting is a cockroach with your name on it after the stunt you pulled. Lena, whoever you are, you’re a better person than I would be in your shoes.”

And with a gleeful smile and far too much gusto, probably, she extends the dead bug to the gecko perched on her palm. “Enjoy this one, Godzilla,” she coos at the tiny lizard. “Really savour it.”

He does, swallowing the bug in one smooth gulp, and Kara runs an affectionate finger over his head. “Hope you felt that, Andrea,” she mutters, too low for the cameras to pick it up. Probably. Hopefully.

She perches Godzilla back on his favourite rock and turns back to the cameras with a smile. Rounds out the livestream and repeats the details for people to purchase their own cockroaches ahead of the next day’s broadcast, high fives Winn once the cameras stop rolling, and chalks the whole thing up to a good – if weird – day’s work.

-

The livestream is a hit, and Cry Me a Cockroach sales rocket overnight.

Cat even graces her with a grudging well done as she heads to the aviary for the day’s filming and feeding. She and Winn repeat the same setup at the day before, moving around the enclosures to feed bugs and rodents to the assortment of birds housed within, Kara smiling and laughing and joking the whole way.

But as they come to the end of the broadcast something’s still niggling at the back of Kara’s mind and Winn’s about to shut off the cameras when Kara reaches out a hand to stop him.

“Um, before we go,” she starts, ignoring Winn’s what the hell look even as her cheeks flush crimson, “there’s just one more cockroach to be crunched. If you were watching yesterday, you might remember that Lena from Metropolis bought a cockroach named Andrea. Lena didn’t want everyone to know the terrible thing Andrea did to her but personally, I think it was bad enough that we could maybe do one more bug-feed. On the house,” she winks at the camera, reaching into the bucket at her feet.

She scoops up a container of frozen bugs, tilting them towards the camera. “Lena, I hope you’re watching, because every single one of these guys is named Andrea,” she grins, tossing the scoop into the enclosure of Tim McCaw, the zoo’s giant hyacinth parrot, where it is immediately devoured.

Winn ends the stream just as Kara’s phone rings in her back pocket; the Jaws ringtone that indicates her boss is calling. She answers with a wince, bracing for Cat’s inevitable reprimand for going off-book and dishing out her own vermin vengeance, but it doesn’t come.

Cat just informs her that cockroach sales have spiked again, and to keep up the adequate work. She also tells Kara not to be shy about lifting some of their heaviest snakes in front of the camera.

Kara doesn’t ask for the reasoning behind that specific instruction. Based on the way Winn had snickered into his hands for a solid three minutes upon overhearing it, she doesn’t really want to know.

-

It becomes something of a routine.

Every day, she and Winn move through the different enclosures, feeding cockroaches and rats and the occasional cabbage to the zoo’s inhabitants. Kara reads out the names and the stories – some of them funny, some of them sad, and some just plain weird – and tosses the meals to the waiting animals to be enthusiastically enjoyed.

And right at the end of each stream, Kara plucks out one extra cockroach, names it Andrea, and drops it into the waiting jaws of whichever animal seems hungriest that day.

Maybe she’s a little too invested in this Lena person. Winn certainly tells her so at least eighteen times a day. Alex and Kelly have picked up on it too; they both watch Kara’s livestream from work and take turns sending her a barrage of texts the moment it ends, ranging from gentle teasing (Kelly) to downright harassment (Alex).

Kara doesn’t mind. Something about Lena’s message, the way she’d described how she’d been betrayed by the person she’d trusted the most, had struck a chord deep in Kara. Lena had sounded so hurt, so alone, and yet the only revenge she wanted to take on the woman who broke her heart was to name a $5 cockroach after her.

She doesn’t know if Lena watches the livestreams. But it makes her feel warm and fuzzy inside to think that maybe, Lena has seen it, that she knows that there’s someone out there on her side. Even if that someone is just some random zookeeper on a Facebook live.

The streams, much to Cat’s delight and Winn’s relief, have gone viral. The day after Kara lifts the zoo’s seventy pound green anaconda above her head live on camera to demonstrate its enormous size, a clip of their broadcast is shown on national news. Sales skyrocket, with so many people trying to participate in the event that their website crashes. They’ve already raised enough money to cover the renovations of the panda’s enclosure so Cat spreads out the extra profits, investing in higher quality feed for the animals and a series of webcams that livestream footage of their most popular residents 24/7.

The zoo’s profile is rising, and more big donors and investors are expressing interest in the research and conservation work they’re doing. Cat harnesses their surge in popularity, launching new protection projects for snow leopards, rhinos, and pangolins.

Everything is going according to plan – better than planned – and Kara couldn’t be happier. Protecting the planet’s incredible wildlife was all she’d ever wanted to do, and if naming some cockroaches can help her achieve that dream, it’s a sacrifice she’s willing to make.

She does draw the line, though, at being dubbed Cockroach Kara by internet lurkers.

Winn is extremely unhelpful, collapsing into hysterical laughter the first time he shows her her new moniker and producing no useful suggestions as to how to make it stop. The problem resolves itself, however, after Winn videos Kara hefting two enormous fallen logs in the elephant rehabilitation enclosure onto her shoulders a few days later to move them to a safer location.

The next day, #DaddyDanvers is trending nationwide. Alex laughs herself clean off the couch when she sees it, and Kara blushes so long and so hard she’s not sure she’ll ever recover.

-

The month is drawing to a close, and Kara has to admit she’s going to miss their daily livestreams. Her audience has grown exponentially since the first broadcast and many people are now genuinely invested in the wellbeing of the animals, asking for updates on specific zoo residents and sponsoring conservation efforts for the most endangered creatures.

Kara decides to end the event on a crowd pleaser, and she and Winn make their way to the koala enclosure for the final stream. Sitting cross legged on the grass with a sleepy koala in her lap, Kara tugs the bucket of eucalyptus leaves closer to her side as the stream gets going.

“I know it’s very satisfying to name a cockroach after your ex,” she grins at the camera, “but as this is our last broadcast I thought we’d end on a more upbeat note. For all of you who’ve purchased a bug today, I’ll be feeding one eucalyptus leaf to our resident koalas here at National City Zoo. We’ve got three babies in here who are growing and hungry, so let’s turn the upset and bitterness caused by everyone who’s done you dirty into something good instead. Help something new grow out of the pain of the past.”

She feeds leaf after leaf to the cuddly little creatures, beaming as the entire family gradually make their way over to investigate her. Names each leaf and reads out each story, laughing as the baby koalas climb up her arms to cling to her back and shoulders, playing with her ponytail.

“And, in keeping with tradition,” she smiles, a koala on each shoulder and three in her lap, “I’m naming this final leaf Andrea.” She holds it out to the youngest of the bunch who grabs it eagerly, clasping the leaf between its tiny paws as it chews. Kara grins, glancing directly into the camera. “This one’s for you, Lena from Metropolis.”

She wraps up the stream with a heartfelt thank you to everyone who’d contributed money to the cause, beginning the gentle process of extricating herself from her clinging koalas as Winn packs up the camera equipment for the last time. He heads off, muttering something about giving Cat a debrief as Kara bends to collect her bucket and check the water levels, one baby koala still cradled in the crook of her arm.

She’s so absorbed in her examination of the control panel, checking light and humidity settings in the enclosure, that a throat gently clearing behind her makes her jump.

She spins to see a woman standing nervously by the door of enclosure, twisting her clasped fingers together in front of her. She’s elegantly dressed, with long dark curls and perfect porcelain skin, full lips and sparkling green eyes. She is, in short, the most beautiful woman Kara has ever seen in her entire life, and she promptly forgets how to breathe.

“Can I, um, help you?” she manages at last, cheeks flushed and voice cracking.

The woman presses her lips together, and Kara curses her own abject lack of subtlety as she tries (and fails) to pull her gaze away from the woman’s mouth. “I hope so,” the stranger says, and her voice is soft and lilting and lovely and Kara instantly becomes addicted to hearing it again. “You must be Kara Danvers. I’m— I’m Lena. From Metropolis.”

Kara’s mouth falls open, and she very nearly drops the poor unsuspecting koala in her arms out of pure shock. Blinks back into a semblance of self-awareness and places the cuddly creature carefully on a nearby branch so she can make her way over to the enclosure’s door, smoothing a hand self-consciously over her koala-mussed hair.

“Um, hi,” she breathes once she’s joined Lena on the other side of the glass. “Gosh. Hi. So you’re— you’re Lena. Like, Lena-and-Andrea Lena.”

The woman – Lena – smiles ruefully. “Well. Without the Andrea part, now. As I’m sure you will have read in my purchase summary.”

Kara barely represses the urge to smack herself resoundingly on the forehead. “God, right. Yes. Sorry, I’m so sorry,” she stutters. “That was so dumb. I just— I can’t believe it’s you.” She reaches a hand up to tug awkwardly on her ear, emphatically unable to stop more and more words falling out of her big stupid mouth. “I can’t believe Andrea did that to you. I mean—” she whistles under her breath, giving Lena an appreciative once over. “Look at you.”

Lena’s cheeks flush the prettiest shade of pink, teeth digging into the plush of her bottom lip. “Oh. Um. Thank you?”

“Oh Jesus, I didn’t— I’m sorry,” Kara stammers. “Okay. Let me start this again. Hi.” She extends a hand, sucking in a sharp breath at the feeling of soft skin beneath her own when Lena shakes it. “I’m Kara. It’s so great to meet you.”

Lena smiles, and Kara’s never really thought much about the word radiant before but that’s what the woman before her is. Lena blossoms when she smiles, and she’s so beautiful it takes Kara’s breath away.

She squeezes Kara’s hand once before letting go. “It’s great to meet you, too.”

-

The zoo’s opening hours come to an end but, Kara realises, her time with Lena doesn’t have to. Perks of being the head zookeeper and all.

She tentatively invites the dark-haired woman to stick around, takes her on a tour of the different animals and points out all her favourites. Lena is, like, crazy smart, in addition to being crazy beautiful, and she produces odd little facts about some of the zoo’s rarer inhabitants that even Kara hadn’t known.

Kara learns that Lena had just moved to the area from Metropolis after the Andrea incident, which she has to repeatedly remind herself not to bring up. She learns that Lena has a PhD, and that she’s the youngest head of R&D ever at her brother’s company. She learns that Lena had watched every single one of her livestreams, right from the first day, and had finally been convinced by her best friend to come and meet Kara in person.

She learns that Lena is gorgeous, and devastatingly funny in an understated kind of way, and smart and kind and generous and self-effacing. She learns that everything she learns about Lena only makes her want to know more.

They end up at the giant panda enclosure and Kara sneaks a look around before unlocking the door, ushering Lena inside. She leads the dark-haired woman to a dry patch of grass near where the babies are sleeping with their mothers and gestures for her to sit, realising belatedly that Lena’s suit probably costs more than Kara makes in a year and that she probably doesn’t want to muddy it up in a mess of twigs and leaves.

But Lena doesn’t even hesitate, taking a seat facing Kara and pulling her legs in close to her body. Her eyes keep darting to the pile of pandas behind them and Kara grins. “If we just sit here, they’ll come and investigate us,” she smiles, and Lena looks so excited that Kara’s breath catches in her chest.

They chat about Kara’s job, the zoo’s conservation work, Lena’s move out west and her latest projects at Luthor Corp. Sure enough, within minutes the most brave and inquisitive of the baby pandas has perked up from its nap, ambling over to give them a curious sniff.

Kara’s heart clenches so hard in her chest at the way Lena’s entire face lights up when one of the bears flops into her lap that she legitimately fears she may have gone into cardiac arrest. But if this is how she dies, so be it; watching the untempered joy in her expression as Lena holds a tiny panda in her arms, staying quiet and still as the baby paws and prods inquisitively at her face and hair, would not be a bad final image.

“I wanted to say thank you,” Lena murmurs after a while. “For what you did on the livestream every day. For your discretion, but also— your support.”

She takes a deep breath, gaze focused on the cuddly ball of fluff in her arms. “When Andrea and I ended, it tore me apart, and no one in my daily life knew what had happened. You can imagine why I wanted to keep the details private,” she smiles grimly, and Kara nods. “I felt so isolated. But seeing your videos, seeing you every day— it made me feel that little bit less alone.”

Lena blushes, ducking her head. “I’m sorry, I know that probably sounds ridiculous. I don’t— I didn’t even know you.” An errant curl falls forward into her face, and the baby panda in her arms immediately begins chewing on it.

Kara scoots forward on her knees, pulling the lock of dark hair gently from the baby’s grip and tucking it carefully behind Lena’s ear. “It’s not ridiculous,” she whispers as Lena raises her head again, suddenly aware that their faces are now only inches apart.

“I’m, I’m really glad I could do that for you. I’m really, really glad I got to meet you, Lena. And for the record,” she pauses to swallow hard, drowning in the intensity of Lena’s eyes. “Andrea is the biggest idiot on the planet to have ever let you go.”

Lena’s breath catches in her throat, and Kara doesn’t miss the way green eyes flicker down to her mouth for a moment, Lena’s tongue darting out to wet her own lips. It makes Kara feel bold, and before she can think too hard or second-guess herself she’s leaning forward, sliding a hand up to thread through soft dark hair and pressing her lips to Lena’s.

It’s light, brief, just the gentlest press of mouths, but it shoots a white hot bolt of fire from the crown of Kara’s head to the very tips of her toes. Her whole body is tingling as she pulls back, heart pounding.

“God, sorry,” she gasps, eyes widening as the reality of the boundary she’s just blown past comes slamming in. “Oh, fu— I’m so sorry, Lena, I don’t know what I was—”

“Kara,” Lena whispers, gently depositing her baby panda on the grass to push up on her knees as well. “Do it again.”

Well. She doesn’t need to be told that twice.

She surges forward again but Lena’s already there to meet her, mouths slanting together like they’d been doing it for years. Kara’s tongue darts out to trace the seam of Lena’s bottom lip and the dark-haired woman’s mouth falls open with a tiny gasp that hits Kara low in her hips. The first touch of Lena’s tongue against hers is bright, jagged and electric, and Kara tightens one hand in Lena’s hair as the other slides round her waist to anchor their bodies together, Lena’s own hands fisting in the collar of Kara’s green fleece.

Maybe it’s minutes, maybe it’s hours later that they finally break apart, gasping for air. Kara doesn’t particularly care. She takes in Lena’s heaving chest, her kiss-swollen lips and rose-tinted cheeks, and wonders how the hell a bucketful of dead cockroaches could ever have led her to something as beautiful as this.

“Oh,” Lena gasps, voice light and breathy. “Oh, wow. Maybe I should visit zoos more often.”

“As long as it’s this one, I’m on board with that,” Kara chuckles, tracing her thumb feather-light over Lena’s lower lip and trying (and failing) to restrain a shiver at the way Lena’s nails scratch lightly at the nape of her neck.

“So, um,” Lena murmurs, biting her lip, and it’s taking every scrap of Kara’s willpower not to interrupt whatever she’s about to say and claim her mouth once again. “I feel like an all-access encounter with baby pandas is quite a tough first date to follow but, um. Would you like to maybe do this again sometime?”

Kara grins. She grins and grins and grins. She doesn’t think she could stop grinning if she tried. “I’d love to.”

The answering smile that breaks over Lena’s lovely face makes Kara’s heart do a backflip, and she’s just about to lean back in when the ominous sound of the Jaws theme tune starts up from the pocket of her fleece.

She pulls out her phone, stomach dropping when she sees the thirty new messages from Alex and Kelly and Winn, the hundreds of Facebook and Twitter notifications flooding her homescreen. With a pit of existential dread opening up in her chest, she answers the call.

“Cat,” she says, voice bright and just a little too high. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“I have to assume, since you were the one who lobbied for their installation, that you are aware of the three cameras livestreaming the giant panda enclosure at all times,” Cat drawls, voice bored and callous with the barest undertone of amusement. “Which leads me, naturally, to assume that your little after-hours rendezvous with billionaire tech mogul and philanthropist Lena Luthor was intended to be broadcast live to millions of viewers?”

Kara slaps a hand across her forehead, cheeks redder than a fire truck as she shoots an agonised glance in Lena’s direction. Lena shakes her head questioningly at her and Kara tugs the phone away from her ear to put the call on speaker.

“So, um. The whole world just saw that, huh?” she asks through a grimace. Lena’s eyes widen and she presses a delicate hand to her mouth to hold back a shocked giggle.

“They certainly did,” comes Cat’s disembodied voice. “And it’s doing wonders for our popularity. I already have three new investors interested in supporting our panda rehabilitation programme. You know, Keira, when I asked you to give the people a show, this is not exactly what I had in mind. But I must say—”

Her boss pauses for an interminably long moment and Kara holds her breath, wondering if she’s about to lose her job or get promoted.

“—I don’t hate it,” Cat finishes. “While you have her, perhaps you could ask Ms Luthor how she would feel about becoming an official patron of National City Zoo.”

“I would feel very good about it, Ms Grant,” Lena answers smoothly, serene and composed despite her kiss-tousled hair and smudged lipstick.

“Excellent,” Cat says resoundingly. “In that case, I’ll let you, ahem. Get back to it. My office at 9am for a staff meeting, Keira.”

“Of course,” Kara manages before hanging up, tossing her phone into the grass as she presses her palms to her flaming cheeks. “So, um. Our first kiss was just livestreamed to half the country.”

Lena presses her lips together to hold back a smirk. “It was.” She arches one eyebrow, a playful smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. “Well, there’s no going back now. We can’t break the Internet’s heart. I suppose I’ll just have to stick around.”

Kara gives up any last semblance of self-restraint at that, pushing forward to wrap her arms around Lena’s waist and pull her back in for another bruising kiss. “Well, Lena from Metropolis. I sure hope you do.”