#if kara and alex really loved each other no one would ever get between them

[moistvonlipwig]

can i do the same thing to you i did to sssammich and upend all the -corps on your desk or is that too greedy 🥴

looping in @yourlocalegotisticalqueerishere since it's easier to do these all in one post ! alphabetical order for funsies under the cut:

agentcorp - no...idk what to say really except the vibes are off for me. sorry chyler </3 i know you wanted to kiss katie so bad. i think alex and lena have similarities & differences (just like every character does with every other character lol) but i personally feel like their specific similarities & differences would cause them to either enable each other's worst aspects or to butt heads constantly. just my onion i know many people disagree and that's fine. also the triple hit of alex trying to nuke lena and justifying it by twisting all her previous good deeds to make them sound bad, lying about it to her face while asking for her help, and then not advocating for her to get her memories back and even encouraging kara to deceive her once again all in quick succession in s5 -- all of which got swept under the rug in s6 -- really soured me on the friendship s4 had built up between them. so i'm not even really a fan of their friendship. tragique :(

braincorp - they are my brotp <333 i don't ship them romantically at all but actually their relationship is probably my favorite relationship on the show period. it helps that they are my 2 fave characters lol but also they are so smart and so bitchy together and i love them <333 brainy is so ride or die for lena even when she gives him literally the worst advice anyone has ever given anyone else in the history of the world and lena feels safe with brainy to express how she really feels and they are kindred spirits. also the parallel to the comics dynamic between brainiac & lex luthor [which should've made it to the show!!! where was the original brainiac???] is poetic. braincorp 4 life !!!

dreamcorp - again i don't ship them at all but it's so bonkers that developing this relationship wasn't more of a priority for the writers. little sisters with asshole siblings who blame themselves for their mother's deaths (and also have magic powers i guess thanks s6 🥴)...the scenes write themselves! or so you would think. i liked that they had some rapport in s6 but also ngl it cracked me up in 6x07 when nia called lena "family" i was like girl this is your first onscreen conversation ever 😭 you are colleagues at best...oh well. i like the idea of them becoming found family though. i don't see the superfriends as a found family (they are actually this cool thing called 'friends' instead) but nia & lena specifically i think could come to lean on each other in a sisterly way.

guardiancorp - so as i've mentioned part of what really piqued my interest in guardiancorp was the reveal that james had 16 scars from lex yet he was able to look past that to see lena for who she was not just as lex's little sister. james as clark's best friend and lena as lex's sister are kind of inherently tied together by the superman/lex drama and i'm interested in how they can work through that to love each other anyway. one thing i find interesting about them is that they are deeply different in ways that could set them at odds -- lena is a luthor, james is team super; lena is a white woman, james is a black man; lena is morally flexible, james is much more morally steadfast/rigid -- yet they are able to find solidarity and common ground with each other despite those things and have each other's backs. a lot of people like to point to the scene where lena & james are completely out of sync at game night as evidence that they were never really right for each other, but the thing i always remember is that lena wanted to practice with him afterwards. she wanted to put in the work. that's actually very romantic to me. another thing i like is how protective they are of each other; morgan edge might call james lena's bodyguard and james might take a bullet for her and dangle morgan edge off a building for her but lena is also HIS bodyguard who would make deals with the DA for him and poison her mother for him. they're each other's guardians. also they are capable of being so powerful and bitchy together like when they went to confront morgan edge in 3x09 that was sooo funny and iconic. i do wish the show built them up better and let us see their friendship properly develop in 3a instead of having them flirt in a couple scenes and then not interact for 4 episodes and then have kara & sam hamfistedly tell us they have chemistry. if i were writing season 3 i would give them a slower build and probably not have them kiss until the balcony scene in 3x17. but oh well. if wishes were horses i would have lots of horses. i wouldn't even know what to do with all those horses. so it's a good thing wishes aren't horses, if you think about it.

kellycorp / goldencorp (that's the name i just came up with now that i am advocating for) - i quite like this idea because it's a kelly ship i can actually get invested in. hooray <3 i think kelly would be good for lena and, crucially, i think lena would be good for kelly. they both are more 'outsiders' to the superfriends than the other members are, as evinced by the two of them being the last to know supergirl's identity, and i think they could bond over that. i could see kelly feeling comfortable being displeased/angry with lena in a way she maybe doesn't with the other superfriends, while also holding space for lena's emotions in a way Certain Other People Who Shall Remain Nameless aren't always very good at. and i could also see lena really enjoying spoiling kelly with her wealth and kelly being kind of into it. also the fact that the showrunners seemed weirdly allergic to putting azie and katie into scenes together, meanwhile azie and katie were supposedly constantly flirting on set and working overtime to try and sneak goldencorp crumbs into the background, suggests to me that their chemistry was so palpable and powerful that TPTB were scared of letting them loose lest the fandom descend even further into ship wars. ...ok that last part is just a silly little conspiracy theory that i made up so please don't repeat it as fact or even as plausible speculation but also why Did the showrunners keep them apart so much 🤔 makes you think !

mirrorcorp [mirrorverse iris/lena aka a ship i invented] - so if you've never seen the flash you are probably thinking: who is mirrorverse iris??? i'm so glad you asked. mirrorverse iris is a clone of iris from the mirror realm which is NOT an 'evil universe' a la star trek, it is instead a world literally inside mirrors. mirrorverse iris was essentially created by mirror monarch (don't ask) for the purpose of infiltrating the normal world. she spends an arc impersonating the real iris and is similar in some ways but is also angrier, more ruthless, and more impulsive. in her last episode she figures out that she wants to be her own person and live life on her own terms not mirror monarch's and she defies mirror monarch during a fight with barry and then she dies. don't like that she died i wish she'd stuck around she was an epic character. but anyway this arc takes place in season 6b of the flash which you guessed it coincides with season 5b of supergirl. so my pitch is that instead of teaming up with lex to continue project nonsense lena goes on a sojourn to central city and meets mirrorverse iris who is impersonating real iris and undergoing an existential crisis/crisis of conscience. and the two bond and become friends. and then mirrorverse iris doesn't die and she and lena have to figure out who they want to be for themselves not just for the people who created them or tried to mold them in their image. and then they kiss about it idk just saying it could be good!

nationalcitydistrictattorneycorp - i mean. you've seen the scene. possibly the most sexually charged scene in the entire show. unclear to me why both actresses decided to play it that way but ok queens !

peggycorp - not my thing but i respect the warriors 👍

reigncorp - sam is imo the best & healthiest friend lena could ask for -- actually the best & healthiest friend anyone on this show could ask for -- but i don't really think their relationship is improved or made more interesting by them dating. i do think they have hooked up in the past and they decided they were better off as friends.

rojascorp - i'm not a rojascorp shipper actually but i believe in their beliefs...andrea and lena definitely dated, i see them as exes who still have affection for each other & sexual tension, i'm just not interested in the idea of them getting back together. if anything i actually worry that andrea might be too deferential to lena? i think she sees herself as deeply indebted to lena and -- whether you're looking at the pre-crisis more interesting timeline where she directly has blood on her hands or the post-crisis less interesting timeline where she tried to kill supergirl & accidentally put william in the line of fire -- i think she has a lot of guilt and she views lena as a moral authority in contrast to her morally 'tarnished' view of herself. which is interesting & juicy because most characters don't view lena that way. but i don't know that it's a great dynamic for a romance.

spheercorp - jack is sweet and rahul kohli is pretty. here endeth my thoughts on spheercorp. ...ok i guess i can say a little more which is that like rojascorp i prefer them as exes/bffs to them getting back together. i also will say that, while i think jack's death contributed to a disturbing trend on the show of killing off south asian characters, i do actually rather like it as a character beat for lena. i enjoy seeing him pop up in fics but in the show itself i think him dying is kind of a better story. sorry jacky :(

supercorp - i mean i think the premise alone is kind of epic and awesome. a super and a luthor but they're in love. like that's just plain cool. plus think of the awkward family dinners! i am always here for ships that will generate awkward family dinners. i also think they have a lot of great comedy scenes together which is always a plus to me shipping-wise, i like ships with a comedic bent. but there's also a lot of juicy drama/tragedy/gay divorce with them too which is also good of course. as a big fan of dramatic irony i like the secret/reveal as a storytelling device i just wish they handled it better post-5x01 (i think 4x22 and 5x01 actually kind of nailed it ngl). i like that they both used each other's kryptonite on the other person and yet they were able to forgive that and love the other person anyway. i mean the actual in-show process of forgiveness was wack but the idea is spicy. and i like that, as kara herself (clunkily) put it in the finale, they really do challenge each other and push each other to be better. as i've mentioned before theirs is a relationship where actions have consequences and where every scene they have matters and affects later scenes, which is unlike.....well, most relationships on the show, frankly. i also tend to think their scenes are just generally better-written and have more subtext (and i'm not just talking about the gay kind) and interesting things going on in them than most of the rest of the show's scenes. for all my many gripes about how s5 & s6 handled their fallout and then kind of just papered over it with platitudes, i still think their relationship is one of the best parts of the show and it's still the major thing that keeps me on the hook.

[waytooinvested]

Vengeance, Victory, and Undying Love - pt 12 - Epilogue

12th and final chapter 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.

The full story is also available to read on Ao3

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

The first few days had been intense, both of them desperate for the emotional closeness they had been missing since Lex’s bombshell, and the physical closeness that was proving to be a revelation to their touch starved bodies.

Lena had cancelled appointments and shareholder meetings recklessly, and it was only Kara’s ability to pull a last minute exclusive with Supergirl out the bag that kept her from being fired after the fourth day she hadn’t shown up for work.

They had spent every minute of that time together. Talking. Crying. Kissing. More than kissing. Until at last things had begun to settle, and they found that what was left was…

Joy.

Pure, simple joy in each other’s company and the fact that finally, against all the odds, they had ended up exactly where they had always been heading.

Of course, their bliss bubble couldn’t last for ever, and eventually they both acknowledged that they were going to have to get up, put on their big-girl pants (or really, any pants at all at that point) and go and make things right at their respective work places.

After that things fell more or less into a better version of the way they had been before, only now sleepovers after movie nights were a forgone conclusion, and their sleeplessness included much more than just talking all night (though there was plenty of talking too). During the first one Kara had told Lena all about her fantasy of the picnic basket and the sunrise, and while that particular dawn found them too busy (and much too naked) to go flying about the countryside, they got round to it eventually, and it was everything Kara had hoped it would be.

Even with the amount they still had to talk through and all the emotional processing that needed to be done, when it was just the two of them even the hard parts felt as natural as breathing.

It took a little longer with the others.

There was still some wariness on both sides, and the first games night Lena turned up to, nervous and clutching an excessively pricey bottle of wine as a peace offering, had been… strained, to say the least.

No one had actually said anything against her – had even hugged her and told her they were glad she was back – but the conversation didn’t flow as naturally as it once had, and there were more than a few glances at Lena and Kara’s linked hands, as if they all badly wanted to comment but had been told not to make a big deal over it.

It was difficult, and it made Lena want to ice up and hide behind her old Luthor-trained emotional defences again, but she persevered, and so did they, and bit by bit the tension eased until it seemed as if they had been able to paper over the cracks in their group dynamic and settle into a new normal.

At least, until the night at Al’s when they had all had a one drink too many, and somehow the conversation had gotten on to the subject of relationships.

Kara had taken Lena’s hand and said how happy and lucky she felt to be with someone she could feel fully herself with, and the others had smiled and agreed.

All except Alex.

Alex and Lena had had their own whisky-assisted heart to heart weeks before and had thought the air was clear between them, but now Alex turned to Lena and jabbed a finger at her with the sort of intensely earnest frown only achievable by the moderately inebriated.

‘You know Lena, I am so mad at you’.

Kara froze, glancing between her sister and her girlfriend.

‘Hey, Alex come on, it’s all in the past-’

‘No, no Kara it’s not. I am so mad at her’.

The whole table was silent now, holding their breath and waiting for whatever would happen next, no one quite knowing how to diffuse the pending argument.

To her credit, Lena wasn’t biting back. Her happy smile had faded and she was clutching Kara’s hand twice as tightly as before, but she was waiting, outwardly calm, to allow Alex the space to say whatever she so clearly needed to get off her chest.

‘I mean seriously. How the hell are any of us supposed to make a grand romantic gesture ever again after that? It has got to be the single most dramatic, over the top way of declaring your undying love for someone ever’.

She paused and grinned round at them all, seeming not to notice the tension she had created and the confusion that followed it after this remark.

‘Undying. Get it? Because she literally cured Kara of the one thing that could kill her?’

Alex laughed at her own joke, betraying the fact that she at least, had passed well over the tipsy/drunk dividing line.

‘It’s freakin’ ridiculous. Brilliant, but ridiculous. Still, I’m going to get my own back one day. When I tell this story in my sister-of-the-bride speech at your wedding’.

The tension eased, and a couple of people chuckled along as everyone realised that there wasn’t going to be a fight after all, but they didn’t relax entirely until Lena joined in the laughter and put an arm companionably around Alex’s shoulders.

‘I can’t wait to hear it’.

And that’s when Kara knew for sure that everything was going to be alright.

And also that one day, maybe not for years, but one day, she would hear that speech.

Because she was going to marry Lena Luthor.

[lena-in-a-red-dress]

A Chance for Christmas AU

Kara is a family blogger. The world believes her to be married with one daughter. What the world doesn't know is that her husband is actually her friend James, and her daughter Esme is actually her niece.

Kara lives in her sister's house, making the kitchen and family room her domain to film. But for all the public knows, it's Kara's house and Kara's family.

Alex loves her sister to the point of letting Esme participate, initially because Esme also loves it. But eventually it becomes less about spending time with Esme and more about the views and likes.

Just before Christmas, Kara finds out that one of the top brands in the world (Luthor Industries) is interested in sponsoring her. Turns out, Lena Luthor is a fan of Kara's blog, and has convinced her brother (her boss), that Kara would be the perfect fit.

Lex is doubtful, and so sets a seemingly impossible challenge-- he will give Kara Danvers control of the company's social media feeds on Christmas Eve. If Kara gets 2 million views, he'll give her the sponsorship. If she doesn't, well... Lena will take the fall.

Things in Kara's life are starting to unravel under the pressure of trying to get the sponsorship deal with the Luthor brand. Her family is losing patience, fully disenchanted with the vlog thing. So by the time Lena shows up to monitor the live takeover of the Luthor social media feeds, Kara is at her wit's end.

She mistakes Lena for the assistant producer she hired for the day (who never actually shows up) and pulls her inside and starts barking orders. Thus Lena is treated to a first hand look at the chaos that is behind the scenes of Kara's perfect-family schtick. When she learns the truth of Kara and James' relationship, and the fact Esme isn't even Kara's daughter, Lena nearly panics.

But in the end, she rolls with it. After all, if this test of Kara's (to get 2 million views on Christmas Eve) doesn't succeed, Lena will lose all credibility with her family, and THAT Lena will not allow.

They work together to put together a... mediocre product. They only get halfway to their viewer goal, and when their rental Santa (actually the real santa), Kara wishes aloud that she wishes to do the whole day over again. Which of course Santa makes happen.

What follows is christmas groundhog day, giving Lena and Kara (the only two who remember that Christmas Eve has already happened) the opportunity to do the day over and over again until they get it right. But no matter what they do, they always seem to fall short of the 2mil views.

Some days are better than others, some are straight disasters, but little by little, each day gets them closer to their goal, and closer to each other. They're both charming after all, and beautiful. How could they ignore the chemistry between them?

Lena also bonds with Esme. While coloring one day between shoots, Lena asks Esme if she even likes filming. Esme responds that at first she did, because it was an excuse to spend time with her favorite aunt, but now it feels like it wouldn't really matter if Esme were even in the clip at all. They don't ever really do anything together. Kara does it all herself, and brings Esme in just to get a couple takes in.

Lena also learns that James has/had a thing for Kara, but that Kara never felt the same way. He'd thought that pretending to be married on camera would bring them closer, but in the end it only pushed them farther apart, to the point that he's not even sure they're friends anymore.

Finally, FINALLY, Kara and Lena put together the perfect day. Professional decorators make the house perfect, everyone puts on their best performances, and the livestream officially hits more than 2 million views.

But the success comes at a cost. Having excluded the rest of her friends and family, they all leave the house bitterly. Even Alex, whose house Kara lives and films in, takes her family to in-law's house to spend the night.

"When we come back," Alex hisses on her way out the door, "I want you gone."

Heartbroken, Kara finally realizes what her fervor for success has cost her. Her family, the people she cherishes most in the world-- she lost sight of them. And now, having met their goal, Kara knows the day won't reset. This is the reality she will have to face tomorrow.

Or is it.

When she wakes the next morning, it's Christmas Eve again. But this time, she refuses to film she spends the day with Alex, Kelly, Esme and James. Though there's no filming, Lena comes over anyway to join them. Upon seeing this new (true) Kara, Lena surreptitiously begins to film from her phone as the family plays board games, bakes cookies, and just acts like a normal messy family.

But when Lena reveals that the feed got them the 2mil views again, Kara explodes. She feels exploited, betrayed, and doesn't listen when Lena tries to explain that the world deserves to see Kara as she truly is-- a kind soul who loves her family. She throws Lena out, and stews until Alex comes in to chat.

"It's been a long time since we've spent time like this together," Alex says quietly. "Recently, it's felt like the vlog was all you cared about-- and what really hurt the most was that it was fake. But what Lena streamed today... that was real."

Thus, now armed with her sister's blessing, Kara starts a new livestream. She bares all her secrets, tells her truth. She also vows to return to what her channel was always meant to be about.

"I stumbled into family blogging by accident, and when I did I tried to give you what you seemed to want. But the truth is, all I wanted to do was share my love of baking, cooking, and making things for my family. To share the joy of showing love. And that's what I'll be doing from now on. Just... me."

She also asks that Lena-- if she's watching-- please know that she's truly, deeply sorry.

"Please," Kara pleads to the camera. "Don't go."

She's tried calling Lena, of course, but Lena's turned her phone to do not disturb. The only call allowed to come through is her brother's, who reaches out to congratulate her.

"And don't worry," he says, "we'll be able to work with the brand change."

"What?"

"You mean you haven't seen Kara's latest video? You should. Trust me. You can thank me later."

So Lena does, and then immediately drops everything to rush back to the Danvers' home. Kara rushes out at the sound of Lena honking the horn as she pulls into the driveway, and there in her slippers she rushes into Lena's arms and plants a fervent kiss on her lips.

"I'm sorry--" Lena murmurs, eye closed as their foreheads touch.

"No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have bitten your head off, I know you were just trying to help--"

"I love you."

Kara looks up with a tearful smile, her eyes sparkling with christmas lights.

"I love you too."

[nocteverbascio]

what are your intentions (6/10) - rated m

Pairing: Alex Danvers/Lucy Lane Summary:  It was a fun to push each other’s buttons because it not only brought out the best in one another. Both women met their match in one another. Only now, things have changed. And Alex is pissed. A/N: when kara tries to help it jsut makes alex feel worse

ao3 link

“We’re going to fix this Alex,” Kara says with her eyes burning with determination.

Alex digs into the strawberry shortcake ice cream sadly. She’s curled up on her couch with a pillow against her chest as Kara paces in front of her with a white board.

She’s been wallowing and brooding all week.

Alex knows Kara’s picked up on it because of how often she’s been present. Kara has always been good at cheering people up. She’s always full of energy and determination. She lives life fully and unapologetically. Underneath it all, Alex knows Kara carries a sadness to last a lifetime and maybe that’s why she shines so bright. So that no one has to understand the pain and sadness she’s been through.

It makes Alex feel guiltier as she digs deeper into the pint of ice cream.

She’s been in relationships with people before. But no one has ever mattered as much as Lucy. And when Alex thinks of being with Lucy, it terrifies her to think that anyone could be just as important as Kara.

Alex has done almost everything in her life for Kara. She’s Kara’s big sister, her protector, her best friend, you name it. So maybe, she just wants to wallow a bit more. Maybe ignore her feelings and crawl into a hole forever until they go away. Alex doesn’t know how she broach the conversation that Kara plays a much bigger role in her decision than she thinks.

“Okay! Let’s start,” Kara says with a flourish as she motions to the white board.

It’s titled: Dating Lucy Lane in rainbow colors with a line down the middle. One side subtitled: Pros! With an emoji with heart eyes and the other with CONS and an angry frowning emoji.

“Do we need to do this?” Alex complains as she stuffs her mouth full of ice cream. She regrets it as the brain freeze settles in.

Kara frowns as she snatches the pint of ice cream from her sister. “Yes,” she insists. “We have to do this. I’m trying to understand how you feel about her so we can fix this.”

“There’s nothing to fix, Kara,” Alex says with resignation in her voice.

Kara gives her a disapproving look. “Alex, if there was nothing to fix, your feelings wouldn’t be so hurt right now.”

Alex rolls her eyes and shrugs like it isn’t a big deal.

“Come on, let’s start with cons to get that out of the way,” Kara goes on. “I promise this is going to help.”

Alex stares at her sister. Kara’s blue eyes full of hope and promise. She can’t say no to her at all. “Fine,” she huffs. Entertaining her sister wouldn’t be such a bad idea. At least she finally has someone to talk to, even if she doesn’t want to talk.

“Cons!” Kara pops open the marker with a flourish.

Alex thinks about it for a moment. What about Lucy doesn’t she like?

After a moment, she says, “Her dad.”

“Huh,” Kara agrees as she puts Sam Lane on the list with a frowny face. “What else?”

“She dated your current boyfriend.”

“I knew dating James would make this weird!” Kara says as she writes James down. “Alright, what else?”

You. Alex shuts her mouth instantly. No, she shoves another scoop of ice cream in her mouth to shut herself up. There’s guilty creeping up her spine like vines, sinking into her predatorily but not quite vicious. She knows it’s only her mind playing tricks on her but Alex has lived with this far too long to be anything but reality.

Alex is the protector. She maintains order. She is the leader. If she fails at any of those that means failing her family. The most important family she has is Kara.

Kara is staring at the board thoughtfully before she realizes that Alex hasn’t responded. She turns to her sister with a curious look. “What’s wrong?” It isn’t hard for Kara to read Alex’s emotions.

Alex projects them so well without even realizing it. Whatever she’s holding onto is evident on her face even as she shoves ice cream into it.

“It’s nothing,” Alex answers as she clears her throat. She tries to put a brave front.

Kara gives her a skeptical look as she sinks down next to Alex. She peels the pint of ice cream from Alex’s fingers. “Talk to me,” she pleads. “I hate to say this, but I feel like you’ve been hiding this from me on purpose.”

Alex furrows her brows in confusion. “No, no,” she tries lying. “Lucy and I weren’t serious. It’s hardly something I would want to bring up to you.”

Kara drops her shoulders, trying to level with Alex. “You weren’t serious, but it’s kind of clear you want to be something more. You can be something serious with Lucy. I’m sure she wants the same thing with you because she doesn’t seem like the type to do things halfway.”

“She isn’t,” Alex agrees ruefully. She can’t help the smile that creeps at the corner of her lips as she thinks of Lucy. Yet, the cold thoughts whispering her reminders of who she is suppresses the smile. Alex tightens her jaw as she shakes her head. “We really shouldn’t do this Kara.”

“Alex, no,” Kara says quickly as she grabs onto her sister’s hands. “Don’t shut me out. Please. I want you to be happy.”

“I know,” Alex throws back more defensively than she intends. She feels even worse at the stunned look on Kara’s face. “I’m sorry. I know you want me to be happy but Kara, there’s something that you need to understand. Maybe I’m not cut out for this relationship stuff.”

“That’s not true.”

“It is Kara. I don’t think there’s ever someone that’s stuck around long enough for me to want to feel close to.”

“That’s because they weren’t the right person. They weren’t willing to put in the work for you. Lucy isn’t like that. Lucy is--”

“Lucy is so much more than I expected,” Alex admits, feeling the tug in her heart. “But I can’t be that person for her.”

“Why? Why do you keep saying that?” Kara shoots back. There’s a sad frustration in her voice as she pleads with Alex. “Why do you think that you can’t be with Lucy? You’re smart, beautiful, and amazing. You guys are eerily perfect for each other.”

Alex pinches the bridge of her nose. “I can’t, Kara. I just can’t.”

“Alex, you can. You can be with her and you deserve to be with her,” Kara encourages earnestly. She stares at Alex so hopefully and honestly that it hurts to stare at her.

Alex hates this feeling that wrenches inside of her chest. She can see the heartbreak that Kara feels for her. She’s her older sister and here Kara was doing so much for her. She is supposed to be Kara’s rock, always. Undoubtedly, Alex would always be there to protect and make sure that Kara was the one that was happy. No matter what the sacrifices were, Alex was willing to make them.

Yet, Alex doesn’t know which one is worse. How much it hurts to not be with Lucy or how guilty she feels if she was going to be with Lucy.

“Please, tell me what’s wrong Alex,” Kara begs at this point. She’s already staring at Alex with her puppy eyes. “Please.”

Alex cups Kara’s cheek gently in her hand. Kara holds her hand over Alex’s as she waits patiently for her. Her voice comes out coarse as she speaks softly, regretfully, “You don’t understand, Kara, I do want to be with Lucy.” Kara opens her mouth when Alex shakes her head. “But I can’t be with her because it makes me feel guilty.”

Alex shudders as she forges on, Kara patiently listening. “Everytime that I want something for myself I just feel like I am being selfish. Whenever I’m selfish things always, always go wrong. And I can’t stand the idea that every time I go for something that I want, there’s this dreadful ending waiting for me to reach.”

“This isn’t the same though…”

Alex feels the tears well in her eyes as her emotions continue to pour into her. “It isn’t. It’s worse because I don’t think I’ve ever wanted anything so much. The more I want something, the worse it’s going to be.” She thinks of Lucy and all that she wants them to be. It starts to overwhelm her. “When I think of Lucy--when I think of being with her, it feels so vivid, so visceral, that I can’t remember a time where I’ve ever felt like this. It-it feels like I need her and it’s mortifying because I shouldn’t need anyone as much as I feel like I need her.”

Kara throws her arms around her sister’s shoulders and pulls her in closely as the tears threaten to fall. Alex shudders as holds onto Kara tightly. “It’s okay to need someone from time to time,” Kara comforts as she rubs Alex’s back. “We can’t always do everything on our own. No matter who we are. Look at me, I need you.”

Alex holds onto her sister even tighter. She buries her face into Kara’s strong shoulder, trying to be that strength Kara needs. “I know you do. And I’ll always be here for you. I’ll always be your big sister and your protector.”

“I know that,” Kara says so easily. “But I don’t need you all the time.”

“You don’t know that,” Alex lets out unconsciously.

Kara lessens her hold over Alex slowly before peeling herself away. She stares at Alex curiously, trying to see her sister eye to eye. “Do you feel this way because of me?” she asks carefully.

The look on Alex’s face seems to say it all. Alex can’t help herself as she stares guiltily at her sister. It’s why she wanted to avoid this conversation in the first place.

“Alex, come on,” Kara throws out incredulously. “Do you think that if you were selfish, something bad would happen to me? Or us?”

Alex feels her heart tighten. “I don’t want to feel like I’m abandoning you.”

“No,” Kara suddenly declares. “How could you think that? You’ve never abandoned me ever. I know that.” She sits up straighter as she stares at Alex with passion in her eyes. They shine similar to Alex’s tear filled eyes. “You’ve given me so much more than I could ever ask for since landing here on Earth. You have been my rock, my heart. You are my person, Alex. Just because you take care of me all of the time doesn’t mean that you have to. We are family. We take care of each other.”

The gravity of Kara’s words cut through Alex’s reservations. She feels the dam break and the tears fall freely as she reaches for Kara.

Kara holds Alex once more, feeling her sister rely just a bit more on her. “It’s okay, Alex. We’re not kids anymore. You don’t always have to protect me. Let me protect you for once.”

Alex shudders through her tears as she feels herself relax against Kara.

“Besides, I know that Lucy loves me too, so she’d probably kick your ass if you abandoned me,” Kara tries as she shakes her sister.

Alex actually laughs at this. “She would,” Alex agrees with an uncontrollable smile on her face. She can just imagine Lucy giving her that look whenever Alex does something wrong on mission.

Kara smiles brightly as she stares at Alex. “I really want you to be happy, you know that right?” Alex sheepishly nods in agreement because fighting it doesn’t make it any less true. “Does Lucy make you happy?”

Alex takes a deep breath. “She makes me feel so much more than that.”

Kara beams. “Then, we’re going to make sure you get your girl.”

[blackbirdblackbird]

“For the last time, I’m not in love with Lena!”

“Does that mean you’re going to admit it next time I ask?” Alex replies, ignoring her sister’s pacing and frantic gesturing as she speaks in favour of watching the news playing muted on the TV.

Kara clenches her fists in frustration. She takes a deep breath, exhales, then sits down on the couch beside Alex.

“Look, I know you mean well and you just want to help us, but it’s really not like that. You know we’ve always been close, and with… everything that’s happened it feels like we’ve just lost so much time and we want to make up for it.”

Alex turns to her slowly and deliberately. “Kara, she literally lives with you. She sleeps in your bed every night. That’s not a friends thing Kara, that’s a couple thing.”

“Not every night!” Kara protests. “Sometimes she needs a bit of space and goes back to her apartment.”

“Eleven times in the past six months, Kara.”

“How do you know that?” Kara realizes confirming that probably doesn’t help her case. “And it was twelve; one time we had a fight.” She realizes this probably doesn’t her case either.

“Because you always come over to my place at the crack of dawn the next morning complaining about how you’re lonely but want to respect her boundaries.”

“I – ” Whatever she was about to say is lost as she hears a familiar rhythm of footsteps in the hallway. She’s wearing her glasses after a slightly overwhelming day at work, so she didn’t hear them sooner. “Lena,” she says softly, already heading for the door.

(The detached, logical part of her mind registers Alex muttering ‘yeah, that’s not gay at all,’ but she ignores it and instead savors that growing warm, content feeling that she so strongly associates with Lena.)

Kara opens the door while Lena is looking for her key, then looks over her shoulder at Alex as she steps into the apartment.

“Does this look like something a couple would do?” and then –

She intends to give Lena a sort of perfunctory peck on the lips, to show Alex how awkward and lacking in passion it would be. But. She’s not just going to go up kiss Lena out of the blue. But she also feels like just asking probably isn’t the right approach, either.

This is where the plan goes wrong.

She approaches Lena, getting right into her space. This is normal, comfortable for them. Lena looks at her, that smile Kara likes to think is just for her on her lips. And it just feels so natural. They’ve always been good at reading each other, at communicating with a look or a touch. Even more so since they’ve committed to really being open and honest with each other.

It’s instinct more than thought that guides Kara. A flick of her eyes down to Lena’s lips, a little inclination of her head, leaning in ever so slightly.

It’s clear Lena both understands what she means and doesn’t really get where it’s coming from. But the latter isn’t important. Her eyes too drop to Kara’s lips, and she gives the tiniest nod.

They move together, meeting halfway as they close the space between them.

The kiss itself is – good. Not spectacular, but neither is it awkward or uncomfortable. It’s probably the best first kiss Kara’s had with someone, but that really isn’t the highest bar to clear.

After, though.

After, when pull apart slowly, reluctantly. When it’s not so much about kissing her as simply wanting to occupy the same space as her. To feel Lena’s breath on her lips, to look into her eyes and never want to look away.

Kara becomes aware, in an abstract sort of way, of Alex trying to awkwardly navigate around them to reach the door. She can’t really process it properly. But Lena’s exerts the lightest pressure with her hands that gently grip Kara’s arms and Kara lets herself be moved.

This is when time pauses on the knife’s edge between before and after and the entire observable universe shrinks down to Kara and Lena. This is when that warmth, comfort, contentment – that love she’s felt for Lena for so long finally coalesce into something almost tangible. This, here with Lena, is that connection, between her whole, true self and Lena’s.

The sound of the door opening anchors Kara a little more firmly in reality. She notices the space (almost non-existent) between her and Lena. She notices that her hands have settled around Lena’s waist, and just how natural that feels.

And she notices Alex in the doorway, looking right at her.

“In case you still need that question answered: yes, that definitely looks like something a couple would do.” Then the door is shut, and the lock turned as Alex, on the other side, mutters “Because you idiots will probably forget to lock it.”

Then her focus slips back onto Lena.

“Hi.”

“Hey,” Lena says, her voice low and that same smile still there. Kara darts forward, and quickly kisses her a second time. “Not that I’m complaining, but’s that not exactly what I expected to come home to.”

“Alex was trying to tell me I’m in love with you, and I was going to prove her wrong.”

“Well, you really showed her.”

Kara laughs, and kisses her again.

[urwelcomeforthis]

Alex’s tattoo shows up the day after she punches Marcus Hinkle.

He had been picking on Kara in the hallway, dangling her math book above her head, taking advantage of his summer growth spurt.

Kara still doesn’t know what possessed Alex – Marcus Hinkle had been a thorn in her side since she had landed on Earth and started school a year ago, but whatever the reason, today was the day Alex couldn’t take anymore.

Eliza had been furious. Jeremiah had been (not so) silently proud.

Kara didn’t know what she had felt, really. Especially not when she asked Alex why, and the older girl had just shrugged and said “You’re my sister. It’s what we do.”

Up until this point being sisters meant fights in the hallway over the bathroom and ignoring each other at the dinner table.

Apparently, things were changing.

Kara is just waking up when she hears Alex’s hushed “What the hell?”

“What is it?” She asks, groggily sitting up and wiping at the sleep in her eyes.

Her sister is holding her forearm up, frantically scrubbing at a spot right in the middle, her eyes frantic.

“I don’t…. I don’t know! It’s like a tattoo but I didn’t get a tattoo! Fuck, Mom is going to kill me.” Alex sounds panicked as she continues scrubbing at the spot, and Kara feels her heartbeat speed up.

“You had a tattoo just appear on your skin?” Kara asks slowly, her mind suddenly far away on a planet that doesn’t exist anymore, in a culture she had been forced to leave behind.

Alex stops scrubbing and looks at Kara with a piercing gaze. “Yeah. It’s some funny symbol too, like the way you used to write before you learned English. Did you do this to me?”

Alex leaps off the bed and crosses the room in two quick strides, arm held out like an accusation.

Kara shrinks in on herself a little but nods. “I think so. I didn’t know it was possible here, but well, on Krypton when your soul mate reveals themselves, a tattoo linking you appears. I should have one too, somewhere, if you do.”

Alex stops dead in her tracks, her eyes wide. “Soul mates? But we’re sisters! That’s so gross!”

Jumping up from the bed, hands held up in surrender Kara hastens to explain further. “No! Not like that, I promise! Back home, people had different kinds of soul mates. Sometimes it was the romantic kind like you talk about here on Earth, but other times it could just be a compatible soul, someone who was meant to be a part of you.”

Alex still looks wary, if not relieved, as she tentatively holds out her arm. “So, what does this mean? What kind of soul mates are we?”

Stepping forward Kara delicately traces the symbols on Alex’s forearm. “It literally means “sister of the soul.” Je shesur. The symbol after it is unique, the way we would know we were linked. If this had happened on Krypton it would mean we were soul sisters. Not from the same parents but family just the same.”

Alex nods. “And here on Earth? What does it mean here?”

“The same thing. At least that’s what it means to me.” Kara refuses to meet Alex’s eyes, not sure she wants to see what waits for her there.

There’s a long minute of silence after Alex takes her arm back. The clearing of her throat brings Kara’s eyes up from their place on the ground.

“Where’s yours?” Alex asks, eyes burning with curiosity.

Kara shrugs. “I don’t know. It’s not on my arms like yours is. It must be hidden. Can you look on my back?”

“Sure.” Alex nods. “Lift up your shirt.”

Kara turns and tugs her shirt up and over her head. It takes a moment, but she hears her sister gasp followed by the feel of fingertips against her left shoulder blade.

“It’s the same as mine.” Alex says reverently, and Kara closes her eyes against the emotion welling up there.

Who would have thought she would get to have this piece of home?

“So, I guess I’m stuck with you. For like, ever, huh?” Alex smiles once Kara has turned back around.

Kara grins back. “Yeah, I guess so.”

Alex shrugs. “Could be worse. But you have to tell Mom about this, because she’ll never believe me, and she is going to be pissed that I have a tattoo.”

“Sure, I can tell Mom.” Kara grins, a piece of her heart settling in place. She hasn’t felt at home on Earth, not really, but at this moment she feels like it isn’t all that bad.

--

The next person to get a tattoo is, interestingly enough, James.

It doesn’t come when they’re dating, or whatever it was that they were doing, no.

It comes after he has revealed himself to be Guardian, and he and Kara have the biggest fight of their friendship.

Kara wakes up the morning after tired, groggy, and more than a little cranky. Its as she’s stripping down to get in the shower that she notices it – the Kryptonese scrawled along the inside of her right bicep.

Throniv Shesur. Protector of the soul.

Kara heaves a deep, deep, sigh and grabs her phone.

She meets James at the DEO, both tentative around each other after the yelling match of the day before.

“So. I woke up with a tattoo. Kryptonese. Any idea what that’s about?” James looks smug, like he’s won some kind of battle with Kara and god, at that moment she wishes they were in the training room and she could just punch him.

“Yeah. I did too. It means “protector of the soul.” She crosses her arms against her chest, desperately trying to hold onto her anger from yesterday but the wide grin on James’ face is making it hard.

“I know. I asked Clark first thing since I figured you’re still pissed at me. He was a little surprised, but he translated it for me.”

“Where’s it at?” Kara asks, still pretending to be upset but truthfully it was hard given the glaring message from home telling her that James was meant to be Guardian. That they were meant to protect each other. Protect others together.

“I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.” James says with a waggle of his eyebrows and that’s what finally breaks Kara, a laugh ringing out across the room.

It wasn’t who she expected to have a tattoo, not in this way at least, but if it had to be anyone, she’s glad it’s James.

--

Mon-El doesn’t get a tattoo. Kara wishes she were more disappointed.

--

The last person to get a tattoo is someone Kara had desperately hoped both would and would not get a tattoo.

For a long time, she feared what that tattoo would be, if it were to happen. She feared having to explain it, having to explain herself.

She had checked with Clark a few times, when paranoia would get the better of her.

No, he always told her. Lex did not have a tattoo. They were enemies, yes, but it hadn’t been decided by destiny or fate. It just was.

That mollified Kara because she couldn’t stand it if she and Lena were to become Clark and Lex. She would fight against it, fight against fate to keep it from happening.

And then, well. It kind of happens anyways.

They aren’t enemies, not really. Lena just hates Kara and aims a few Kryptonite cannons at her and tries to mind control the entire planet, but really everyone is allowed a brief lapse of their sensibility, right?

And what matters is she came around, in the end.

It did take time, however, for them to build back to what they once had. It was different now, but in the way that things once broken and fixed usually are.

It was better, if anything.

They were back to shared lunches and dinners, quick breakfasts and coffee breaks. They were back to game nights as partners and movie nights as friends, and the occasional sleepovers as best friends.

Things were finally back to normal, so of course Kara had to go and absolutely, irrevocably, mess it up.

It was Alex’s fault, really.

If she hadn’t said anything, if she hadn’t asked Kara what was up between her and Lena lately, Kara probably never would have stopped to think about it.

She never would have stopped to think about the way her heart sped up when Lena entered a room, or the way her palms got sweaty when they hugged, or the way she just could not stop staring at Lena when she laughed at game nights.

But now she had thought of it and had come to the very scary conclusion that she was in love with her best friend.

Her best friend who didn’t have a tattoo.

She would, after all this time, have a tattoo, the tattoo, if they were meant to be together, right?

Kara mulls it over for weeks. It haunts her. She asks Lena about tattoos, and if she has any.

She learns that yes, in fact Lena does have tattoos and boy howdy one of them is on her lower back and it is seared into the back of her eyes now that she has seen it.

But she doesn’t have any kryptonian tattoos, which is really what Kara was aiming for.

Much like it was Alex’s fault that Kara even realized she was in love, it’s also Alex who reminds Kara of one important detail.

“Well I didn’t get my tattoo until after I punched what’s his face. Maybe you have to tell Lena how you feel and then she’ll get the tattoo.”

Kara feels dumb struck, right there on her own couch, because of course, Alex is right.

The tattoos always come after the person has already revealed themselves.

Then of course comes the true fear: what if she tells Lena and she still doesn’t get a tattoo?

That’s the question she’s mulling over the next night as she and Lena sit on her couch watching some documentary that had been put on Netflix.

Lena looks beautiful, face bare of makeup, hair piled on top of her head in a messy bun, glasses slipping down her nose.

She’s eating a piece of pizza, a rare treat after a long week of work, and Kara decides that it doesn’t matter if Lena doesn’t get a tattoo.

She’s hopelessly, desperately in love with the woman and she can’t let a tattoo that may or may not come dictate her life.

“I’m in love with you, you know.” Kara blurts out, like this isn’t a life changing moment, like it’s the easiest thing in the world to say. (It is.)

Lena chokes a little on the bite she was swallowing, her hand coming up to her chest as she sets down the slice.

“Excuse me?”

Kara laughs. She’s never felt more free than in this moment. “I’m in love with you. I just thought you should know.”

Lena looks at her, shock written all over her face. “Oh. I guess that’s good.”

“Just good?” Kara nudges Lena’s thigh with her knee.

Lena shakes her head. “I mean it’s more than good, considering I’m in love with you too.”

“Yeah?” Kara could float up to the moon, she thinks.

Lena smiles, nose crinkled. “Yeah.”

It’s the next morning that Lena calls and asks if Kara can stop by. She has this tattoo she didn’t have yesterday, right on her ribcage, and it looks like it’s Kryptonian.

Kara frantically searches her own body, finding the script on her hip, on the left side.

Zhao Shesur. Love of the soul.

It took them five years to get to this point, but Kara knows, this moment was more than worth the wait.

[itllsetyoufree]

“how long was I asleep?” + cuddling please

The concept of ‘Friendsmas’ isn’t actually a thing. This is something Lena truly believes. Groups of friends are allowed to just get together around the holidays without having to call it something completely absurd. So when Kara had asked her over for ‘Friendsmas on Saturday,’ Lena had looked at her blankly, pretending to be unimpressed, and just said, “Aren’t you Jewish?” But Kara had pleaded and pouted and said things like, “Lena, please?” and really, how was Lena supposed to argue with that?

Kara’s apartment is always homey, but it’s something special around Christmastime. It smells like pine trees and cinnamon and peppermint, and there are glimmering candles and twinkling string lights everywhere. There are soft, croony covers of Christmas songs playing in the background, a gentle accompaniment to the clatter of Kelly placing their dinner dishes in the sink. Alex is next to her, humming in the kitchen while she makes some spiked hot chocolate, and Nia lays sprawled out over an armchair in the living room, flipping through Christmas movies for them all to watch together.

Lena, from her spot snuggled under a blanket on the couch, sips on her wine and feels something warm and happy come to rest deep in her bones as she watches her friends finish collecting their drinks and snacks before they all settle in for a movie.

It’s somewhere in the middle of Love Actually that Lena looks contentedly, sleepily, around the room. The coffee table is littered with empty hot chocolate mugs and wine glasses. Alex and Kelly are snuggled up together on the other side of the couch, equally comfortable sharing loving glances as they are a bowl of popcorn. Brainy had squeezed into the armchair with Nia before the movie and had promptly fallen asleep, his head resting on hers as she plays with his fingers. And Kara… Kara is curled into the corner of the couch right next to Lena and so engrossed in the film that Lena allows herself a moment to stare a little too long at her profile. The light from the tv flickers over Kara’s face like the light from all the candles she’d lit, and Lena’s struck by a longing so sudden it twists her stomach in knots.

Kara looks at her then, turns her head away from the tv to smile at Lena and slide her hand along the back of the couch until it’s cupped around Lena’s shoulder. She tugs once and Lena follows, tugs once and all those knots in Lena’s stomach unravel and go gooey at the edges as she settles into Kara’s side and rests her head on Kara’s shoulder.

The last thing she remembers as she rapidly loses herself to the haze of warmth that comes from a home-cooked meal, close friends, and a steady heartbeat under her ear, is looking around the room once more. She sees Alex happily snuggled with Kelly and Nia happily snuggled with Brainy and muses that maybe, to an unknowing eye, they’d look like three couples instead of two and two extras. She wonders, as her eyes grow heavy, what Alex or Nia would see if they were to look at her and Kara.

It comes back in pulses, her awareness does. Lena feels a kiss brushed against the crown of her head, catches a whiff of Alex’s perfume and slowly blinks her eyes open to see Alex leaning over her to press a kiss to Kara’s head as well. The two sisters are whispering goodnights to each other when Lena’s eyes drift closed again.

The sound of the front door closing clicks in Lena’s ears and she comes to again, blinking slowly as the room comes into focus. The tv is off but the string lights and the candles still cast a warm, dim yellow glow over the apartment. Her friends are gone, but there’s a heavy throw blanket draped over her that tucks in around Kara’s hip, and Kara’s fingers are carding softly through her hair. They scratch gently over her scalp, and Lena huffs out a soft noise, nudging into Kara’s shoulder in protest as the fingers leave her hair, curling around her shoulder instead.

“Hey,” Kara murmurs, quiet. A thumb strokes over Lena’s shoulder and her eyelids start to droop once more before Lena blinks them back open.

She tilts her head to look up at Kara and finds Kara smiling softly at her. Kara’s hair is even more golden in the dim lighting; her blue eyes are sparkling and Lena knows that no one has ever, ever looked so beautiful in candlelight before.

“Hey,” she finally mumbles back to distract herself. “How long was I asleep?”

“About an hour,” Kara replies, those blue eyes flicking back and forth between Lena’s as her fingers scratch over Lena’s shoulder, and it would be so easy, Lena thinks, to just tip her head up and catch Kara’s lips with her own.

“I should go home,” Lena whispers instead.

Kara’s lips part, her brows furrowing in protest before her face smoothes over again. Kara shakes her head once, her free hand rising to cup around Lena’s elbow. It’s quiet for a moment, and Lena can feel the steady rise and fall of Kara’s chest against her, can see how it causes Kara’s sweater to shift. Kara takes a deeper breath before she speaks again.

“Stay.”

Lena eyes flick back up to Kara’s, having not realized they’d drifted, to find Kara watching her intently.

“It’s late,” Lena says, her eyelids drooping again as if to prove her point. Her eyes follow the tug of gravity and fall to Kara’s mouth, full and pink as ever, before she blinks back up at Kara.

“Yeah,” Kara hums. Her hand flattens on Lena’s shoulder and smoothes over her upper back, pulling her in, and Lena’s stomach clenches, ears burning as her forehead presses into Kara’s. Kara’s other hand leaves her elbow and slides across the small of her back, setting Lena’s skin afire and her breath stuttering out of her as she lets Kara gather her closer. “So stay.”

And oh, Lena thinks, okay.

“Okay,” Lena murmurs, and Kara kisses her.

Kara kisses her and a hand slides up the back of her neck and into her hair. Kara kisses her and she fists her fingers in Kara’s sweater, lets the sweet press of Kara’s lips steal the rest of the breath from her lungs in a whimper. Kara tastes like chocolate and when she finally pulls back, she stares wide-eyed at Lena, lips parted and breath coming in pants.

Lena lets out a shaky breath of her own, eyes half-lidded and trained on Kara’s bottom lip before she pulls her own between her teeth and forces her gaze back up to Kara’s. It’s instinctual, the way a pang of anxiety twists back up in her stomach, but Kara’s eyes are just as wanting, still sparkling in the candlelight as her thumb tugs Lena’s lip out from between her teeth.

“How—” Kara croaks, stops and clears her throat and starts again. “How do you feel about ‘Friendsmas’ now?”

It works, and before she can stop herself, Lena’s eyes are rolling so far back into her head it almost hurts. But Kara’s devious grin is too catching, and Lena presses her own finger to it before moving back in to press her lips to it instead.

“Shut up,” she quips, and Kara laughs so hard it’s all Lena can do to keep their smiles pressed together.

“You like it, I know you do,” Kara finally murmurs into her mouth, and really, how is Lena supposed to argue with that?

[mrs-bartowski]

You know what makes me angriest about all this? The fact that these writers and showrunners undermined and/or destroyed every single good, important thing about this show...all in the name of baiting supercorp.

Honestly, if they had just written Kara and Lena like actual best friends and ignored the tension/chemistry with Katie and Mel, I would have been bitter and grumpy, but I would have understood and respected that it was their story to tell as they wished.

Instead, they intentionally did everything in their power to write what arguably could have been (if handled properly) one of the most groundbreaking love stories in TV history, and they did so entirely in subtext so they could cover their asses every step of the way and never have to deliver.

And the more I think about it, the more I'd be genuinely and truly shocked if this wasn't their intention all along. I mean, think about it. They made the decision for Alex to be a lesbian and cast Katie - a woman mostly known and loyally followed for her queer and queer-coded characters - to play alongside Kara immediately off the tail end of the Clexa backlash.

They swore they didn't want the Luthors to be a major part of Kara's story because they're understandably heavily associated with Superman, and they wanted her to be her own hero, then immediately turned around and wrote/filmed Lena into the rest of 2a the moment the supercorp buzz started picking up.

They had constant parallels to canon romantic pairings literally from the very first scene, what with Kara reacting to Lena the exact same way she did with James at the beginning of s1, and the Clois parallels with the helicopter save and press conference. And it only got worse as it went until every significant aspect of their storylines revolved entirely around each other. Like, imagine if we'd had the 3 seasons after Lena first got there, prior to season 5 when everything completely fell apart, dedicated to their personal and collective growth and a clear, honest differentiation between Kara/Lena and (initially) Alex/Maggie and (eventually) Alex/Kelly (and maybe less differentiation between Kara/Alex and Kara/Lena).

Imagine 2a being Kara's journey through learning how to trust people to work with and know her as a Supergirl without risking them taking advantage of her by learning how to trust mon el to behave despite hating him and be careful of Lena's potential betrayal despite being drawn to and inclined to trust her. Imagine it being Lena's journey through her past trauma with Lex and Andrea, Kara and the rest of the superfriends helping her becoming sure of herself and her own goodness despite the pain and loss she's experienced. Imagine Lena helping Kara cope with the understanding that her parents weren't who she thought and, in some ways, might even be considered monsters. Imagine Kara actually getting to grapple with the fact that she holds even more power now than they did on Krypton and what that could mean if she ever abused her power the same way. Imagine everyone actively helping Lena open up and learn to trust again and, instead of clinging to Lena's "dark side," having her (as, ya know, the canonically smartest person in the universe) realize Kara's secret on her own and slowly come to understand through their continued friendship that, despite the secret between them, just because someone lies to or betrays you doesn't mean they were never genuine and if you really care about each other, you can find a way to be honest and work through it.

Imagine 2b being the first time Kara has to deal with a villain knowing her real identity and aiming to use it against her when Rhea threatens Lena, which could have been the perfect setup for a long game of having her reveal her identity on her own terms. Imagine Lena getting to talk about the fact that Rhea was the first time she'd been betrayed since opening herself back up because she was so desperate for that motherly connection after what happened with Lillian in 2x12. Imagine Kara helping her cope through Lillian and Rhea's betrayals and Jack's death all at once while the guilt over her secret eats her alive, but she's so afraid that Lena will get hurt worse if she tells her. Imagine Lena telling Kara after it's all over that she's known her identity for months and she doesn't have to worry because sheand their friends have shown Lena that true friendship can withstand any mistake when you're willing to make it work, and now she can better differentiate between a misguided mistake and true betrayal. Imagine Kara realizing for the first time that hiding her identity didn't necessarily keep Lena any safer because she never would have worked with Rhea without talking to Kara first if she'd known, and maybe this honesty could have helped them avoid that danger in the first place.

Imagine s3 being about their disagreement over using Kryptonite to save Sam instead of Lena doing it behind her back and how they could have resolved such a weighted difference of opinion as best friends without letting it come between them. Imagine Lena, still desperate for that motherly connection despite Lillian and Rhea, seeking out a connection with her birth mom at the same time Kara finds Argo and the magic storylines actually tying together comprehensibly. Imagine Lena actually having the time and space to develop real chemistry with James while Kara goes through her 'I don't wanna be alone anymore' phase after realizing she and Mon El will never be together again when he goes back to the future. Imagine if saving Lena in her civilian clothes and almost dropping the chemicals had made Kara realize that there are some things that might even be made easier if she revealed herself as Supergirl, because lesser threats like Edge would never dare to threaten the Girl of Steel's best friend, plus she wouldn't have to worry about not getting somewhere in time if she didn't have to change clothes.

Imagine s4 dealing with Lena's "dark side" by having her be forced to forget Kara's secret like Alex and then, after much longer of the 'secret' being 'kept' between them, finding out from Lex as he's still dying (just of self-inflicted cancer) and saving him at the last second because of it (since now she can't trust that her loyalties weren't wrong to begin with if Kara never trusted her with her secret while Lex trusts her to save him despite the fact that he hates her). Imagine having the 'I can't imagine what you must think of me, Kara, I don't blame you' 'no, no. you are not weak. you are a brilliant, kind-hearted, beautiful soul' scene be the only necessary resolution because there was never any doubt Lena is a good person, she just has some Luthor loyalty in her blood and needs to be more careful about letting her mother and Lex use that loyalty and goodness to manipulate her. Imagine Kara deciding at the end of that season to reveal her identity to the world because going after Lex as Kara and Supergirl separately was too hard and almost losing Lena to her secret was almost too close a call, so she outs herself in 5x01 at the Pulitzer party. Imagine never having to see Lex again because karma strikes and his cancer just comes back and kills him.

Then imagine s5 showing us Kara's journey of learning to trust herself and her decisions and forgive herself for her mistakes because something bad happens to the Superfam after her reveal and she has to figure out how to forgive herself in order to save them. Imagine them introducing a viable love interest that treats her the way she deserves and does all the same things Lena does for her and more (since Lena, in theory, wouldn't have been doing nearly as much of the leg work with keeping Kara from losing herself as a regular old best friend) and imagine if that person helped her save her family by reminding her that dwelling on the past isn't productive and it's just as important to enable people to save themselves as it is to do the saving for them. Imagine if Lena, stuck in captivity, took the time to harness her magic and discovered then how powerful she really is because deep down she's been holding back since she found out for fear of making a mistake like her mom's. Imagine if Lena had been allowed to become the Paragon of Humanity after saving the Superfam and her later becoming a bona-fide hero who represents the magic of humanity. Imagine Kelly and Alex getting married then so s6 could focus on Esme and the entire Dansen storyline didn't feel cramped and rushed.

Imagine if s6 had been...literally anything other than whatever the hell they did to this show. I mean, seriously, they turned their main characters into plot devices for an entire season because they spent so much time baiting they forgot to write an actual long-term character arc for their leads and apparently a whole season wasn't enough to fix that, so they just stuck to the baiting and scraped everything else together haphazardly. Imagine if s6 had just been Lena and Kara and the rest of the characters coming into themselves in all their various parts and learning how to best empower and, more importantly, mobilize people individually and societally as superheroes in a fast-changing political climate.

This is what I mean when I say they should've changed the name of this show to Wasted Potential. There are countless media portrayals of women's friendships that make it perfectly clear that it's actually fairly easy and simple to write non-romantically-coded relationships between two women who still have strong chemistry. And we've also seen from this fandom that it really isn't that hard to come up with interesting storylines for a superhero that don't revolve entirely around her lying to her best friend.

Am I pissed we didn't get endgame? Of course I am. But the more I think about it, the more I'm just pissed that they ruined the show in the name of not giving us endgame. They could have at least made their asinine writing make some semblance of sense if supercorp wer endgame, but without endgame, it's all just...hollow. They neglected every single character on the show, turned Kara into an ignorant, brainless pawn that suddenly panics in the face of the slightest pressure and obliterated the entire basis for her being a hero.

You know what could have made sense? Her being so paralyzed by her love for Lena and the knowledge that she would have been (if they'd even utilized their own feckin storytelling) the only one who could fight Nxly (on top of Lex coming back and what that means for both of them) that that's why she was so desperate to make sure she was powered up despite it making absolutely no sense, because she can't bare the thought of losing Lena to a fight she isn't strong enough for. But no.

Instead, turns out Kara was never the right kind of hero because she had a savior complex that she apparently never addressed. There are so many things they did wrong, but the complete and utter destruction of all of their main characters (I've got a whole other post drafted for Alex, and tbh I could probably do one for each and every series regular if I really wanted to) is beyond unforgivable.

These beautiful characters and the incredible people who brought them to life deserved so much better than what they got. Because what they got was entirely after thought. Everything was afterthought to them. Because the more you look at the story they created, the clearer it becomes that the only story they really cared about selling was "KARA AND LENA ARE JUST FRIENDS even though they definitely aren't...stay tuned 😜"

[karanna1]

One of the (so many I can’t even begin to name them all) worst failings of CW Supergirl is that they just made her the female version of Clark Kent. Then they put Superman as this absentee patriarchal figure that’s a towering paradigm of goodness and righteousness casting a shadow over Kara where she felt like she had to live up to his example.

It’s absolute bullshit. They bullied her into a corner, into a position of inherent weakness (because she’s a woman) when SHE is supposed to be the freaking star, and they never let her out. I don’t care about her “beating Superman in a fight”. That’s not where true power comes from. It’s not about true strength of character. It’s lazy and stupid and forced. Kara and Clark are so different. I wish they’d shown that. That’s where the really interesting character study lies.

There should have been more friction between Kara and Clark. More awkwardness. More just not knowing what to DO or how to BE around each other. Not just because of his abandonment/complete absenteeism. (Though that was a hard plot line to swallow. Not to mention having JIMMY OLSEN be the one man to show Kara the ways of the world as her “watcher” and show her the Fortress of Solitude? Are you kidding me? It was condescending and infantalizing. She was a GROWN ADULT and he was human). If Clark, for whatever asinine reason, really had to refuse to show Kara a little about his life as Superman and where the last remains of her HOME WORLD existed, she would have found it on her own when she was 15 or something. She’s got superpowers and she’s a literal genius with an IQ beyond pretty much anyone on Earth (another thing they conveniently chose to ignore in the show). As if she wouldn’t have discovered those things even without Clark.

But what I find so egregiously lacking in Kara as a character, is that by making her the female Clark Kent, they erased all sense of her identity as a Kryptonian. We could have had such a brilliant and interesting exploration of how Kara handles things differently as a Kryptonian than a human. How differently she views the world. How her lens is different than the people around her. ESPECIALLY CLARK.

Instead of Kara suffering in Superman’s shadow as a thinly veiled, clumsy, and unimaginative metaphor for women in a patriarchal society, I would have liked to see Kara be totally unfazed by it. Like a silly little bullet pinging off her. In her eyes, it would just be a byproduct of a low class civilization that hasn’t caught up to advanced society yet and it’s one of the many things she has to put up with on Earth. Her whole being would just be a casual defiance to it, she wouldn’t have the patience or even bat an eye, but the Kara we got in the show was definitely framed to stay within the box of Earth’s patriarchal norms.

Kara is an ALIEN and she came to Earth as a teenager. Her world view was already well-formed at that point and she would have had to adapt, but I wanted to see more of Kara the headstrong, proud, willful, even arrogant Kryptonian rather than Kara the cowed little alien people-pleaser, camouflaging to near invisibility to fit in. Clark was raised in hiding, he never knew a different life, but Kara did! She had already lived years not having to hide and she had a greater sense of self than Clark ever would.

I would have been far more interested to see Kara be frustrated with Clark for totally different reasons. Example: Everyone loves Clark? Yes, it bothers her. Everyone loves Superman? Yes, it gets under her skin. So maybe Alex mentions something about jealousy or James says something about envy and Kara EXPLODES. She’s not jealous. She’s not envious. No, she’s ASHAMED OF HIM.

“None of you understand. Not a single person on Earth gets it. You all view him as an alien, but you don’t have a clue...not a clue, just how much more of a human he is than he will ever be Kryptonian. Kal-El may be from Krypton, he may be my cousin by blood, but he is not one of us. He has no idea what it would even mean to be one of us. Yet, everywhere I look, he is the one this planet sees as the representative of my home, the Last Son of Krypton, but he is not Krypton’s son and he never will be. I despise him for it as much as I pity him for it. And it’s all my fault because I was supposed to be the one to save him from that. He is my failure and I can never change that.”

Just one example of something I would have liked to see get explored with Kara Zor-El. But nah.

[c-optimistic]

Not sure if you’re still taking prompts, but I just watched Hozier’s from Eden music video and now I can’t stop thinking about Lena and Kara on the run finding and saving a kid from a bad situation...

obviously slightly different from the video and also an unambiguously happy ending

-

Alex handed over the keys to the beat up car, her eyes not straying from Kara’s for even a second.  

“Travel at night as much as you can. The tank is full, but you need to make it last as long as possible.” She blinked, bit her lip, and squeezed Kara’s hand. “No powers. Not for anything. And no contact. I’ll find a way to let you know it’s safe.”

Kara nodded, pulling her sister closer and enveloping her in a tight hug, trying to memorize the way it felt, the warmth that burrowed into her bones and eased her mind. “We’ll be fine, Alex,” she said, injecting as much confidence in those four words as she possibly could. She was glad that Alex couldn’t see the tears she wasn’t quite able to suppress. “I’ll be listening for you.”

Alex pulled away and opened her mouth to argue, probably to point out that Kara’s statement went directly against the no power rule, but then her mouth snapped shut, like she knew better than to argue.

“Don’t put on any music you like on the radio. You know it makes you want to sing, and that sort of thing is bound to attract attention,” Alex said instead, smoothing over Kara’s shoulders and tugging slightly on the collar of her borrowed leather jacket. “Take care of each other,” she added, clearly no longer able to hide her anxiety behind jokes. Her eyes didn’t stray from Kara, but the comment was undoubtedly meant more for Lena than for Kara. “I love you, Kara.”

“Danvers sisters, right?” Kara said thickly, holding back tears. She pulled Alex in for one more tight hug, taking care to listen to her heartbeat, to memorize its unique rhythm. “I love you, too. You call if you need me. Okay? Do you promise?”

“Promise,” Alex said, pulling away and wiping at her cheeks. “All right. Go. Go.”

Kara and Lena didn’t need to be told a third time. They got into the car, and drove off into the night, Kara’s eyes on the rearview mirror long after Alex had disappeared entirely from view.

-

Very quickly, they developed a routine.

Hats, thick sunglasses, hoodies, and overall easily forgettable outfits became their norm, much to Lena’s eternal dismay. Kara would pretend not to see her wince as she pulled on sneakers, and Lena returned the favor by not calling Kara out when she used her superhearing to listen for Alex every single night.

They drove throughout the night for the most part, sticking to unpopulated areas as much as they could, not speaking much to the people they ran into at gas stations and diners. When the posters with their faces began cropping up on public restrooms and outside of convenience stores, Lena suggested they die or cut their hair.

During the day, they slept. Sometimes in the car, no relief from the sweltering heat. Sometimes, if they figured it was safe enough, they’d sleep a few hours at a motel before setting off again.

They definitely didn’t use each other’s names. Not once. In fact, they didn’t speak much at all.

(One thing filled both their minds:

Keep moving, keep moving, keep moving.

As long as they were on the move, Lex couldn’t get to them.)

It wasn’t much of a life, but it wasn’t all bad either.

It meant Lena would surreptitiously take her hand out of anxiety or a desire to provide comfort when driving past other cars. It meant when Lena’s always busy mind became bored, she’d invent new games to play as they drove along.

It meant huddling up together one particularly cold desert night.

It meant becoming very familiar with the song Lena hummed as she showered.

It meant learning to decipher Lena’s mood based on tuts, clicks of her tongue, breathy sighs, and the roughness of her voice when she would break the silence between them.

No, it wasn’t a bad life, being on the run with her best friend, the only person on this planet after Alex who’d ever made Kara feel at home.

It wasn’t a bad life, with money carefully hidden in the car, under the mats and inside the seat cushions, their every need anticipated and planned for, long into the future. Theoretically, they could stay on the run for years, evading Lex’s long reach.

It wouldn’t be a bad life, but to be fair, when your only goal was survival, having a good life (or really living at all) just wasn’t the point.

-

Kara chewed on her lip as she refueled the car, her eyes on the meter, her ears on the men coming out of the gas station.

They were laughing, clearly a bit drunk despite the time of day, one of the men complaining loudly as they walked towards their car.

“Costs me a fortune to feed that boy. Clothe him. Give him a place to sleep. And if she can leave him, why can’t I?”

Kara didn’t react. She finished refueling, paid, then slid into the driver’s seat, watching as the drunk men piled into their car and pulled away. Her grip on the steering wheel was tight, knuckles white. Just a tiny bit more pressure, just a little bit more of a squeeze, and she could shatter it in her hands.

“Is something wrong?” Lena asked, reaching out and brushing her hand over Kara’s shoulder, so careful, so tentative. “You seem upset.”

Kara turned to her, still chewing on her lip.“What do you think about getting a good night’s sleep tonight? I know a place we can go. It’ll be safe.”

Lena’s eyes roved over Kara’s face for a moment. “What did you hear?” she asked finally, gesturing with her head in the direction the men had driven off to.

“Just that they’re leaving and won’t be back for a few days.”

Lena eyed her skeptically, clearly knowing there was something else, something Kara wasn’t sharing, but she didn’t comment. “Okay. Okay, if it’s safe. We can both use the rest.”

Kara didn’t respond, but her grip on the steering wheel finally eased. She didn’t speak as she inserted the key in the ignition and started the car, pulling slowly out of the gas station and down the road.

And Lena let out a breathy sigh, the only indication of her displeasure at being kept in the dark, though belied by the slight quirk of her lips.

(And as they drove, windows down and hair billowing in the wind, Kara wondered if Lena felt the way she did:

An aching need to stop running, even for just a moment.)

-

The floorboards of the house creaked under them as they stepped inside, Lena immediately wrinkling her nose at the smell—something harsh, like paint, and underneath it, the sickly sweet smell of rotting flowers.

“No wonder those men were in such a hurry to leave,” Lena muttered, distaste coloring her features as they stepped further in the home. The floor was littered with empty beer cans and filthy clothes, the smell of rotting flowers growing stronger. “This place is disgusting. Who would live here?”

Kara didn’t respond, just kept walking towards one of the rooms in the very back of the house. She wondered, briefly, stupidly, how Lena couldn’t hear what she could: the sound of a little heart, pounding furiously away in an equally small chest, body and bones rattling in fear.

“Where are you going?” Lena asked, still following dutifully. “Kara?”

It was the sound of her name that made her pause, turn around, and smile. “I had to help him,” she explained in a whisper before dropping to her knees and gently pulling a closet door open, revealing the pale, dirty face of a little boy. “Hi,” Kara said softly, heart breaking as he pressed himself against the wall of the closet in an attempt to create distance between them, his legs tangled in rags that made up what must have been his bed. (And in the corner of the closet, flowers, long dead.) “Don’t be scared,” she continued, though she didn’t advance further. She stared at him, listened to the terrified pounding of his little heart, and she came to a decision. Without thinking about it for longer than a second, she reached up and let her hair out of its ponytail, then pulled off her glasses. “Do you recognize me? Do you know who I am?” she asked, ignoring Lena’s warning hand on her shoulder, silently urging her not to do this.

The boy pushed away from the wall, approaching Kara with more than a little hesitancy. But his eyes never left her face. “Supergirl?” he finally whispered in awe, mouth falling open just a little bit. “Are you really her? Are you really here?”

“Yeah,” she answered, holding out a hand. “Yeah, I’m here.”

He paused for a moment more, as if not entirely sure she was telling the truth, but then he rushed forward, allowing Kara to pull him into a hug. “You’re really her. You’re really here.”

-

She broke Alex’s rules and used her powers to speed through cleaning the home. Lena was in the kitchen with the boy, digging through the cabinets and the fridge to make him something to eat, eventually settling on soup that Kara heated with her laser vision, much to the little boy’s glee.

Much later, when the child was wrapped in blankets and letting out soft snores as he slept in the only bed in the house, Lena handed Kara a mug of tea and motioned for her to follow her outside. They sat on a rickety bench on the porch in silence, sipping their tea and taking in the cool night air, the miles of empty desert around them. And then:

“You didn’t tell me because you knew it was a bad idea. You knew we shouldn’t have come here.”

“I wasn’t going to abandon this kid.”

“You don’t know this kid,” Lena admonished, sounding tired. And in her tone, something else. Guilt, maybe. “I know what you’re thinking, Kara. But we can’t help him. Lex is still after us. Being on the run is no place for a kid.”

“But what we found him in is?” Kara asked, turning to look at Lena. She took their mugs and placed them on the ground at their feet, then grabbed Lena’s hand. “You can’t look me in the eye and tell me you don’t want to help him. I know you, Lena.”

“It would throw everything off. All our plans, the sacrifices we’ve made,” Lena said, pulling her hand out of Kara’s grasp.

Kara felt her back stiffen. “I know you’ve planned for a decade or more, but I can’t, Lena. I can’t live like this. I don’t want to look over my shoulder running from Lex forever. I just. Life has to be more. And this kid needs our help. We can’t use Lex as an excuse forever.”

This was very clearly the wrong thing to say.

“I’m sorry to have inconvenienced you. No one asked you to go on the run with me. It was your choice, if you remember.”

(It was.

But here was the thing, the thing that Kara wasn’t sure how to put into words: she would’ve made the same choice again and again. She would’ve given everything up for Lena a hundred times over.)

“Lena, you know that’s not what I meant,” Kara said softly, reaching for her hand again, grateful when Lena grabbed on tightly.

“We can’t stay here. We’ll have to drive through the day and night for a while,” she said after a long pause. “We’ll need to get him clothes. And you need to explain to him he can’t mention Supergirl ever again,” she added, narrowing her eyes at Kara.

Kara nodded quickly and, absolutely unable to help it, leaned over and pressed a kiss to Lena’s temple.

“Have I ever told you you’re my favorite?” she asked as she pulled away.

Lena just rolled her eyes, picking up their mugs and getting to her feet.. “After Alex, maybe,” she said with a grin, holding out a hand for Kara to help her up.

“That’s different. Alex is my sister. You’re…” Kara trailed off, not noticing the tremble in Lena’s hand, “you’re you.”

“Very eloquent, love,” Lena laughed, the endearment making Kara’s heart skip a beat. “To think you’re a journalist.”

They laughed as they put away the mugs and settled for a sleepless night on the lumpy couch in the living room, Lena’s head resting on Kara’s shoulder as she slowly dozed off.

And Kara sat there, breathing in the smell of Lena’s shampoo, half of her focus on the little boy’s gentle breathing in the next room, the other half of her focus on Alex’s heartbeat thousands of miles away, her thoughts on what it meant to be a family.

-

It was after several days of driving that they found a place Lena determined to be safe enough to rest.

The boy, who had yet to tell either Kara or Lena his name, ran ahead of them, heading straight for the small garden littered with colorful flowers.

“We shouldn’t stay here long,” Lena said as she grabbed one of their bags from the car, struggling a bit with its weight. “Have you been listening for him?”

Kara didn’t ask who him was. Either it was Lex or it was the boy’s unfit father, and regardless of who Lena was referring to, the answer was yes. Of course she’d been listening for him. “No news,” she confirmed, taking the bag from Lena, swinging it easily over her shoulder. “I have heard some odd frequencies lately though. Not sure what to make of it.”

Lena, who was smiling gratefully at Kara’s help, suddenly stopped, fear taking over her features. She pulled Kara to a halt by the wrist, eyebrows furrowed. “You don’t think—”

“—no,” Kara assured her, shifting the bag so that she could pull Lena into a loose, one-armed hug. “It’s similar to the frequency on Alex’s watch. I thought it was her way of signalling it’s safe but—”

“—but it seems more like a warning?”

Kara nodded, watching as the boy raced back towards them, a handful of flowers he’d pulled from the garden clutched in his fist. “A day or two,” Kara said in an undertone. “Just to rest. Then we’ll move on to the next place.”

Lena didn’t respond, but her hands twisted into the fabric of Kara’s shirt, and she pressed her face against Kara’s shoulder, and Kara figured that was answer enough.

-

Their routine changed.

It was as if, in their determination to give the child everything they possibly could for as long as they could, the fear and dreariness of being on the run was replaced by laughter and joy.

Lena took them all on a shopping trip, letting the boy pick out bright colored clothes, even rolling her eyes and conceding when Kara got them all baseball caps.

Rather than stay at sketchy motels, Kara would constantly be on the listen for people going on vacation or on weekend getaways, feeling better about ‘borrowing’ the home by making sure the home was immaculate when they left, Lena purposely leaving behind a small stack of bills.

They ate whatever the boy wanted, from sugary snacks to cheesy burgers. There was always music, usually a bubbly pop song Kara liked and they found that the boy preferred, leading to impromptu dances in the kitchen—with one memorable time, which Kara rather thought was seared into the back of her eyelids, Lena making the boy laugh as she grabbed his hands, swinging his arms to and fro, shaking her hips in time with the music.

(And in the dark, long after the child was asleep, Kara and Lena would lay together, heads close, trying to calculate what resources they had left, how much more they could stretch it out, how much longer they could continue this way.

And every night, long after Lena had finally drifted off, her head nestled on Kara’s shoulder, Kara would close her eyes and listen to the ever-closer frequency she didn’t recognize, increasingly worried about what it could mean.)

Then Lena changed their routine again.

Every morning, as Kara would make them coffee, Lena would press a lingering kiss to the corner of her mouth. She had them play the games she’d invent on the spot, winking at Kara when the boy would win every single one. And at night, every night, rather than just fit her head in the juncture between Kara’s head and shoulder, she would tangle their legs, hold Kara’s hand, pressed so tightly against Kara that she could feel Lena’s heartbeat against her skin.

(And Rao, did Kara want to take one of those moments, freeze it in time, commit it to memory, wanting it etched into her heart, where she could carry it forever.

But mostly, mostly, all Kara wanted was to close those few inches between their lips and finally, finally, kiss her.)

One night, weeks after finding the boy, after he’d already been tucked in and reminded that the next morning they would have to move on to the next place, the next town, Lena played with Kara’s fingers as they lay in the dark, the little breathy sighs she let out every few moments warning enough that she had something serious on her mind.

So Kara shifted a little, pulling away so that they were facing each other, hands still intertwined. And she made it a little easier for Lena. “I can practically feel the gears turning in your head. Just tell me what you’re thinking.”

Lena didn’t respond right away. Instead, her eyes were fixed on Kara’s, and after a moment, she used her free hand to smooth over the scar above Kara’s eyebrow. “How do you do it?” she finally questioned, voice so soft that Kara wasn’t sure she’d even be audible without superhearing. “How are you so effortlessly good all the time?”

It wasn’t really what Kara was expecting (and if she was honest with herself, it wasn’t what she was hoping Lena was thinking about either). “What do you mean?”

“You came with me without a second thought. Then, with the boy, you didn’t even pause to help him. You knew he was in trouble, and that was all it took.” She closed her eyes, her brows furrowing, almost as if she was in pain. “But my first thought was how it would make things harder for us.”

“That’s not true,” Kara said easily, and without really thinking about it, she pulled Lena closer, pressing a kiss to her forehead. “You know it isn’t.”

“Do I?” Lena snarked back, but her heart wasn’t in it. She allowed Kara’s closeness, even going as far as burying her head under Kara’s chin.

With her hand that wasn’t still tightly in Lena’s grasp, Kara began to rub comforting circles on Lena’s back. “Your first thought was the danger he’d be in just because of us,” Kara reminded her gently, still rubbing her back. “Besides, I don’t know if you know, but you’re incredible.”

“Kara, be serious.”

“I am,” Kara laughed. “Being good...it’s easy. It’s the default setting. But you, you’re extraordinary. You were told your entire life that the opposite was true. That the only thing you could do was evil. And yet look at you. You did good anyway.” She paused, wanting Lena to soak in her words. “Do you see how amazing that is? Every single time you make a choice, you have to go through years of noise, years of interference, years of lies, and every time, you find your way through all that,” she tugged their joined hands up, pressing it against Lena’s chest, right over her heart, “to this. A good, kind heart.”

Lena pulled away suddenly, leaving Kara wondering if she’d said the wrong thing, but then she noticed the expression on Lena’s face, the blazing look in her eyes. “Do you really believe that?” she asked, voice barely a whisper.

“I mean, yeah, I wouldn’t have said it otherwise, gosh Lena, I—”

But Lena didn’t let her finish. Instead, she swung one leg over Kara, straddling her, and after waiting for Kara’s eager nod, finally, finally, kissed her.

(It was okay, Kara thought as Lena’s hands pinned hers to the bed, that Lena didn’t let her finish her sentence.

There was all the time in the world to tell Lena how much she loved her. For now, showing her would have to be enough.)

-

The frequency only Kara could hear, the one that worried her so, got closer every day, and so they stopped staying anywhere for more than a few hours.

It was hardest on the boy. He and Lena had especially grown close, falling asleep in the back of the car as Kara drove, chancing a look at them in the rearview mirror every now and then, feeling her heart swell with fondness. But Lena’s whispered concerns, about how he was faring, how he was feeling, felt more and more serious as the days dragged on.

Being on the run was no place for a kid.

“We could fight,” Kara suggested one night as they drove through the darkness, the child asleep in the back, clutching a toy Lena had bought him weeks ago. “Just wait for Lex to find us and fight.”

Lena tugged on Kara’s right hand, pulling it out of its vice-like grip on the steering wheel, then brought it to her lips and pressed a kiss to the back of it. “We went on the run because we couldn’t fight. Nothing’s changed.”

“Everything’s changed,” Kara said, turning to look at Lena. “What do you want to do?”

“We have a two day head start on Lex, right?” Lena confirmed. At Kara’s nod, she pressed another kiss to the back of Kara’s hands before releasing it. “We’ll find a place, spend one more night with him.” She motioned towards the child. “Then we’ll take him to the police station. CPS, I don’t know. Once he’s safe, we can wait for Lex.”

“No,” came a small voice from the back of the car. Kara watched the boy slowly sit up, toy clutched to his chest, meeting her gaze through the rearview mirror. “I’m staying with you. I want to be with you and Lena.”

(They tried to argue with him, tried to make him see reason, but Kara knew it was a lost cause. There was no convincing a boy who felt he’d found his family that he’d be better off or safer anywhere else.

Kara would know: she’d felt that way after landing on Earth, after Clark sent her away.)

So they made their last stand.

With Lena’s help, Kara found a fairly sturdy home, one that seemed to have been empty for some time, and they began to prepare.

Kara put her suit on for the first time in almost a year. Lena pulled out what she’d called her ‘emergency technology’ and the boy was secured in the house, letting Lena hug him to her as Kara sat nearby, her focus on everything beyond the walls of the house.

The frequency drew closer, the sound almost maddening in Kara’s ear. But there wasn’t much of Lex’s fanfare. No explosions, no gunfire. No whirring of new Lexosuits. There was nothing except for that sound in Kara’s ear and cars approaching.

“Kara?” Lena questioned, taking her hand and breaking her focus.

“He’s here.”

(She could hear it, cars and trucks coming to a halt, heavy footed people beginning to surround the house, the sound of their weapons in their hands loud in Kara’s ears.

And also, something else, something Kara hadn’t heard from this close in a long time.)

“Kara, I’m scared,” the boy said, looking to her, still gripping tightly to Lena.

“That’s okay,” Kara told him, brushing his hair back and then getting to her feet. “But you’ve got nothing to be scared about.”

“Kara—”

But she waved Lena’s concern off. “Trust me. We’re safe.”

One of the people surrounding the house broke down the door, making the boy hide his face in Lena’s stomach. Footsteps approached. A gun was raised. And then:

“Alex. You found us.”

-

The DEO was loud. Or maybe it was that the city was loud. After being in the middle of nowhere for so long, the sudden influx of noise was a little a little different.

Different, but nice.

“So, you broke all my rules, right?” Alex said as she followed Kara out on the balcony, standing next to her and leaning against the balustrade. “I said to keep a low profile, you kidnapped a kid. I said no powers, I find you in your suit.”

“I didn’t sing,” Kara said with a grin. Lena was still with the boy, holding his hand as he was checked over by doctors, happily sucking on a lollipop that Alex had offered him. “Your watch is broken, the frequency it lets off is wrong, I thought you were Lex for weeks.”

“I had a run in with an Aellon. I knew the watch was acting fritzy afterwards, but Brainy said any changes in the frequency would be ‘nearly imperceiptible.’” She grinned a little, bumping her shoulder against Kara’s. “So, while I was busy working with Brainy, Nia, J’onn, and Kelly to bring Lex down...you and Lena started dating and adopted a kid?”

Kara snorted, turning her head, watching as Lena and the boy (who were clearly done with all the tests) walked over to where she was standing with her sister.

“Pretty much,” she told Alex, marveling at finally having her entire family together again.

[frenchpuppycormier]

fluff 10 and/or 11 + supercorp for the sentence starters pls 💞

"Are we on a date right now?" / "I think I'm in love with you."

—

Saturday signals the best day in Kara's book for one simple reason: the farmers market. It's the perfect place to buy fresh produce directly from the grower at a lower price than those pesky retailers. Not to mention, it's fresher and it's a great way to support local communities.

Kara enjoys it most in the early morning between 8 and 9 when the California heat hasn't bombarded its citizens yet. One of her favorite memories of going to the market was when she first arrived on earth, and Eliza and Alex took her to the one in Midvale. Eliza bought her the sweetest miniature doughnuts which practically melted in her mouth. She's been a huge (understatement of the year) fan ever since.

The farmers market is located 20 blocks from her apartment, just a short jaunt or flight for the hero.

Today she decides to walk and enjoy the nice cool breeze, and the warm sun spilling on her face. She can already hear the acoustics of a folk band covering a Fleetwood Mac song at the end of main street. The leaves are starting to change, indicating the beginning of fall, and the ones already on the ground crunch beneath her feet.

Her reusable cloth bag with the words, "Okey Dokey Artichokey" and a cartoon artichoke with a smiley face and tiny stick arms, is slung over her shoulder. Lena had given it to her as a gag gift, but Kara uses it the most out of all her bags. Any gift from Lena is special and she will always treasure it.

As she rounds the corner to the market, she sneaks another look at her list to remind herself what she needs, when she bumps into someone. Hard. Fortunately, Kara manages to grab the other person's arm before they fall.

"Oh my gosh," Kara cringes. "I'm so sorry, I wasn't watching where I was—" she interrupts herself when she sees, "Lena?"

"Hey there, slick," Lena laughs and nudges the hand latched on her arm to tangle with her fingers.

Kara responds by swinging their arms back and forth, like what friends do when they haven't seen each other in months. But Kara and Lena just saw each other yesterday. This is normal, right? Kara thinks. The fluttering in my chest is completely common whenever I see my friends....Right?

"Wh-what are you doing here?" Kara speaks before her brain can catch up with her.

Lena's face lights up with a sly grin. "Can't a woman go to the market every once in a while?"

"N-no no, of course you can," Kara laughs awkwardly, "I meant, gosh I'm not sure...I guess I just didn't expect to see you here. You live all the way on the other side of town."

"Relax, love," she chuckles and squeezes her hand and releases it, Kara immediately missing the warmth. "I'm teasing you. But to answer your question, I'm in desperate need of fresh kale, and I heard this particular stand has the best in the city."

Kara feigns gagging and Lena playfully shoves her shoulder. “I still don’t understand how you can eat that stuff.”

“Who knew the green stuff that incapacitates you was kale.”

“More like your eyes,” Kara mumbles.

“What was that?”

Kara’s eyes widen. “N-nothing,” she rubs the back of her neck. “Um, so….do you care if I join you? Wandering aimlessly through the market checking out food stands with my best friend sounds like the perfect way to spend my Saturday morning.”

“I’d love nothing more,” Lena replies, smiling brightly.

—

“Oooh, look! A food truck!” Kara points.

Lena laughs at her zeal. “Let’s see what they have.”

Kara reaches for her hand and twines their fingers together before dragging her toward the truck. Lena’s stomach swoops at the action, but she calms herself down enough so Kara doesn’t notice her rapid heartbeat. Not that she would, considering food is the best distraction when it comes to the blonde.

Little does Lena know that nothing can distract Kara from Lena, especially considering 98% of the time Kara is listening to the constant thumps and quivers of Lena’s heart, but Kara doesn’t say anything.

Kara looks up at the man in the truck and politely rattles off her order, then looks at Lena and asks, “What do you want?”

“Um,” Lena quickly glances at the menu and says, “I’ll have the Avo Smash, please.” She moves to hand the man cash, but Kara stops her and insists she'll pay for it. "My treat."

Once they give their order they move to the side and wait until their names are called.

When they get their food they move to a shady spot on the sidewalk and admire how delicious it looks.

“What’s that?” Kara asks.

“Oh, it’s a piece of toast with smashed avocado, egg, and tomato,” Lena replies, noticing how Kara turns up her nose. Lena rolls her eyes and gestures at her hands, “What’d you get?”

"Uh, only the most scrumptious and melt in your mouth-watering food you can get here," she replies, eyebrows pinched, incredulously. Lena raises her eyebrows in a get-on-with-it kind of way. "French toast bites," Kara finishes, exasperated at Lena's lack of enthusiasm.

"Sweet food for a sweet girl."

Kara's cheeks grow a slight pink. Instead of replying, she dips a piece of her toast in the syrup, and shoves the whole thing in her mouth. Lena simply hums and takes a bit of her own food. Kara smiles like a chipmunk with cheeks full of goodies.

When Lena's finished with her slice of hipster toast, as Kara calls it, a small body runs into her legs from behind. She looks down and finds a small boy with sandy blonde hair and big, blue eyes looking up at her with a toothy grin.

"Hi, there," she smiles at him.

"Henry!" a woman in a flowy maxi dress and brown sandals comes running toward them. She picks him up and gives him a stern look. "I told you not to run off like that!" The woman adjusts him on her hip and shyly realizes she has an audience. "I'm so sorry! He gets too excited about their french toast."

"Oh, no worries," Lena reassures her. She carefully grabs Kara's elbow and says, "This one does too."

Kara acts hurt by placing a hand over her heart. "Well, can you blame me? They're delicious! Aren't they?" she smiles at the boy and waves. He giggles and hides his face in his mother's neck. "Someone's a little shy, huh?"

"He is, isn't he?" the mom kisses his cheek. "I think he has a little crush on you."

"Who, me?" Kara laughs. "No, I think he has eyes for Lena. As most people do." She steps forward and tickles his stomach so he looks at her. Kara holds out her hand for a high five and whispers, "Good choice." He gratefully slaps her hand.

When Kara steps back, Lena is blushing, but rather than call her out on it she ignores it out of respect. Kara smiles at her and Lena smiles back, but then she's suddenly laughing through her nose.

"Darling, you have a little," she gestures at her own face.

"What? I have something on my face?" Kara touches her cheek, but completely misses.

"Here," Lena's fingers tenderly touch the side of her jaw while her thumb swipes her lip. Lena's completely focused on what she's doing, but Kara only has eyes for Lena.

Lena pulls back her hand, thumb now sticky with syrup. Instead of wiping it on the napkin Kara knows Lena has in her bag, she sticks it between her lips and licks it clean.

Kara completely stops breathing.

"How long have you two been together?" a voice snaps her out of her reverie.

Kara gapes at her with wide eyes and stutters, "Um...we, we're uh, just friends."

"Oh," the woman almost looks upset. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to presume. Well, I'll let you get back to your morning." She smiles at them and walks away, leaving a flabbergasted Kara and quiet Lena.

They don't say anything and choose to ignore it while they continue down the street.

—

"Lena, you have to try this," Kara doesn't give her a chance to respond before shoving a spoonful of gelato in Lena's mouth.

Lena gasps and nearly chokes on the ice cold dessert enveloping her tastebuds. She hisses and nods, as she lifts her hand to hastily catch the dribbles of melted chocolate trickling down her chin. Kara winces, "I'm so sorry!"

"No," Lena shakes her head as she swallows, "I just wasn't expecting that."

"Well? How was it?"

"Y'know, I'm not gonna lie...it was pretty fucking delicious."

"Right? Marco really knows his stuff."

"Um," Lena holds her hand out, fingers spread apart to prevent more sticking, and shakes it like she doesn't know what to do.

Kara jumps to action and runs off. She's back in two seconds with a wet wipe and cleans Lena's hand. "Where'd you find that?"

"Don't ask."

"Okay?" Lena laughs breathily. "You're a mystery wrapped inside an enigma, Ms. Danvers."

"I aim to confuse," she jokes.

Lena shakes her head, and eventually says, "Thank you."

"Don't mention it," Kara smiles at her, their eyes locked onto each other. She's finished cleaning her hand, but rather than letting go, her hand stays curled around Lena's, not wanting to ruin the moment.

—

“Oh Rao, you didn’t,” Kara gasps.

Lena turns around and frowns at her. “What?” Kara gestures to Lena’s bag. Lena looks down and chuckles when she realizes what she’s talking about. “In my defense, I was drunk. You know how my shopping brain acts when I’m drunk; I buy things I don’t need.”

“Hmmm, well maybe your alcohol-addled brain just remembered how funny I thought it was and wanted to impress me,” Kara teases with a twitch of her eyebrow.

“I’m sure that’s exactly what happened,” Lena deadpans. She glanced at the words on her bag again and fondly shakes her head. It reads: Oh Kale Yeah, with a bunch of kale on both sides.

“I think so,” Kara steps closer and smiles.

“Oh, really?” Lena raises her eyebrows.

“Yep,” she ends with an extra pop of the ‘p’ and boops her on the nose.

Lena opens her mouth in surprise, a protest on the tip of her tongue, but a voice interrupts her from in front of them.

“You two are such a lovely couple,” the vendor gushes.

Lena and Kara startle, forgetting they’re standing right in front of a stand selling various vegetables and fruits and jars of honey. Behind the table is an older woman, most likely in her late 70s, with streaks of gray hair, crinkly eyes and facial lines as if she’s smiled her whole life.

“Oh, we’re not—”

“Thank you,” Kara answers, smiling bashfully. She pushes a lock of hair behind her ear and says, “I’ll take one bunch of radishes and one spaghetti squash.”

“Coming right up,” the woman replies.

Kara glances over at Lena and gives her a shy smile, before handing the woman a $10 bill and thanking her. She grabs the veggies and carefully drops them in her bag.

“Thank you two, have a wonderful day.”

“Of course, you too!” Kara places her hand on the small of Lena’s back and guides her forward.

As they make their way to the next stand, Kara laughs, remembering their conversation, “I can’t believe you bought that bag. You’re such a giant dork.”

Lena whips around and eyes Kara curiously. Kara’s hand shifts from her back to loosely rest on her waist. Lena’s eyes are squinting from the bright sun, but Kara can see the speckles of gold in them and thinks she’s never looked more beautiful.

“Are we on a date right now?”

Kara's heart quickens and she opens and closes her mouth a few times, until finally she clears her throat, "Did you want it to be?"

"I thought—”

"Because I do," Kara states. "Want it to be a date. But only if you do, of course. I don't want you to feel pressured or like I forced you to hang out with me," she retracts her hand. "That's the last thing I—”

Lena grabs her hand as she pulls it way, not wanting Kara to close herself off. "Hey, I want this just as much as you do."

"Really?"

Lena lightly presses her thumb into the grooves of Kara's knuckles, and absentmindedly plays with them. She smiles, fully dimpled, and says, "I do. Actually, I uh..." she lowers their connected hands and looks off into the distance, mind seemingly elsewhere.

"What is it?" Kara asks. She playfully shakes their arms back and forth to get her attention.

Lena looks at the ground before completely focusing on Kara and those baby blues she's come to know and love. She takes a deep breath and her voice shakes when she whispers, "I think I'm in love with you..." Lena stumbles and shakes her head, "No—I am in love with you."

Kara inhales sharply and Lena thinks she's made a giant mistake. She starts to turn and do something stupid, like run away, but Kara keeps her hold on her and pulls her forward.

Smiling, Kara slowly inches closer leaving the opportunity for Lena to stop her. When Kara's lips press into hers she welcomes it completely. Kara's hands come up to cup Lena's jaw until she moves one to tangle in her hair.

Kara disconnects from her lips, but stays wrapped up in her, their foreheads touching. "I'm in love with you, too," she whispers against soft lips.

"Good," Lena smiles and kisses her again.

[black-coffee-and-sugar]

Magical thinking indeed:

- im just over here feeling warm cuz lena really referred to kara's apartment as 'home'. lena truly looked like one partner stuck entertaining the friends alone because the other partner is running late and didn't give an excuse for why

- also kara flying in through the window sans the suit cuz everyone knows now. im living for this

- nia just jumping over the backrest of the couch. it's about time these people actually started acting like friends and i would like to point out that we didn't get to this until lena was back and finally a full member of the super friends. i know im beating a dead horse but we could've had this seasons ago

- i actually forgot about the voldemort/harry thing going on with nxyly and kara but that's honestly on me for always watching these episodes after 2 glasses of wine

- brainy wasn't in this episode because??? like what does he have going on outside of the tower? are him and nia even dating? did we really give his screentime to william and fucking mitch? this is the 3rd game night scene he hasn't been in and im not a fan

- andrea is so mean but like...it's william

- also this embedding william with the super friends thing is utter BULLSHIT. have you ever watched a show that literally has to force a character into scenes? nothing about william's involvement is ever organic and the problem is persisting all because of a contrived connection the writers want to forge between him, kara and the super friends

- alex n j'onn, the gatekeepers of kara's secret, the former blacksite clandestine agents actually agreed to this and WHY

- alex not protecting her identity WHY

- lena's identity and magic needs to be a secret and yet there lena is, eye fucking with kara in the middle of tower in front of william, god and my fucking salad

- honestly if william doesn't figure out who they all are, since they're doing a shit job hiding it, he's just plain stupid

- i get the impression that kara is still too terrified of lena getting directly involved. she doesn't want her on nxyly's radar at all

- esme!

- rainbow bracelet. kelly as guardian still wearing that shit like a proud mom hanging their kids art on the fridge. im soft

- the foster parents were suspect from minute one but the way that woman just pushed that small child outside to defend them. like...what kind of psycho does that? and more importantly why were they NOT ARRESTED?!?!

- 'lena broke my brain'. you know that line was 100% nicole and i thank her for her service. that was hilarious

- nxyly is the first supergirl villain ive enjoyed since S2 lillian

- lena is not amused by william. same girl same

- but credit where credit is due, his baking story for once actually had some relevance and gave lena her epiphany about her mom's spell

- kara offering to go get the flower or whatever for lena because it's dangerous and lena's little and she doesn't want her to get hurt. protective kara we love to see it

- william: you protect lena, supergirl

my dude, unneeded instruction.

- kara being all cocky is peak content. lena's little smile at kara's casual display of strength. SAME LENA SAME

- for a minute i thought kara totally killed that guy with the flicked bullet

- nia's spidey senses tingling at the lover's quarrel kara and lena are about to have.

- im surprised they didn't bring up the brain washing because that was definitely the moment where lena believed it was for the greater good and she was being manipulative and ruthless with her vampire shirt

- can we say GROWTH tho. i love that kara and lena can disagree without all this bullshit drama like before. secrets are OUT honesty is IN. they're communicating and expressing their fears and leaning on each other. this. this is what i want

- also have to point out that lena is kara's humanity. WE BEEN KNEW but that shit is canon now. so is kara being hopeful and happy around lena. and kara no longer feeling alone because lena is back. i can't believe im winning

- so so so last week lena says 'i believe in you' and now kara says it. before it was 'good luck' 'you too'. the way the writers avoid the explicit use of 'i love you' just makes it louder

- currently thinking about the 'i believe in a thing called love' episode and im already losing my mind

- lena and nia god i love them together. their scenes totally feel like genuine katie and nicole vibes.

- yo the stunt work was actually decent? dreamer's black widow style flip. the dansen banter while kicking ass. is...is this still supergirl? im not used to being fed like this

- dansen telepathy. they just agreed 'yep esme is the one'

- did veeta not say that there's a 'prescribed order to the totems'? so why are they now picking whichever totem they feel like?

- ngl the super friends have been the cause of literally all the city's major issues this entire season

- lena does the spell she didn't want to do because??? like that's not even me being a little shit i think i might have missed that cuz i don't understand the chain of events that led to her changing her mind when she was so adamantly against it

- these incompetent heroes continue their idoicy by letting william write this article WHY. they are not running on taxpayer dollars. they don't owe the public shit. they're actually breaking many laws as vigilantes and 'borrowing' satellites and god knows what else

- andrea has no journalistic integrity. or common decency. she's still hot tho

- william growing a pair. good for him but did he and apparently Andrea forget about the 'no competing' clause in the contracts?

- ending with supercorp domestic fluff 2 episodes in a row. bruh don't touch me

- lena: I'm not using my fingers

kara: I'm going to

this is the new 'i don't think about you while im doing it'

it's all so deliberate. they're SO LOUD

[narraboths]

I really like the idea that whenever Supergirl and Lena Luthor are in public together their world just narrows to the two of them and they absolutely cannot act anything other than enamoured even with eyes and cameras on them

When they enter the Tower, Alex is pacing around the main hall with such heavy steps that Kara wouldn’t be surprised to find she’s already managed to bear her trail into the wooden floorboards. Her sister looks worryingly worn and morose, her heartbeat erratic as she waves them over to her desk.

“We have a problem,” she states gravely. She leans forward, palms resting on the desk as if she was bracing herself, and Kara’s brain goes into overdrive.

“Is it Cadmus? Darkseid? The Dominators?” She’s rocking back and forth on her feet, adrenaline coursing through her body. Her eyes light up for a second. “Do I get to fight a dragon again?”

Alex shakes her head with a heavy look and Kara deflates a little. Lena, however, picks up right where she left off.

“If it’s my mother, I swear to God,” she huffs, and Kara forgets her eyes on the adorable little blush on her cheeks, the angry snarl of her lips. The tension in her body melts away in an instant, and despite the situation, Kara can feel a smile tugging on her lips as Lena presses on. “That woman can’t even leave us in peace when she’s on the run–”

“No, no, none of those things,” Alex cuts her off. She gives an inexplicably vehement side-eye to Kara before she’d flip her tablet open and push it in front of them. “It’s you,” she declares, crossing her arms. “Both of you.”

They both stare at her in confused silence, then look down at the tablet at the same time, to be greeted by the loud, garish headline, fittingly typed in bright red: 

Super-Pals? Supergirl and Lena Luthor Getting Cozy at Charity Event.

There are photos, of course, of things that Kara would swear are only cozy, good-natured moments of fun between two friends who like to save the world together. Lena is leaning up to whisper something in Supergirl’s ear in one (definitely 100% work-related, Kara could vouch for it), with Supergirl’s hand resting on the small of her back in turn. Alex lets them mull over it, then scrolls down, wordless, to another segment of the same article. Trouble Seeing Eye To Eye? it asks, cheeky, accompanied by photos of the two of them talking, Supergirl’s eyeline clearly not on Lena’s face. Kara blushes.

“It’s just a gossip rag, you know this,” she says, not entirely managing to hit the dismayed tone she was aiming for. Beside her, Lena shifts on her feet and crosses her arms, like she tends to when she gets defensive. “They’ll do anything to drive up their numbers.”

“Yeah, sure,” Alex rolls her eyes, then flicks to a new tab. “Daily Tribune, last week.” A photo of Lena gently wiping the soot from Supergirl’s face after a press conference fiasco. Alex switches tabs again. “National City Gazette, How To Catch A Super.”

“As if I’m some sultry seductress,” Lena scoffs. There’s a little blush on her face again, and in spite of the scornful tone, there’s an impossibly fond look in her eyes as she takes in the photo below the headline: her cradled in Supergirl’s arms, one hand pressed against bright red S with Supergirl’s hand laid atop hers, their fingers interlocked. Under the desk and out of sight, Kara reaches out to link their fingers together, and Lena’s hand meets hers halfway through. They lean closer as their hands intertwine, their shoulders brushing together, and Kara won’t even try to smother her giddy smile as Alex carries on.

“Daily fucking Planet, Supergirl and Lena Luthor: A Timeline of a Relationship.” She slams the tablet’s cover shut with a huff. “Brainy has a whole batch of them, and he surveys more social media accounts than I’d ever have liked to know about, too. So, care to explain?”

Kara takes a deep breath.

“We’re just friendly!” She complains, exasperated. “You can’t expect me to act like I don’t know her!”

“We are long-time partners in making the world a better place, after all,” Lena adds. Alex raises an eyebrow.

“And you act like you’re long-time partners in marriage.”

The only reason why Kara doesn’t cross her arms, scandalized and irate, is because the gentle, comforting warmth of Lena’s hand wrapped around her own is too nice a sensation to end just for this. She makes do with an angry stare instead.

“Do you have a problem with that or something?”

“Are you asking me if I hate Lena or if I’m homophobic?” It’s the first time a smile appears on Alex’s face during their conversation, albeit a very tired one. Her tone turns softer then. “You realize that if people think Supergirl and Lena are involved with each other beyond a simple partnership, there’s gonna be a bigger target on her back than there already is, don’t you? That whoever would try to harm or abduct any associate of Supergirl’s would go at her first. Is that what you want, Kara?”

“No, of course not,” Kara mumbles, ducking her head. Lena doesn’t interject, either, only squeezes Kara’s hand in support and Alex must clearly take her silence as agreement. She draws herself up and clears her throat.

“I would like both of you to pay more attention to acting more professional in public for your own sakes,” she declares, in the Director Danvers tone. Her face is so strained that Kara has to hold back a giggle.

“Understood,” she quickly says before she’d ruin it, and Lena nods along.

“Loud and clear.”

“Great.” The tension in Alex’s shoulders visibly eases. She snatches up the tablet and starts towards the door. “See you both at game night.”

Kara waits until her footsteps die down in the hallway before she’d slump against the desk.

“We are so bad at this,” she whines, tugging on Lena’s hand, and Lena laughs, letting herself fall into Kara’s arms, tucked against Kara’s chest. She leans up, kissing the pout off of Kara’s lips, her free hand cupping Kara’s cheek, gently stroking along the line of her jaw when they part. Her eyes sparkle, happy, mischievous, and Kara can feel her heart growing three sizes in her chest. It’d be worth it to endure millennia of dressing-downs from her sister just to see Lena looking at her with such love.

“I don’t think today’s the day to break it to her, darling,” Lena whispers, nipping at Kara’s lips.

“No,” Kara agrees, pressing their foreheads together with a sigh. “I’m gonna make that photo from the Gazette my screensaver though.”

[sameyoungkid]

Here's my take on what I think would've been something the CW could've actually done if they REALLY just wanted to avoid a kiss. The old Legend of Korra route: words, actions, future plans that solidify them canonically being a couple.

"I'm a better person because of you. Thank you." Lena says tearfully into their hug.

The sound of cheering breaks them apart, but only slightly, their arms still around each other. Their heads both turned in the direction of Alex and Kelly getting ready for their send off.

Lena turns to look back at Kara. A sad smile. Hands sliding down Kara's arms to take hold of her hands between them. "I love you, Kara Danvers... Zor-El. Supergirl. Whoever you want to be. I'm with you. Always."

Kara smiles gently, tears forming at the vulnerability of it all. "And I love you, Lena Luthor. Who you were before. Who you've become. And who you'll be in years to come. Always."

Lena smiles, ducking her head shyly before returning her eyes to Kara's, getting lost for just a moment.

A soft sigh. "We should probably..." Lena gestures towards the growing crowd.

She lets go of one of Kara's hands and starts to lead them with the other, but Kara stays, tugging gently. "Lena?"

(Author's note: I was genuinely waiting for the moment Kara stopped Lena like this. With the gentle way she has said Lena's name throughout the show. *facepalm* Alas.)

Lena looks back, a gentle question on her face, arm extended behind her, and she's so achingly beautiful. Radiant. Kara can't help but smile, the smile reserved just for Lena.

Kara takes a small breath, eyes ever so hopeful, "Would you like to go to Noonan's with me?"

Lena's responding smile so dazzling. A surprised chuckle. "Sure, Kara. Brunch next Sunday?"

Kara's eyes crinkle as she gently laughs. "No, I was thinking dinner. Friday night? As a date?"

Lena stills and stares at Kara. Suddenly, Lena blinks and her eyes are glistening, her brows furrowing slightly as she realizes she didn't imagine what Kara just asked. If Kara thought Lena's smile was dazzling earlier, the smile she receives now is so bright and warm it could power Supergirl more than any yellow sun.

With a watery laugh, but eyes never leaving Kara's, Lena steps closer to fully face her. "Yes."

"Yeah?" Kara says in almost disbelief.

"Yes, Kara. I'd love to." Lena's smile turns teasing. "Besides. I can't let you eat all those appetizers by yourself."

Kara laughs and pulls Lena closer. She rests a hand on Lena's cheek, thumbing ever so gently, looking down at Lena, amusement in her eyes, but also love. So much love. Before they realize it they're both slowly leaning in when suddenly Nia calls for them. A newly wedded couple needs a proper send off, of course.

They're both looking in Nia's direction before looking back at each other.

"She's gonna come over here and drag us herself if we're not there this instant." Kara jokes in a serious tone.

"Oh, for sure." Lena says matching Kara's demeanor before breaking character to giggle. "Come on. We've gotta go send off a bride and her bride into their happily ever after."

Lena starts to head towards the wives, still holding Kara's hand, but Kara remains, lost in thought after hearing Lena's words, 'happily ever after' still ringing in her ears.

"Kara?" Lena turns around again, worry on her face.

Kara's looking past Lena, towards the crowd. Sudden resolve, plain on her face, before looking back at Lena. Kara smiles, then looks down before slowly removing her glasses. Lena's smile, small yet proud, as she watches and realizes what's happening. Kara places the glasses on a nearby decorative barrel before moving back to gently take hold of Lena's outstretched, waiting hand.

Together they walk to join the crowd. Nia eyes them knowingly.

Alex and Kelly are in J'onn's martian car now. Alex's eyes lock with Kara's before zoning in on her hand in Lena's. Her eyes are back on Kara's, softening as she whispers words only Kara can hear. "Take care of each other."

Kara's face sincere, eyes determined as she subtly nods once, mind going back to that night on the couch where she vowed to always be there for Lena. She looks over at her best friend, who's already looking at her, eyes twinkling, a soft smile on her face. Slowly her eyes drop to Kara's lips and Kara can't help but watch Lena's eyes as they inch closer.

Cheers once again break them from their moment. Kara laughs in frustration.. maybe she huffs a little, she'll deny it later. Lena, ever so patient, just smiles sympathetically, understanding Kara's frustration. But today is for the newlyweds. So they both turn and cheer as Alex and Kelly say their final goodbyes and take off in J'onn's car, quite literally riding into the sunset.

—Cut to the game night scene—

Kara is refilling two glasses, rushing to get back and give her guess to J'onn's charade, gently giving the second glass to Lena, before sitting and resting a hand on Lena's knee.

"Nooo. It's 'The Adventures of Tin-Tin'!" J'onn clarifies by pretending to open a tin can with a can opener.

When the groans and laughter die down, Kara takes the moment to speak up and express how grateful she is for the past six years as Supergirl, for everything that's happened, and everyone who's been there along the way. "A toast: To our next adventure."

Everyone cheers and clinks glasses, Kara and Lena clinking theirs together last, mouthing "I love you" to each other before taking a sip, eyes never leaving the other's. Kara places a soft kiss to Lena's temple as she wraps an arm around her girlfriend's shoulders, pulling her in.

Alex clears her throat. "Well that was a very sweet speech... but don't think we're gonna go any easier on you."

The usual banter that accompanies game night breaks Kara out of her internal reflection.

She laughs. "I wouldn't dreaaam of it!" No one is more competitive than the Danvers sisters. Six years could never change that. Besides, she's got her perfect game night partner now.

Nia gasps, "Dream pun!" proceeding to reach over the coffee table to give Kara a high five as Kelly moves up to start her turn for charades.

Outside, Kara catches the start of a nationwide broadcast of a little interview between her and Cat Grant, revealing Kara's identity. Supergirl's identity. She smiles before tuning it out and focusing back on the people in her living room because here, in the presence of all the people she loves, she's just Kara and that's all that matters.

[pavvo20]

The Spark - Chapter 8: The Droid We're Looking For - Poe Dameron/OC

Pairing: Poe Dameron x OC

Summary: When her childhood best friend recruits her during an undercover mission for the Resistance, Captain Kara Embers embraces her family legacy and joins the fight against the First Order. As the secrets of her past come to light, Kara never expects to be training with her mom’s best friend, flying her father’s ship, and falling in love with the Yavin-4 boy who always said he’d be the galaxy’s best pilot.

A/N: Kylo Ren enters the chat..

Warnings: violence, language, sarcasm, moodiness, whump, fluff, kissing, ya know.. all that stuff. We're gonna add a little death to this one too.

Links: Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4| Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7

Masterlist on my blog!

Word Count - 6.8K

“They’ve known our location for a while, thanks to Pierce, so we don’t have a lot of time.” Lieutenant Kaydel Connix stated, shifting the star maps on the holotable in front of them. “We will have to start evacuations tonight if we have any chance of getting everyone out.” 

“I don’t think it has to move that fast.” Snap countered, “We just destroyed their weapon, you really think they are that ready to retaliate?” 

“It’s like you are forgetting that they also just murdered our general.” She snapped, glaring through the projections at the pilot. They’d been talking about different strategies for about ten minutes before the rest of the leadership team started streaming in. The emergency briefing had been called late to begin with, upon receiving intel from an informant on Coruscant that the First Order was preparing to launch a strike on their base and was looking for weapons. 

Snap and Connix happened to both be in the command center working on a supply map when their bickering had started. The two had been out on a handful dates, even slept together a few times, but things had never gotten serious. It didn’t help that Snap claimed she was a little too high maintenance for him at the bar one night and it had gotten back to her. They’d been like oil and water ever since. 

“Watch yourself, Lieutenant.” He growled as a few other members of senior leadership had wandered into the room. Poe noticed them glaring at each other as he took his usual spot next to his squadmate, it didn’t take being Force-sensitive to feel the tension between them. Not that he was surprised. 

“You should just take her out again.” He muttered under his breath, knowing Snap heard him as he caught his exaggerated eye roll. “Get it out of your system.” 

“Pretty sure she’d laugh in my face.” The man replied, not taking his eyes off the blonde as she made small talk with Jess. “Plus, not all of us can solve our problems with sex.” 

Poe raised an eyebrow at his roommate, “Geezus, who pissed in your bantha flakes this morning?” 

“The First Order.” 

Kara slipped into the room behind a few ground commanders, catching Poe’s eye as she took her place next to Kaydel and Jess. Her navy blue cowl was pulled over her head as she greeted her friends, feeling the eyes of the others falling on the silver hilt of the legendary weapon on her hip. It had only been half a day since she’d pulled it on Pierce, who was still a trusted member of the Resistance to a few members of the group. At least for a few more minutes. 

Kara tried to not let the critical eyes bother her. It was only a matter of time before they also knew the truth. It was after spending a few hours fast asleep against Poe’s chest, she’d been paged to join Leia and Holdo for a formal interrogation of Alexander Pierce. It didn’t take him but a few minutes to confess to being a First Order operative, communicating regularly with Kylo Ren. Initially, The knight had promised to train him in the dark side of the Force in exchange for information on Skywalker. The mission changed when Ren had become more interested in Kara’s untapped power. So, he encouraged Alex to get close to her, in hopes of establishing a Force bond that would ultimately lure her to the First Order. 

“You have to admit Embers, the night at the Galactic Senate was going well.” He stated, casting her a cocky glance from his position in the steel chair in front of them. His wrists were cuffed behind him, in a set of Force inhibiting binders attached to the back of his seat. General Organa and Vice Admiral Holdo didn’t think he had any abilities that were strong enough to get past Kara or even Leia herself, but they weren’t taking any chances.  

Kara, leaning hard into the conversational interrogation techniques she’d learned in her special forces training, allowed a smile to creep across her face as she cocked an eyebrow in faux interest, “Enlighten me.” 

“After we met with my parents, we made great conversation with several targets throughout the evening. You played your part better than I ever expected, it almost felt like you weren’t undercover.” He replied, his mind wandering back to the memory of his interrogator in a gorgeous navy blue gown. “We’d gone outside for a quick break, per your request, to get a little fresh air. You made a joke about how you felt like the entire room could see right through your disguise and I told you that I’d never been out with a woman as skilled in covert operations as you… which was true. Most covert operations missions I’d been on included a female informant who wasn’t a conversationalist, let alone combat trained. You were incredibly good at your job.” 

She remembered the moment vividly, feeling the heat of her irritation starting to creep up her neck. Alex had chosen to leave out the part where he’d called her stunning and an ideal distraction. She shook her head as she caught on to his strategic omission, allowing him to continue. She knew exactly where he was going with this. 

“You’d blushed and said that you were impressed with my skills as well. You had always seen me as just a trigger-happy flyboy. Then after a few minutes of you watching the city traffic, I asked you if you ever missed being more than the second best pilot in the Resistance…” 

“And I told you sometimes.” She interjected. “And that was an honest answer, Alex. Still is.” 

“Was the way you kissed me an honest reflection of your feelings at the time then too, Captain? Or were you just doing your job?” He countered, enjoying the look of surprise that had crossed the General and Vice Admiral’s features. Kara’s confident stare froze over in rage, yet somehow she maintained her poise. Pierce hadn’t anticipated her ability to keep her composure, especially given her current relationship. She also couldn’t confidently prove that she was maintaining her cover with the story he told. He saw her brow furrow as she let her gaze fall to the tattoo on her wrist. 

“Wouldn’t you like to know…” Kara smirked, seeing the confidence starting to fade from his fierce blue eyes. “This is where I’m supposed to lie right? Craft some beautiful tale on how I knew we were being watched and I kissed you to ensure we could finish the mission.” 

“I’m sure that’s what you’d tell Dameron.” 

“Honestly? I thought you were a good guy, Pierce. I kissed you because I was interested and attracted to you at the time. I’d had a rough few days with Poe before we left. He’d just been tortured by the First Order and was starting to show just how much it affected him. We had a blow out fight that morning, Leia can tell you.” 

The general nodded, remembering the fight as a true sign of just how hard Poe had fallen for her but also as proof of how good Kara was for him. 

He had grounded her from a supply mission over Jakku in fear that the First Order was planning an ambush to recapture him. Leia was sure Poe’d gotten his supposed intel from a nightmare he’d had a few days before, but let it go. It was his mission, therefore it was his call on who would accompany him. 

To her surprise, Poe pulled Kara from the callsheet at that morning’s flight operations meeting. She wasted no time calling him out right afterward claiming that he’d overstepped, allowing his protective tendencies to get in the way of his professional judgment. Despite him telling her that he wasn’t changing his mind, she prepared for the mission anyway, only for him to pull rank on her in front of the others right before take-off. Leia remembered seeing her completely enraged, defiantly stepping to be nose to nose with him as he ordered she stay put or risk further punishment. Leia would never forget what she had read coming her lips from across the hanger: “I’ve never been impressed by your rank, Dameron. I almost married an admiral.” 

Kara came to her directly only minutes later to accept the covert operation on the basis that Poe didn’t go with her. So, Leia called in Alex. He had been better suited anyway, but it also meant that Poe would get a little taste of his own medicine.

“I gave myself a pass that night. I also knew that you’d never say a word to Dameron.” Kara continued, “Hell, you had sent Surlinda to try and seduce him at the bar that night we were gone. She almost succeeded too.” 

“How –” 

“How do I know that? He told me.” Kara shifted her weight and crossed her arms over her chest, watching the anger boil in Pierce’s features again. “Poe admitted to giving into her advances, blinded by his jealousy and anger, only to stop her before they got back to his room.” 

“So he knows…” 

“Of course he knows, Alex. He’s just as good at keeping secrets as I am, if not better.” Kara subconsciously rolled Poe’s necklace in his fingers, “And if we’re still being honest with each other, I’ve been keeping him from shooting you for months.” 

Pierce grunted as he strained against the cuffs one more time, a sadistic glimmer in his stare. “Yet, he wasn’t there to keep me from shooting you.” 

That’s when she hit him. Kara’s fist connected with a crack as she snapped his nose and bruised the surrounding soft tissue. Blood poured down his face, staining his teeth as he sneered at her, barking countless insults as she backed up, wiping her knuckles on her dark pants. Leia rolled her eyes as Holdo radioed for a medic, she should have figured this would happen.  

“Ren will destroy you.” He called, watching as Leia walked Kara to the door. 

Kara turned to him one more time, most of her features clouded in darkness. “I’d love to see him try.” 

The last thing she heard was Alex claiming her eyes had been glowing Sith yellow as she was dismissed. 

Leia started the leadership briefing by flicking off the lights, skipping her usual greeting and cutting right to the chase: “Red Commander, Alexander Pierce, is a First Order spy who has relayed our location to Kylo Ren, meaning that we must prepare for an immediate evacuation of all personnel. The first of several transports will leave in a few hours, starting with medical.” 

“General, back up.” Captain Kal Stone interjected, catching an icy glare from Leia as he rose from his seat. “Commander Pierce is a spy?” 

“You heard me, Captain. Your commander is a First Order operative being held on several counts of treason.” Leia stated curtly, “Red squadron will be assisting in the evacuation of our support teams under your leadership as acting commander unless you are preparing to confess to similar crimes right here in front of everyone?” 

Stone shook his head as he sat down. 

“That’s what I thought.” Leia quipped, turning the star map in front of her to show their evacuation route, carefully explaining the waves of teams and when they’ll be leaving. It was with utmost importance that their most essential teams were sent off planet first, preserving them in case Ren and his forces decided to strike early. 

“Black squadron. Commanders Dameron and Embers.” Poe and Kara both stood, Leia could see them both dying to ask if she misspoke but chose to ignore it. “You, your squadron, Finn, and Chewy are with me and Haldo. The rest of you are dismissed. Stay sharp and May the Force be with you.” 

The room cleared quickly as Leia turned off the holotable and said something to her vice admiral before she and Lt. Connix left with Snap, Jess, Finn and Chewy. She turned to her young commanders, who now looked even more confused than they did just moments before. 

“You can thank Han for your promotion, Kara.” Leia said, beating both of them to their most obvious question. “Black squadron is now you two, Captain Wexley, Jessika Pava, Kare Kun, Finn, and Chewy. We can figure out your additional technicians later. For now, you likely won’t need them till we fully establish a new base on Ajan Kloss.” 

Kara blinked as she could see the gears turning in Poe’s head. He was already trying to figure out how much fire power that gave him in the event they were ambushed. The answer was a lot. 

“Snap, Pava, and Kun will be on stand-by as you both, Finn and Chewy, are heading to collect a droid from Han’s shipping depot on Batuu.” Leia continued, handed them both locator beacons and a holocron. “Pierce mentioned that Ren was on his way to retrieve it, and we’ve got to beat him to it.” 

“What about the evacuation?” Poe questioned. 

“Don’t worry about us, we’ll get everyone out of the way before the First Order gets any other ideas. If Ren gets the droid, we are going to lose a lot more than the base.” She said, taking both their hands in hers. “Chewy knows where it is and what it looks like. Contact me when you have it.” 

“And if we see Ren?” Leia closed her eyes as Kara’s question rang in her ears. There was a chance that her son was already ahead of them in the search for Han’s artifact, meaning she’d be sending both her kids into a trap that could cripple the Resistance. She chose not to think that way. Ren may know where to look, but there was a good chance that he didn’t know exactly what he was trying to find. 

“I hope to Maker you don’t, but if you do… remind him of where he came from.” Leia smiled, seeing the hope surge in the eyes of the two warriors in front of her. “Now, go. The Falcon’s waiting.” 

She collected them both in a tight hug before they headed for the hanger, “We’ll meet you in the stars. May the Force be strong with you both.” 

Leia was overcome with worry and warmth as she saw the Falcon take off for the last time from the D’Qar tarmac. Their only hope of finding Luke and ending this wretched war going with it. 

************************************

They'd been cruising through hyperspace for a few hours when Poe finally got up out of the cockpit to stretch his legs. It had been a while since he’d been on a mission this far out, and thankfully he wasn’t cramped into the tiny cockpit of his x-wing. 

At least he had that going for him. 

He wandered into the main hold to see Finn and Kara curled up on the lounge seat, the sound of light snoring tickling his ears as he got closer. The former stormtrooper had Kara tucked against his shoulder, his head resting on top of hers while his arms pressed the dark leather of a flight jacket against her body like a blanket. Poe immediately noticed the jacket was his, the one that he’d tucked in the top of his duffle before they’d left. He assumed Kara had gone for it before settling in to look at facility blueprints and then he noticed BB-8 sitting dormant under the table and smiled. 

The droid had likely brought it to her when he sensed her getting a chill. Always the gentleman. 

Poe poured himself a cup of caf and slid on to the far side of the seat, launching the holomodel of Han’s storage facility. His eyes wandered through the digital warehouse, taking note of the meticulous care that the smuggler had taken to stay organized. Poe swore that the man had even accounted for the exact amount of dust that lay on the floor in each bay. Then again, attention to detail was something you got good at when the cost of losing a package was usually paid with your life.  

Finn stirred slightly, opening his eyes to see the top of Kara’s head and the faint glow of the holo-model Poe had in front of him. He didn’t remember when he’d dozed off, but then again, he could barely remember when they’d taken off at this point. 

“Don’t move too fast.” He heard Poe say just above a whisper, catching his gaze as he lifted his head up and inspected the warm body pressed against him. Kara was a lot closer than he remembered her being, but he was careful to not wake her as he shifted to sit up a little straighter. Poe smiled softly, only a little jealous of how calm she looked against his friend;  “She hasn’t looked that peaceful since they had her in a coma.”

“Can’t say that surprises me, given the last few days.” Finn said with a sheepish smile, “She wasn’t this close when I passed out, I promise.” 

“Don’t worry about it.” Poe assured him, “As long as she’s actually resting, she could curl up with Hux and I don’t know that I’d care.” 

Both of them let their eyes flicker back to the model of the facility in front of them. Finn broke the temporary silence, “I wonder what’s on this droid.” 

“It’s got to be important if Leia is sending us to go get it.” The pilot sighed, flicking the table off as he looked back at Finn. “She told Kara and I that Ren is after it.” 

Finn’s eyes went wide, “Can’t say I’m ready to see him again.” 

“Makes two of us.” Poe snorted, “Though I’m pretty sure we’re the least of his worries.” 

Finn followed the other man’s gaze to Kara’s sleeping form, “They know each other?” 

“We grew up together on Yavin. All 3 of us. Kara and I’s parents fought alongside Leia, Han, and Luke when the Resistance was known as the Rebellion. They were all stationed at the base there.” Poe explained, “He was Ben Solo to us, just like he was to Han.” 

“Did he… remember you? Ya know when they captured you.” 

“You could say that.” Finn could see Poe’s discomfort with the memory. “It didn’t stop him from ripping through my head anyway.” 

“Just like it didn’t stop him last night.” 

Poe simply nodded. “That’s what scares me the most.” 

They landed on Batuu in the dead of night, nestling the Falcon in between a few rock formations to keep out of sight. While the outpost that shared land with Han’s depot was mostly made up of Resistance supporters, that didn’t stop the First Order from sending patrols of troopers through looking for well-known sympathizers. 

Han had chosen the location to avoid the standard government regulations that came with running a shipping company. Plus, it allowed him to keep serving some of his most loyal clients, many of whom preferred to keep their wares out of the public eye. To Han, this wasn’t smuggling… at least not the same version of it he’d grown up mastering. 

Chewy unlocked the gates to their facility and led Poe, Finn and Kara inside an office that connected to a much larger storage building. The place had only been deserted for about a week by the looks of it. There was still paperwork floating around Han’s desk and old caf grounds in the trash. The oldest thing there were pictures of Leia, Luke, Kes, and Chewy on the bulletin board, framing a calendar that clearly hadn’t been touched in a few months, despite its owner’s best intentions. 

“Chewy, do you know where it is?” Kara asked, watching the wookiee shuffle through the top drawer of Han’s desk. “Do you need our help?” 

Chewy produced a set of keys and plopped them into Kara’s hand before heading over to a site map on the wall. He pointed and growled out a few directions, stating that the hallway the droid was in apparently didn’t have tall enough ceilings for him to guide them through. They’d have to go to the storage unit on their own, but he would guard the gate, serving as their first line of defense if Ren really was on his way. 

“Well, this is going to be interesting.” Finn murmured, pulling his blaster from its holster and fishing a flashlight out of his satchel. “Must be a big deal if it’s locked all the way down there.” 

“Or it's been here since the Rebellion,” Kara said, running her finger along the pictures on Han’s bulletin board, stopping at one of her mother and Leia before looking back at Finn and Poe. “...for safekeeping.” 

“Won’t know till we look.” Poe said, opening the door that led out into the larger warehouse’s hallway. “Better get moving.” 

The three of them followed the long corridor down to a staircase that led them to a series of underground tunnels that were lined with secure storage units for things that would either never see the light of day again or were meant for very particular eyes only. Each one had a number and a letter emblazoned across their steel doors, identifying it to its owner and in the smuggler’s own inventory system. Otherwise, without breaking the locks or blowing the doors off their hinges, their secrets remained exactly that - a secret.  

Poe and Finn’s flashlights were doing minimal to help them see beyond a few steps in front of them as they continued toward the unit Chewy had identified, which felt like it was getting further and further away from them as they continued down into the depths of the facility. 

“What if this is a trap?” Finn asked, stepping next to Kara as she lit her saber, lighting more of the dark cavernous tunnel more effectively. “What if Ren’s already been here?” 

“He would have completely ransacked the place. Troopers aren’t exactly neat.” She said, catching Finn nodding to himself, knowing she was right. “We’re close though. I can feel it.” 

Poe felt it too. A faint force signature that he recognized from when he was a child. It was earthy, wise, and orderly like the general he was pretty sure it belonged to. The same general that had sat in the living room of his family’s ranch the night he learned his mom wasn’t coming home. 

Kara’s saber lit the Jedi crest that had been sloppily carved into the steel of the door at the end of the tunnel as the pilot’s heart leapt into his throat. This wasn’t just any droid. It was THE droid. The one that BB-8 had only ever heard stories about. 

He heard the click of the padlock as Kara twisted the key that Chewy had given her. Finn held her saber as she wrestled open the door. She took the blade back as she stepped cautiously inside, noticing that most of the expansive unit was empty, with the exception of a chest and something under a sheet. 

Poe stayed firmly in the doorway as Kara pulled the sheet to reveal the legendary astromech droid that had been the main character of so many of their favorite Rebellion stories growing up. 

The R2 unit that had belonged to Luke Skywalker. 

“Maker… that thing has to be –” Finn had started, only to feel Poe brush by him, crouching in front of the droid like he did his BB unit, looking for any sign that it may still be functional. 

“An absolute war hero.” He finished the other man’s sentence for him, his thumb running over the dusty but faintly lit power light on R2’s head. “He’s in a locked low-power setting, meaning he won’t move or function without an override.” 

“So, what does that mean?” Finn quipped, seeing Kara smile as she watched Poe inspect the droid’s various ports and connections. They both vaguely remembered R2 from when they were kids, but had never been this close. 

“He’s not going to power on for just anyone. We are going to have to move him manually, unless Chewy gave you the key or code we need to wake him up.” 

“He would have if he had it.” Kara stated, “Guess we’ll just have to push him.” 

“At least it’s a straight shot, we’ll do it in shifts.” Poe said, rolling the dormant droid out into the hallway. “I’ll go first, Kara, you light and lead the way. Finn, we’ll switch at the halfway point. Keep your blaster ready.” 

It took them less time to get back to the office than it did for them to get to the droid in the first place as the trio practically jogged through the tunnel and Kara had lifted Artoo up the staircase using the Force. They crashed through the door a little too excitedly, hoping to find Chewy kicked back in Han’s chair staring at the live security footage, only to be met with a deafening silence and no wookiee. 

Kara felt her blood run cold as Poe subconsciously stepped ahead of her, blaster drawn and pointed toward the outside door. She pushed the droid behind Han’s desk as Finn took his place next to Poe, his own blaster drawn and ready as she slipped the hilt of her saber into her hand. 

“Could just be troopers.” Poe whispered, carefully analyzing each sound he heard over the thunderous pounding of his own heart. There were still no signs of Chewy. 

“It’s never just troopers.” Finn snapped. “They don’t ever travel without—” 

There was a roar and crackle of a lightsaber, its red blade severing the locked handle before the outside door was effortlessly ripped from its hinges. 

Kylo Ren froze both men in place before they’d even gotten a shot off, focusing solely on the girl whom they’d made such a poor effort to protect. With a flick of his wrist, Kara watched as her friends were disarmed, paralyzed, and forced to watch helplessly from their knees as he strode between them. 

Ren was pleasantly surprised to see that the girl was truly as beautiful as the pilot’s memories had originally shown him. Kara had not only grown into her once adorably awkward childhood features but the years she’d spent fighting and training through countless military missions had refined her into an alluringly fierce young woman. He stopped his advance just a step ahead of her incapacitated friends, noticing her green eyes piercing through his helmet like it wasn’t even there. 

“This is quite the reunion.” Ren sneered, “Too bad our parents aren’t here to see it.” 

Kara didn’t even blink. “I’m sure your father would’ve been thrilled, had you not murdered him.” 

The knight disengaged his saber with a smug nod, clipping it back on his belt as he took another step toward her. Ren was impressed with her control. She’d always been a little bit of a hothead and given the animosity she was harboring under her icy stare, it was remarkable that she wasn’t already at his throat. “It’s been a pretty long time, Kara.” 

The girl said nothing, her finger twitching over the ignitor of her saber. Her mind raced with ideas on how to get the upper hand, but none of them seemed to end without Ren killing two more people that she held close to her heart. And if she was being honest with herself, there was only one dead body that Kara was ok with bringing home at that moment, and it belonged to the man with all the leverage. 

“After almost 20 years…you’d think I’d rate something higher than a fervent death wish.” 

“Tends to happen when you senselessly destroy someone’s family while hiding behind a mask.” 

Poe arrogantly smiled as he heard Kara’s tone go from firm to fiery. All three rebels watched as Ren reached up, released the airlock, and pulled his helmet off his head. The sinister man stepped behind Poe’s immobilized body to set the headpiece on an empty desk, sensing a significant spike in the girl’s anxiety.

 “Better?” 

“Not really.” 

Kara saw another sick smirk cross Ben Solo’s face as he turned his attention to the Resistance commander at his feet. Poe was straining against his invisible bonds, trying like hell to leverage his newfound strength in the Force to break free on his own. It didn’t take much for Ren to quickly remember how much of a fight Poe had put up before he knew of his sensitivity. He was actually putting up an even more amicable fight now, but he didn’t need to know that. It would only boost his insufferable ego. 

Kara’s saber burst to life as Ren’s gloved hand yanked the pilot’s head back by his hair, its hum muffling the pained yelp that had slipped out between Poe’s gritted teeth. 

“How ‘bout now?” The dark man’s sneer lit Kara’s nerves on fire. “I can feel you both wishing I’d drop dead. Even the traitor is thinking that.” Finn’s eyes went wide with fear as Ren acknowledged his presence. 

“Leave them out of this.” Kara spit, feeling Poe’s steely determination reverberate through their bond. He was already giving Ren a fight he hadn’t prepared for, weakening the man’s overall hold on him and Finn. 

“Leave who? Dameron?” Ren cackled, igniting his own weapon just millimeters from the pilot’s throat and chest. “He got himself into this a long time ago, didn’t you Poe?”

Kara growled as the gloved hand in Poe’s curls jerked him again, her commander’s choked grunt sounding almost like an answer to Ren’s question. 

“He was always so protective of you, Kara. Never let you explore your other options.” His jealous stare burned into her. For the first time, Kara swore she was seeing the Ben she’d once known, not the monster he’d become. “You never got the chance to see your true potential.” 

“I’m not afraid of you anymore, Ben. And my true potential lies with the Resistance.” 

“You sure about that?” The crimson blade crackled as it reignited. Its master rolled the hilt in his hand, tipping the laser edge into Poe’s shoulder. The move was deliberately slow, incinerating the flesh and tissue of its victim in the most excruciating way possible. Ren knew that the tortured sounds coming from Poe’s throat were already haunting her, just like he had been for decades. 

Kara closed her eyes, trying in vain to get the screams out of her ears and the pain out of her chest. She had vowed that no one would ever intimidate her like Ben had when they were kids. Yet, here he was, torturing the man she loved in order to bully her into submission again. Her resolve was crumbling. Maybe she really wasn’t cut out for this. 

Poe saw her memory of the night Ben had cornered her as his body flirted with the idea of blacking out. Without thinking, he reached out to her: Show him the girl his father raised. 

Kara’s eyes flicked open, feeling Poe shoving the last of his strength toward her as Chewy’s battle cry echoed from outside. She swore she saw Han wink at her as he punched down a storm trooper, eerily glowing like he’d rolled in moon dust. Suddenly, his signature aura settled against her heart. 

Ren wasn’t expecting the raw power that had emitted from the girl as she force-shoved Poe out of his grasp and into the defected trooper he’d been ignoring for the last several minutes. Much to his surprise, the move freed them both from his force-hold on them as they landed in a heap against the outside door frame. The young woman then turned her attention back to him. Kylo Ren had known that she was more than capable of keeping up with him, but had not anticipated her abilities to possibly surpass his own. The only other person that had been able to break his hold on anyone was Snoke. 

Kara’s saber met his with an angry explosion of sparks and energy, a strike that would have killed him had he been caught off guard. Ren pushed her off and slashed down himself, missing her as she spun away from his counter. He could feel his own power surging as his rage bubbled within him. She’d used a trademark Skywalker dodge… one that had been taught to her by his own mother. 

Ren followed her as she backed out into the large warehouse hallway. Each of their advances hissed and crackled in the rafters, amplified by the vastness of the steel building. Kara was agile and quick, striking and guarding herself well as he came at her again and again. She did her best to control her breathing, conserving her endurance for the daring escape she was sure that Poe was already planning. They’d need her to get past Ren’s forces to retrieve the Falcon.Typically, that was a mission that Poe and Finn were more than capable of executing themselves. But given that Ren had done everything but sever her pilot’s arm from his body, she wasn’t sure that he could even move the extremity, let alone shoot or steer with it. 

She slammed down on Ren’s saber again, hearing him snarl as she nicked his arm with the tip of her blade. He slammed her into the wall under his own power, pressing her arms tight against her chest as she guarded her face with her saber. Ren muscled the blade closer and closer to her cheek as he locked eyes with her. She only held eye contact for a few seconds before crying out as she shoved him off her with the same power he’d felt her use to free her friends. 

“You need someone that can show you just how strong you are.” Ren seethed, stalking toward her as he gathered himself up off the floor. “This petty bond you have with the pilot is a waste of your gift.” 

“That’s rich coming from someone who is wasting his legacy on the pursuit of a galactic dictatorship.” Kara kicked him down this time, slashing his chest as he once again felt his body collide with the concrete floor. She was leaning into her emotions now, anger in the driver’s seat as she worked to maintain her current advantage. 

Ren smirked at her as he rose again, “At least I have a legacy. Dameron has an inflated reputation.” 

“I’m sure your family would beg to differ.” Kara swung, his free hand catching her wrist and holding her blade well above her head as he tried to throw her off balance. She grabbed at his own saber, pressing all that she had into keeping it down and away from her as she fought against his grip. Ren felt her bones crack under his fingers, her cry of pain filling his ears as he felt her boot collide with the back of his knees. 

It all felt like it was happening in slow motion. Her saber fell into her least dominant hand as he collapsed, the blade severing the hilt of his own weapon as it slipped from his grip and clattered to the floor. Kara twisted away from him as he fell, avoiding getting pulled down with him, only to hear Ren’s cry of agony echo through the building as her saber seared across his cheek before he hit the ground. 

He wouldn’t be down long. He never was. She had to run. Escape while she had the chance. 

Ren used his last bit of strength to reach for her as she leaped over his crumpled form, sprinting toward the door they’d passed through in the heat of their duel. His fingers grazed the ankle of her boot before being snapped away by a blaster bolt meeting his bicep. That’s when Ren saw the insufferable pilot in the doorway as he struggled to push up from the floor, a trooper blaster tucked against his body as his injured arm hung limp at his side. Ren roared with rage. He should have killed Poe when he had the chance. 

Kara and Poe didn’t stop running until they dove into the cargo hold of the Falcon, feeling the ship wobble as it closed, taking some blaster fire before heading into hyperspace. Kara wasn’t about to ask how they managed to best an entire battalion of troopers, move R2, and collect the Falcon while she was tangled up with Ren. She figured it was best to leave it up to her imagination… especially knowing that Poe had done almost all of it with only one good arm. 

Poe. 

She felt him on her in an instant, trying to collect her into his lap the best he could with his one good arm. She slowly leaned into the warmth of his chest before opening her eyes and taking his face in her hands. His deep brown stare softened immediately. 

“Hey..” She murmured, hiding a wince as he leaned affectionately into her grasp, unaware that Ren had shattered her wrist. 

“Hi.” Poe replied, softly smiling as his anxiety subsided. She was ok. Conscious. Alive. Holding him. Ok. 

He watched her gaze fall on the angry red wound on his shoulder. The one he’d gotten from the crossguard on Ren’s saber. Her fingers brushed away the tattered fabric of his dark shirt, revealing the gaping severity of the injury. There wasn’t enough bacta gel in the galaxy to allow him to come back from this one in a day or two. Least he didn’t think so. 

“It’ll be alright.” He deflected.

“Let me try and heal it.” 

“Kara.” 

“I wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t showed up with a blaster. Now, shut up and let me thank you.” She snapped, easing her good hand over the wound and closing her eyes. She rested her forehead against Poe’s as she concentrated, pushing most of her remaining energy into mending his scorched flesh. The man relaxed as he felt the sneering pain subside, his sense of touch slowly returning to normal as he felt the tingle of his nerve endings and muscle fibers reconnecting to each other. After another minute, he felt Kara’s body slump against his, her face coming to hide in the crook of his neck. 

“You didn’t have to do that.” He said, running his healed hand down her back as she fought to remain conscious. “We could have just let medical handle it.” 

“They’ll need you…” She breathed, “to help on Ajan Kloss.” 

“They will need you too, Stargirl.” He replied, “You are more than just a Jedi badass you know.” 

Poe felt her smile against him, her eyes fluttering shut again, “Being a badass is exhausting.”

“You have several hours to recharge there, young padawan.” He teased, selfishly tickling her side just to get her to look at him again, only to see her grimace as she playfully pushed his hand away. Poe stopped as he caught the glint of his necklace peeking out of her tunic. Its chain was resting against a dark, blackening bruise on her collarbone. “Dammit Kara… I’m sorry.” 

“It’s just a few bruises, Poe. It’s nothing.”

He onced her over, seeing each cut, bruise, and burn she’d collected. Most of them did look superficial, nothing that a little bacta wouldn’t fix, then his gaze fell on her deformed wrist. 

“That’s broken.” He declared, his eyes met hers as he lightly pressed on the joint. Kara bit back a painful whine. “Very broken.” 

“I fought through it, Poe. It’s fine.” She hissed defensively, pulling it back to her chest. “Medical can tend to it when we get back.” 

“Would you just let me take care of you?” He sighed, cupping her cheek. “Please?” 

“You already did.” 

“That shot was pure fucking luck.” He whispered, closing his eyes and bringing his nose to nuzzle hers. “And I can’t use the force to fuse your bones back together… but I can make sure that doesn’t get any worse before we land.”  

Kara kissed him softly, “What would I ever do without you, flyboy…” 

He chuckled, brushing a loose hair from her face before helping her to her feet, “You’d spend less time in the medbay, that’s for sure.” 

BB-8 came whirling into the room as if on cue, beeping and chirping excessively as he bumped into their shins. Poe crouched back down, rubbing the sides of BB’s bigger sphere affectionately as he tried to soothe the astromech. “Buddy, you gotta slow down...” 

The little droid looked to Kara and then back to his master, repeating his last message just slower. Kara looked to Poe for translation. Of the few languages she did know, her binary still wasn’t the best. 

“The evacuation was successful. We’re to find Leia as soon as we land.” He said, “She has a way to activate R2.”

[wannabe-fic-writer]

Lena Luthor x Reader : Mistakes Were Made

Summary: You really should’ve paid much more attention to the wrapping.

Genre: 18+ Suggestive language, Masturbation, Toys, Implied Smut

Imagine comes from this request: “Reader accidentally gives a lewd gift meant for their long distance GF (or ex-GF) to their friend, Lena.”

Word Count: 2,134

* * * * * *

You really should’ve seen this coming.

In fact you saw it coming, you just didn’t prepare yourself for it.

Now that you’re faced with your mistakes, you’re the most embarrassed and, quite honestly, the dumbest you’ve ever been.

The first mistake started not but six months ago. You were ignorantly blissful in your relationship with your then girlfriend Carly. You were preparing yourself to go on a two month long DEO mission and had bought a gift for her, one that would keep her “occupied” while you couldn’t.

A dildo. You bought her a dildo.

Having experimented with different ways to fulfill your desires while you were gone on missions, the added use of toys during your sexual phone calls was quickly agreed upon.

Your second mistake came the day you planned to give it to her. You’d officially been gone five days and figured the sooner you told her the sooner you both could make good use of it. So you called. And called. And called. Only to be ignored all three times. Then for the fourth call to be answered, on accident. Based on the noises you’d heard it was obvious what was happening, obvious that Carly didn’t need your little gift after all.

You ignored her for the entirety of your mission and promptly confronted her when you got back. She didn’t deny it either, just claimed it was something she never should’ve done and begged for another chance. But you were far from willing to give it to her. So you broke up, went through the motions of moving out and cutting ties.

Third mistake was still checking up on her on her social media. It was clear that her little side piece was more than that, when you saw the very new pictures of them together on your feed.

Your friends were one hundred percent ready to go to war for you. Kara and Alex couldn’t believe that someone would cheat on you, they didn’t understand cheating in general, but to cheat on someone as sweet as you made the least amount of sense.

Nia wanted to find Carly and teach her a lesson. A fact she made abundantly clear.

While Lena, she was pissed and confused and a million other things. The CEO has had a crush on you since before you started dating Carly and her feelings grew over the entirety of your relationship. She saw the way you were with Carly, how attentive, caring, understanding, and overall romantic you were.

All in all they could tell how hurt you were about the whole thing. You weren’t in love with her or anything but you were getting there.

It’s why your friends insisted you spend more time with them after the break up. Alongside your usual hang outs at Al’s and game nights at Kara’s house, the blonde planned a Friend’s Appreciation night.

That’s when your final mistake happened.

You all agreed on celebrating the impromptu holiday and planned on getting each other gifts. You wrapped and tagged every gift but one. When it’d gotten time for you to wrap Lena’s you got distracted as said woman popped by so you shoved her gift at the top of your closet and thought nothing of it till the day of.

In which you excitedly grabbed the wrong damn box.

Everything was going perfect, drinks were flowing, Kara was knee deep in a second helping of potstickers, and gifts were being exchanged.

You’d handed Lena hers with a sweet smile and a,“ I thought of you when I saw it so I had to.”

So imagine the hopeful surprise she felt when she opened the ten inch, fairly realistic looking dildo with a cute little red bow around it.

All the girls had asked what she got, especially since they knew of her feelings for you and figured you had at least a crush on her. But this, she couldn’t and wouldn’t share this with them. No this was to stay between the two of you.

Except you didn’t know that. Well you did but not to the full extent.

Which meant you were oblivious to how sexual her words were when she would text or tell you that she “adored her gift” or “couldn’t get enough of it” or better yet “wanted you to use it with her.”

It was that last one that started to tie things together for you. You weren’t sure how you both would use a diamond jewelry set. So you’d jokingly told her you didn’t think that was possible, to which she said “if you play your cards right it is.”

You figured she was just messing around so you brushed it off. Until you saw her again, stopping into L-Corp just to say hi at lunch.

A frown masked your brows as you sat down across from her, e/c eyes roaming her neck and ears,“ you don’t have my gift.” You pouted.

Lena’s eyes widened and she gave a disbelieving chuckle,“ of course I don’t, I’m at work Y/n.” She looked off,“ though it would definitely come in handy when I’m stressed.”

The last part brought a smile to your face. The thought that your gift brought her comfort. But you didn’t understand the first bit.“ Wh-why wouldn’t you bring it to work. Do you not want people to see it?”

If she wasn’t surprised before she is now. It’s one thing to give her a dildo as an appreciation gift but to now subtly but openly admit to wanting to be semi-public with it was another.

Did you have an exhibitionist kink or something? Did you enjoy the risk of possibly being caught? Or were you just into the idea of her carrying your dildo around with her?

“Y-Y/n I,” her shoulders dropped as she processed your words,“ I’ll do it.”

Leaning forward, you rested a hand on hers,“ good, I’m glad you like it by the way. I wasn’t sure if you even needed something like that but I guess it’s the thought that counts right?”

“Of course.”

The next day, you were more than happy to receive a text from the CEO saying she had your gift with her. You’d replied that “you wanted to see how it looked on her” which made the brunette flush with arousal and embarrassment, unbeknownst to you. But she was curious about how you’d respond.

The second you got the picture you had to do a double take which then led to you dropping your phone.

There your best friend Lena Luthor was, her legs spread beneath her desk, with an all too familiar dildo disappearing into her clearly sopping pussy.

In an instant, you were sprinting back to your bedroom. Throwing your closet door open and snatching the box off the top shelf. Nestled inside on top of tissue paper was the diamond necklace and matching earrings you thought you gave to Lena.

No instead you gave your best friend a goddamn dildo!

“Oh. My. Fuck.” You whispered into the quiet space.

The one thing you’d done in the midst of this entire situation that wasn’t a mistake, was going to Lena about it.

You raced to L-Corp, a million and one thoughts on your mind about it all. Every conversation you had about the gift.

Heat rushed to your face when you remembered one of the first things she told you about it, she couldn’t get enough of it.

How many times had she used it?

If it came from you, did she think of you when using it?

No wonder she told you she didn’t bring it to work. It was a goddamn dildo and not a necklace.

How you managed to be so clueless was lost on you but you had to at least try to clear it up, lest your best friend think you were some type of creep.

Pulling up to the building, you moved just as fast to get inside and up to her office. In the midst of all your panic you didn’t even consider the fact that you just received a picture of her actions.

The sight before you when you entered, stopped you in your tracks.

Lena’s head thrown back, eyes shut, as her arm flexed with her obviously quick and forceful pumps.

She was fucking herself with it, right there.

“L-Lena.” You fumbled, shutting the door before anyone could dare look inside to find their boss in such a compromising and vulnerable position.“ Lena.” You said clearer the second time.

Keeping up with her ministrations, she looked up at you, pulling her bottom lip between her teeth. You heard the low moan she gave and at that point you were pretty sure it was because of you more so than the toy between her legs.

Admittedly you didn’t know what to do. Well you did. You should’ve given her the last of her privacy but you couldn’t take your eyes off her.

She was beautiful there’s no denying that, however nothing could be sexier than having seen her like that. Falling apart with each flick of her wrist, knowing you were there.

When she reached her peak she shook, her body overwhelmed and you had no control over yours. Walking across the office, you grabbed her face, and crashed your lips on hers. The long moan she’d let out now swallowed by you.

After she calmed down, you released her, and sat back against the desk. Your gaze followed the action of her pulling the dildo from her, catching how wet it was and nearly dying at the thought of causing that and possibly fixing it.

“I wouldn’t’ve been opposed to you helping me you know?”

“That,” you pointed to the toy,“ was not meant for you.” You blurted out.“ I got you a necklace and mixed up the boxes and I realize how fucked up that sounds but apparently you made good use of it regardless.”

Lena’s eyebrows raised as she dazedly looked at you,“ seriously?”

An embarrassed, nervous, smile took over your face,“ yeah. I can’t even tell you how I mixed up the packages.” You said, setting her intended gift down.

Green eyes flicked down to the box. With an embarrassed blush on her cheeks, she swallowed and threw the toy in an empty drawer. Then scrambling to fix herself.

The realization of the situation settling in her mind and causing that blush to deepen.

“Y-you- I-I’m so sorry,” she stutters out. Her eyes widen and she’s quick to bury her face in her hands.“ All those messages I sent and your replies I thought you-”

She stops and your eyebrow raises. You had a feeling what she intended to say but had to hear it.

“You thought I what?” Slowly her hands lower and her gaze finds yours.“ What Le?”

Taking a deep breath she nearly whispers,“ I thought you may have felt the same about me.”

Do I? You find yourself thinking. Did all those seemingly platonic cuddles mean something? When you kiss her forehead and she kisses your cheek is there something behind that?

Is the love you feel for her more than friendly? Had you just pushed the way you use to feel about her away? Was it that easy?

You’re smart enough to know feelings are never easy. And aware of your emotional state to know that there was always something romantic behind everything you did with and for Lena.

“I do.” Her eyes, that had fallen to the desk, snap up to yours in surprise.“ I’ve always felt something for you Lena.”

“But Carly-”

“Is my ex. And while I’m still dealing with the hurt of that, I’m completely over her.” You raise a hand to gently rest against her cheek.“ I’d like to take you out sometime, maybe explore what we’ve both been feeling?”

She seems to be frozen for a moment. Her eyes clearly search yours for sincerity and she nods upon finding it.“ I’d like that.”

Smiling, you lean down and capture her lips in a sweet kiss. A smile of her own forms into it causing you both to pull away.

Your breath ghosts over her lips as you teasingly whisper,“ and maybe you can call me the next time you use that thing.”

Even though she chuckles disbelievingly and swats your arm, a blush finds its place on her cheeks again, this time purely from arousal instead of embarrassment.

When you go for another kiss, you can’t help but think that maybe your mistakes weren't that bad.