#kara is the grad student

[lena-in-a-red-dress]

Twisters AU - meeting the in laws

Been thinking about Twisters and that iconic moment they recreated with the dude pressed up against the girl trying to protect her from the incoming tornado, practically wrapping himself around her as they both cling to the uprights for dear life....

I wouldn't mind seeing that happen with Kara and Lena, except in this version Lena would be the one promising she's got Kara, "I've got you, it's okay, I've got you", while Kara is one hundred percent being triggered by the past literally repeating itself around her.

Then afterwards, Kara is basically unresponsive, so once Lena passes the mom and the kid off to the paramedics, she returns to where Kara is sitting numb in the bottom of the pool, and just sits with her, holding her hands to ground Kara until Kara eventually comes round enough to move.

When she has the presence of mind to actually look at Lena and read the woman's expression, she realizes that Lena understands what's happening-- that Lena likely knows (has always known) who Kara is and her tragic backstory. But there's no judgement in it, only calm assurance.

They only part ways when their respective teams show up. Lena gives Kara's shoulder a reassuring rub before disengaging, shooting Mike (because of course Mon el would be the scummy stooge working for the Luthors under the radar) as she goes. When Mike fusses over Kara, Kara can't help but wish Lena was still with her, missing the woman's staid presence and the bubble of calm around her that had extended to envelop Kara as well.

When Kara eventually confronts Mike about his work for the Luthors and their predatory practices, and basically bites his head off about it, Lena watches from afar, and when Mike storms off to lick his wounds, Lena splits from her crew and approaches Kara once more. Kara can only try to pretend she isn't relieved by her return-- she isn't sure she's successful.

"Hey, ah--" Lena lifts one hand to scrub the back of her neck, plainly nervous in a way Kara's never seen her before. "I'm gonna let my guys handle things on the ground here. Can I-- would you like to come somewhere with me?"

Kara stares, and Lena realizes how weird she'd worded the request. She flushes.

"I mean-- I've got someone I think you should meet."

Kara ultimately-- inevitably-- agrees. Because it's Lena and she needs Lena right now. In the same way she'd needed Alex so desperately after her sister had died, but also... in a different way. A new way. She nods, and before she knows it they're heading to what Kara eventually realizes is Lena's hometown.

When they pull up to a quaint farmhouse standing amid acres of land, Lena throws the truck into park with a smile that Kara hasn't seen before. It carries the warmth of relief and familiarity, and Kara knows that they've arrived to where Lena has spent the majority of her life-- where her heart has always remained.

Lena hops out first, shutting the car door before reaching through the open window to beep out a "shave and a haircut" on the horn as Kara comes around the side to meet her. Lena snags her cowboy hat off the dash and settles it over her braids, shooting Kara a bright smile as the door opens and a lanky woman trots out wearing a grin not so different from Lena's.

"I wasn't expecting you til Labor Day!" the woman exclaims, throwing her arms around Lena in a fierce hug that Lena returns just as enthusiastically. "Ohhh, I've missed you!"

Kara hovers awkwardly, unwilling to interrupt the moment, but well. Clearly an interloper. When Lena and their host part, Lena cocks her head with her arm slung around the woman's shoulders.

"Kara, this is my mother, Jo." She doesn't really need to say it-- the similarities abound, from the bright glint in their eyes and the bright, keen smiles that crease their features, both warm and inviting. Lena glances sidelong at her mother, then slides her gaze to Kara.

"Mom, this is Kara."

[evoldir]

Fwd: Graduate position: UToronto.MolluscanEvolution

Begin forwarded message: > From: evoldir@evol.biology.mcmaster.ca > Subject: Graduate position: UToronto.MolluscanEvolution > Date: 1 October 2024 at 06:44:53 BST > To: rdmpage@gmail.com > > > > We're recruiting graduate students to the Layton Lab at the University > of Toronto! We're broadly interested in molluscan systematics, evolution > and genomics and we work on a number of different systems and questions > spanning both micro and macroevolutionary scales. For detailed information > about our research, please see here:https://ift.tt/OdACbBI > > Grad students will be part of the vibrant Ecology and Evolutionary > Biology department at the University of Toronto. Please see their website > (https://ift.tt/j5tEZ3Q) for more information about > the department. > > Applicants should send along a CV, a brief statement (max 250 words) > describing their research interests and motivation for pursuing graduate > studies and unofficial transcripts by November 1st for full consideration > (kara.layton@utoronto.ca).  Our group welcomes, supports and encourages > diversity in academia so please don’t hesitate to ask how my supervisory > approach, and the research group more broadly, can best meet your needs. > > Anticipated start date of September 2025 but early admission may be > possible. > > Kara Layton > > Assistant Professor > > University of Toronto > > E: kara.layton@utoronto.ca > > W: laytonlab.com > > Kara Layton

[whalehouse1]

Them: The 70’s solo run for Supergirl was a hot mess and just bad.

Me: How?

We have Kara just dunking on someone’s crying volume.

Hide n’ Seek with coffins. How they were in an existing statue, a grown tree or a grandfather clock with a glass window though no idea.

The absolute best way to use super sight.

This panel.

Her saving ppl to get ppl to listen to her (not at all what actually happens but I see that vague threat Kara)

The best talk to the hand ever.

And this ending. Absolutely not needed and makes her look absolutely pathetic, and she could have asked the guy she rescued he was a grad student so not too creepy.

[meyerlansky]

my favorite thing about the libsci program i’m in is that

there’s a group dedicated to progressive librarianship that does stuff like prison book drives and they’re currently organizing a roundtable on the ALA hate group thing to encourage discussion about that

and they meet at 2PM on tuesday afternoons. smack in the middle of a work day. in a professional program. at a very expensive private institution. located in one of the most expensive urban areas in the country.

progressive!

[karalovesallthegirls]

journeying into the realm of things only I will care about, when I first wrote 'we need to talk about kara' I was a graduate student studying counseling who had never even seen a client before and I included a basically throw away paragraph about kara receiving EMDR therapy because I knew it was a thing that was big for trauma treatment and I figured a superhero level therapist would utilize that, and the way that I wrote it was so clearly a wikipedia-level attempt at depicting a therapy I did not understand and even in my one little paragraph it was so wrong lmao

and now, as I try to work on the final chapter, I have two years of experience working with clients and I am literally EMDR certified, and so rereading what I wrote was so painful to me I had to rewrite it into a full scene. And I don't know if anyone would actually even care about it being more authentic or whatever but it just felt deeply important to me lmfao. In the event that you are interested in a comparison, I have the original vs what is up now below

Original from grad school Jill: Things are feeling better, she's feeling better, but there's still so much Her therapist suggests something else. Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing. "Which means…" she drawls, and her therapist smiles. "Which means you recount a traumatic incident while following my guidance with your eyes. It should help." Kara isn't entirely convinced, but she might as well. They lead her through it. The doctor has her follow a pen with her eyes, up and down side to side in quick swipes, while she tells the story of her people's death. She recounts it in detail, talks of the fiery reds and death screams, tears running down her face the whole time while her eyes flicker and move about. "It works well with humans," the doctor explains. "The science isn't entirely understood but the research is undeniable. Something about the rapid eye movement triggers the part of the brain that holds on to the trauma, and through this process it eases it.

She's not sure if it works, but she sleeps the whole night afterwards for the first time in a long time. VERSUS

EMDR Certified Jill:

Things are feeling better, she’s feeling better, but there’s still so much.

Her therapist suggests something else. Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing.

“Which is…” she drawls, and her therapist smiles.

“It's a processing technique that targets the trauma in your brain through your eyes. Basically, research suggests there's a link between eye movement and brain processing. Think of it like sleeping - your body heals best when you get deep, REM sleep. Guided rapid eye movement - it can help.”

Kara isn’t entirely convinced, but she might as well. 

They build up to it for a while. Longer than Kara would have liked. They spend ages going over how her body and mind connect, how feelings live in her body just as much as her mind. They practice feeling your feelings, as ridiculous as it feels to do. They sit together, eyes closed, and practice shifting focus from more distressing feelings to more positive, over and over and over until finally, for some reason, her therapist deems her ready.  She expects to just start telling her about her deepest trauma, but then things never do go as she expects. "What's a problem you've been experiencing lately that, if resolved, would have a significant impact on your life?"

"I don't know, everything? I don't know." "Try something specific, it doesn't have to be perfect." Kara sighs, runs her fingers through her hair. "I guess just feeling angry and sad all the time." "Can you think of a specific time?" "Like last week. I spent some time with my sister and her girlfriend, and they were complaining about work and all the things going on and I just felt so frustrated - they get to just do that, get to go and do these big important things, and I'm just left here feeling useless and pathetic because I can't even get myself out the door to help."

"And that anger is familiar?" "Definitely. I got mad the other day at group, too, when someone was talking about how they hate having to navigate earth culture or something and I just felt so, so angry." 

"When you think about these moments, what do you feel like is the longing there?” “I don’t know what that means.” “What is it you're wanting in those moments?” “I guess I just want to be normal again. I want to be able to do what everyone else is doing again without feeling like I’m going to collapse under it all.” “You want to feel empowered, to be a part of something meaningful again.” She shrugs, nods. “Can you think of a time when you had a hope for that – of being empowered, being a part of something meaningful – and it didn’t happen?” Kara talks about the moment in Alex’s apartment when she collapsed under her own fear. “Can you think of an earlier time?” She does. She recounts a time when she first started working at Catco and she messed something up for Cat, and how isolated she felt. Her therapist nods, and then asks again,“Can you think of an earlier time?” It goes and goes and goes until suddenly she’s talking about being a child shoved into a ship and sent into the void. She can feel it on a visceral level, she can feel the flames behind them. 

“When you bring that memory to mind, what image represents the worst part?” her therapist asks gently. "My mom's face," she says. "The way she looked when they closed the pod." "When you picture that, your mother's face, what words go best with that image that express a negative belief you have about yourself right now, even if you know better?" She's shaking, she thinks, and she can feel the swelling of feeling flood her. Her mother's sad eyes, the crinkles around them as she fakes a smile, trying to comfort, trying to trick Kara into thinking it's all for the best, that it's all going to be okay. "It's not worth it," Kara says, "I'm not worth it. I shouldn't have been the one saved." "You feel worthless," the counselor reiterates. Kara nods, trembling.

"And where do you feel that in your body?" Kara waves over her face, her chest.  "Everywhere. Here, in my heart," she presses her hand to her chest. "I feel it crushing." Her therapist nods, sitting up straight, and lifts her hand. "I want you to bring up that image in your mind of your mom's face as she put you in the ship, think about the words 'I am worthless', and notice that feeling in your body, and then follow my fingers." And with that she moves her two fingers together in front of Kara, back and forth and back over and over while she followed along, her mind reeling at a level she's never experienced before. She asks her again and again what are you noticing now? What are you noticing now? And Kara notices everything. She feels everything. She cries the entire time. 

She’s not sure if it works, but she sleeps the whole night afterwards for the first time in a long time.

[benwvatt]

Supercorptober 2022 day 1: summer

1100 words, read on AO3

Chapter 1 is a diner AU! In which Kara is a waitress working a summer job, and Lena is a grad student who recently cut ties with her family.

On late nights washing the tables, she’d taken the floral arrangements and plucked the petals off of leftover black-eyed Susans (she loves me, loves me not; she loves me, maybe she loves me? I don’t know, I’d have to ask-)

Kara snapped out of her reverie.

This was a summer job. The night dragged on. Everyone else at Noonan’s had gone home, and Kara was left with the keys to lock the doors. She and Lena liked to stay late and talk over drinks sometimes.

Kara set down an iced coffee and a straw. She wasn’t supposed to sit while she was on the clock, but she wasn’t even on shift in the first place. Lena grinned and tapped her finger at the menu. “You named a sandwich after me?”

And how could Kara not sit down to answer a question like that?

Kara set her many-layered questions aside, and the red vinyl squeaked beneath her legs. She moved closer and her shadow became part of Lena’s in the booth by the corner

“It’s your favorite. Of course we put it on the menu.” The Lena was an order of asiago with ham on ciabatta bread. (Avocado or melon on the side, naturally. Lena couldn’t go a day without avocado.)

Maybe she would ask Lena out to dinner next week. Next month. Sometime.

Kara was happy to ignore the fact that she’d wanted to ask out Lena last week, too, and had conveniently put it off until now.

Read more! AO3 link

[ao3feed-directorsanvers]

Only One Gym Membership

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/pxThZ3N

by 100flybutt

Based off of this post, which is a Tumblr post of a screenshot of tweets that read as follows;

“Found out the rock wall gym family membership rate has a ‘NO ROOMMATES YOU MUST BE IN AN ACTUAL RELATIONSHIP’ rule which is dumb and also why I’m now in a gym-specific sham partnership”

“FRIENDSHIP ENDED WITH ‘BUT THERE’S ONLY ONE BED’ NOW ‘BUT THERE’S ONLY ONE GYM MEMBERSHIP’ IS MY BEST FRIEND”

or

Lucy and Alex are law and med students, respectively, therefore obviously incredibly smart and capable of not making such errors as to enter into a fake dating scenario (for the discount, at the gym that they totally absolutely have to switch to for No Reason). (The non-reason possibly being the cute girl Lucy has been obsessing over, and Alex has been trying to get Lucy to talk to). Right?

Words: 1049, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Supergirl (TV 2015)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: F/F, Multi

Characters: Alex Danvers, Lucy Lane (DCU), Maggie Sawyer, Kara Danvers, Original Characters

Relationships: Alex Danvers/Lucy Lane/Maggie Sawyer

Additional Tags: This is in my 'crackfic' folder, grad school AU kind of?, Fake/Pretend Relationship

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/pxThZ3N

[team-science-mega-nerds]

My unsolicited flower/coffee shop au: Sam working as a barista and raising a 5 year old. Alex the grad student helping out at her mom's flower shop as a delivering orders on her rigged bike (basically a glorified moped). Sam thinks the scowling redhead that shows up at the shop every morning and always orders a red eye and sticky bun is cute. Alex thinks the tall barista who recommended the sticky buns on her first visit (Alex hates the sticky buns but is a useless lesbian) is cute. Kara is just happy to get a free bum every morning 😊

All asks are always solicited, I wanna know everything!

The glorified moped is so amazing, I love it. Okay here’s my coffee shop/ flower shop au:

Alex is a moody but super knowledgeable flower shop worker. People just want things to be pretty, Alex actually cares about the origins/meanings of flowers. She nearly gets fired every other week. She doesn’t care. What she does care about is J’onn, the caring and very lonely museum collections curator who spends half his time at the cafe nearby. Alex brings him flowers twice a week. Sam, who is currently trying to balance childcare and learning latte art, thinks that it’s a weird sugar daddy situation going on. It gets to the point where she asks, straight up “so...are you and J’onn a thing?” It’s the first thing that Sam has ever said to Alex other than “welcome” or “can I get you anything?”. Alex laughs in Sam’s face. Alex laughs so hard that she can’t even respond. Instead, Alex just hands Sam an extra bouquet as she cackles her way out the door “you’ve made my day” Alex mutters between laughs. 

Sam doesn’t see Alex until the following Tuesday. Alex hands J’onn his flowers and then comes to the counter. She orders. Coffee. Black. Sam makes it and as she’s putting the sleeve on the cup, Alex leans over the counter “J’onn’s family was killed in a car crash a few years ago. His wife loved daisies.” Alex motions over to J’onn who is reading with a bouquet of daisies sitting in front of him. 

Now every time Alex comes to drop off flowers for J’onn, Sam is waiting for her with a coffee. One time, in the middle of fall, Alex gives Sam red carnations in a huge extravagant vase. Alex says nothing but she does smile. Sam smiles too and when she gets home, she rushes to her computer to look up what the fuck red carnations mean. 

[the-queen-of-the-light]

Kara: The ‘Alien Conspiracy Theorist’

One of the best ways Kara has kept her secret identity for so long definitely isn’t because she’s actually good at keeping secrets. Nor is it because the ‘ponytail-and-glasses’ combo actually do a good job of hiding her. Far from it. Kara couldn’t lie convincingly to save her life. It’s more so that she’s so flagrantly obvious with her identity and knowledge of aliens that no one ever believes her. Sometimes the best place to hide is in plain sight, right?

A newsreal about Superman played on the screen in the breakroom when a coworker asked, “Do you think aliens are really real? I mean Superman claims to be one, but can we really prove that? You never know what the military is experimenting with these days…”

Of course, they were probably expecting the traditional ‘well the universe is massive, so statistically there’s bound to be intelligent life somewhere else out there.��

What they got instead was Kara. Not even looking up from where she was mixing an absurd amount of sugar and creamer into her coffee by the sink, she said, “Oh, yeah. Of course, they are. You know, I’ve been abducted by aliens about 6 times, at this point. No wait… 7.”

The instant silence that filled the breakroom had her turning to see the absolutely stunned faces of a handful of her coworkers. “You’ve been … what?”

And, oh… maybe she shouldn’t have said that… but it was out there, now. She had to commit at this point. “Abducted by aliens, yep! My sister and I actually take a trip to Roswell at least once every couple of years. ” Many of them had seen the photo of her and Alex in front of the UFO dinner on the outskirts of Roswell that sat on her desk as proof of it.

“Wait. Did they… you know?”

“Wha….? OH! No, no! Of course not! They’re usually quite nice! Some of them still keep in touch, you know? The first time, I was just a teenager. I was visiting my cousin’s family farm in Kansas, and one of the cows got out in the middle of the night. Had to go find her. I got interrupted by a group of Shmolbexeens, from what I could tell? They’re this lovely shade of blue with purples specks. A very sweet group honestly, if a little nosy,” Kara finished with a smile. They really were quite friendly—just a group of xenobiologist grad students from another galaxy writing a research paper on humans.

“Soooooooo, you got abducted. In Kansas. While looking for a cow?”

“Yep! They actually pointed me in the direction of old Miss Belle,” and with that Kara sipped her coffee and headed back to her desk, leaving a set of stunned and silent coworkers behind her. Cat would surely be shouting for her any second, and it was best not to keep her waiting.

And really, that was only the start of it. Kara always seemed to have some story or alien fact. She’d basically outed herself, so why not share her unique pool of knowledge? Except what she didn’t know is that it wasn’t exactly an outing as an alien, but more as a very human, very ‘imaginative’ alien conspiracy theorist.

(‘A nutjob’ Blake from accounting would call her, only to get elbowed by Katrina in legal. ‘She’s sweet! Just a little... eccentric’)

So when Supergirl came into National City’s spotlight, why would anyone suspect sweet, alien-lover Kara Danvers—who just so happened to talk about Supergirl a lot and suddenly seemed to be the only person in media with a direct line of contact with the alien superhero—of being her when it was far more likely that she was dating her, instead.

Hidden in plain sight, indeed.

[intouandbeyond]

but what if this shit is love (can i get your number?)

“Kara, are you okay? If you don’t want to do this anymore, it’s fine. I understand.”

“What?! No, no! I–, it’s just that, I have never seen you look like this before.”

“Like what?" Lena asks playfully, with a knowing smirk tracing her lips. "All dressed up for you? In make-up?”

Yep, I’m fucked.

“No! I mean, yes… but it’s not just that.”

“Then, what?”

“I’ve never seen you look so free.”

OR

Kara is a grad student taking up journalism, while Lena is in medical school. They keep running into each other at the on-campus café and they somehow end up on a blind date with each other. Kara sees Lena in a whole new light, and Lena finds it in herself to trust again.

Read it here (AO3)

----

Hi there! This is my second and last fic for this year's @supercorpbb's reverse big bang! Thank you so much to the mods and organizers of this event. I'm super happy and grateful I got to be a part of this 💕

This fic was hugely inspired by Fee's (@verfeling) absolutely amazing art (AO3), which you can also find on twitter.

It's a traditional graphite art piece that captures Lena and Kara out on their date night, which greatly inspired the creation of this fic. Please check it out as well and give it the love it deserves <3

[yukselkaminski]

who: @seraxkaran​ @zephyrvrcnsky where: purgatory, back office when: a friday night

There were some agreements that couldn’t be broken, some shipments that had to be made. And when New York’s infamous five families relied on the Bratva for supplying Wall Street’s favorite drug, it was deliver or die. The Syndicates blow on NYEs lodged a knife in the organization, shortages only twisting it further. On Tuesday, 300 lbs of cocaine were expected to leave the ports of Chicago- it was going to take a miracle to make it on time... luckily, the devil devised just that. 

They’d all been seen at Purgatory, Friday night photos provided the perfect alibi for what was to come. Zephyr doing the usual rounds, Kara and Sera sharing a drink at the bar... the office door shut behind her as Kara put the keycard on the desk: Timothy Mackie, Chemistry Grad Student. “It’s a twenty-four hour pass, got one of our guys to copy a working QR- whoever tracks it is going to find a ghost, at best.” The brunette nodded before she produced a set of keys. “I also got the van parked two days early out back so it’s not out of the ordinary, scrubbed the VIN too...” Ten years under the Bratva had all but hammered meticulousness into her bones. Especially when it came to a big league assignment like this. After all, failure could usually lead to a body bag. Eyes falling on Zephyr and Sera, Kara couldn’t help but lift an eyebrow. “I really hope not all your date nights are like this...”

@seraxkaran​

[lena-in-a-red-dress]

Watching Twisters, purely for the Supercorp thoughts. What're we thinkin'? Kara as the wrangler, Lena as the tortured grad student?

Or vice versa? Kara does survivor's guilt real well, after all.

[overkill-max]

Lena is living like her idol Marie Currie, looking good and saying fuck you to safety because sometimes you can’t hide the booty or the bodice...

whats "lab safety"? if im going to be a scientist i'm gonna look CUTE. if i get radiation poisoning that's on ME.

[heroheart]

@danviers​ // even you have your limits.

                      the bar’s busy  —  it’s a friday night and, unlike their usual scheduled game nights, filled with pizza and an extortionate amount of popcorn that kara seems to hoover up a lot more than anyone else, they’ve finally bent to alex’s will and have found themselves around a round table in the depths of a bar. everything’s kind of sticky  —  kara drums her fingers against the table before hopping up out of her seat with a quick  my round!  before jetting off. (if alex knows her, which she does, and better than anyone else she’s ever known, then she has every reason to be slightly nervous. kara is a woman with a  plan  and she needs a crowded bar to pull it off.)

she’s gone for ten minutes. fifteen, tops. in that time, she’s ordered a round of beers  —  club soda for herself, and an extra one for winn who’s caught her eye every so often from across the room  —  and spoken to a handful of women who look nice enough for alex to talk to. 

          “sorry! i was being the best wingmanning sister there is.”    she places the tray of beers down and reclaims her seat at her sister’s side. it’s not so loud over here  —  she can hear a lot more clearly over the bass and even in the low light, she can see nothing more than the  scowl  that’s formed on alex’s face. oops.

even you have your limits.  oh, don’t be like that! kara huffs, digs a hand into her pocket, and pulls out a selection of papers. they’re all neatly folded, different scribbles blotting through the coloured post-it that she’d asked to borrow from behind the bar. (everyone here is just so  nice  that kara doesn’t mind being the sober one — she can talk up a storm with anyone, with only a  hi, i like your shoes  to play with.)

         “this one is amber, she has a motorcycle and she went to NCU  —  psychology  —  and she’s pretty badass, too.”    she flips through another piece of paper and passes it along once more.

       “and this is leah, who has a dreamcatcher tattoo on her lower back  —  don’t ask, it’s a wild story  —  but she surprisingly has it all together, and she really likes hiking and wants to take you to a sports bar, if you feel like it,”      another paper is surrendered to the table.      “and this is kim, she’s twenty eight, a grad student, and paints some real cool stuff on the side too, because her real dream in life is to become a contemporary artist. you should go talk to one of them. each and every one of them want to go out with you because i made them see you for how  incredible  you are. so. did someone say the  best wingmanning sister there is?”

[stranger-who-writes-fiction]

@iamdeltas replied to your post:

Dunno about you, but I'd totally watch Kara being a grad student in drama

Underneath my general annoyance with fandom I *do* have to admit I would’ve loved to see photographer or drama student Kara. XD  

[urwelcomeforthis]

“What do we do?” Kara asked as she and Nia stood staring at the cylindrical container laying on the grass next to the side walk. 

“Um. Call Alex maybe? She might know.” Nia poked her toe out but rethought the trajectory of her foot and pulled back. 

“She’s going to make fun of us.” 

“Probably.” 

Kara pulled out her phone anyway and hit Alex’s contact. It rang for a moment before her harried grad student sister picked up. 

“What’s up? I’ve got five minutes before class.” 

“Nia and I found a brain.” Kara hurried out, already nervous at the reaction she was going to get. Alex sounded stressed. 

“I’m sorry what the fuck did you say?” 

“Nia and I were walking to the dining hall and we are near the bio building and there’s a brain. In a jar. On the grass.” Kara knelt down to look closer at the brain, her stomach slightly recoiling. 

“A brain.” A pause. “And you need me why?” Papers shuffled in the background and Kara sighed. 

“We don’t know what to do and you were my first call. Since you’re trying to be in the CIA or whatever.” 

“I’m not sure this is in the purview of the CIA. And I want to be an analyst, not sure how many brains in jars I’ll run into sitting behind a computer.” 

“Aleeeeeex.” Kara whined, watching nervously as people eyed her and Nia as they walked past. 

“Ok. Ok alright, why don’t you text that girl you were half in love with who stood you up last semester? Lisa? She was in the bio department right?” 

Kara felt her cheeks darken. “How do you remember that? And I wasn’t in love with her I just liked her a lot. She was smart.” 

“You literally never shut up about her. Text her and tell her. Maybe she can help since it’s after 7 and there’s no one at the school but nerds like her.” 

“This is gonna suck.” 

Alex laughed over the line. “Yeah well, you could have just left it and you and Nia would be half way through all you can eat cafeteria pizza. Listen I’ve got to go. Try that or just leave it Kara.” 

The phone went dead in Kara’s hand as she heaved a dramatically deep sigh. 

“She told you to text Laura didn’t see?” Nia asked as she squatted gingerly next to Kara. 

“Yup.” Kara popped the p. 

“You gonna do it?” 

“Well we don’t have much choice do we?” 

And so Kara pulled out her phone and pulled up a number she hadn’t deleted despite not using it in over 4 months. 

Hey Lena. I don’t know if you remember me, I’m Kara? We met on Tinder last semester. Anyways I remembered you were in Bio here and... well this is weird but I’m outside the building and there’s a brain in a jar. It seems official - it has a label and everything. I don’t know what to do with it and thought you might know.

“That’s like an entire book you nerd.” Nia snorted as she looked over Kara’s shoulder. 

Kara hugged the phone closer to her body, making sure she hit send. “Yeah well, it’s a weird situation and it deserves some explanation.” 

She felt her phone buzz against her chest from where she held it. 

Oh. Well ok, I can come out and see if it’s one of ours. That is so weird. If you don’t mind waiting for me I’ll be out in like five minutes.

“Oh my god she’s coming.” Nia squealed. “How funny that she stood you up for that dinner and this is going to be how you meet.” 

“Yeah it’s hilarious.” Kara mumbled as her fingers flew across the screen. 

Ok cool. I’m the blonde in the baseball cap standing by the you know. Brain. 

Lena sent back a thumbs up and Kara felt her heart rate increase as she took in her appearance. 

Today had been a lazy Saturday in the dorms and she was no where near prepared to meet the prettiest girl she had ever seen on a dating app before. Her grey sweats were old and threadbare and her black tank top had tons of fuzzies left over from her favorite blanket. 

She began to frantically pick them off much to Nia’s amusement and was still doing so when the sound of heels clicking across the pavement caught her attention. 

“Holy shit.” Nia whispered under her breathe and Kara looked up to finally see Lena Luthor in the flesh. 

Holy shit indeed. She thought as the woman in the lab coat clicked closer to them. 

Kara knew she was only 20 years old but she looked so put together in her professional attire, her high sleek ponytail swishing with every step. 

Kara could feel a frog blocking her entire throat and immediately crossed her arms to hide her braless chest from view. 

“Hi, are you Kara?” Lena asked as she walked up her eyes darting between Kara and the jar on the ground. 

“Yep! Uh I mean yes. Hey. I’m Kara. You must be Lena.” Kara smiled and held a hand out, grateful when Lena took it in her own. 

“And I’m Nia. And that’s a brain in a jar.” Nia helpfully pointed out after a few seconds of Kara and Lena staring at each other, jolting them out of the trance they were in. 

“Right.” Lena knelt down and inspected the jar. “Well it’s one of ours. I wonder how it made its way out of the lab.”

“Maybe it just wanted to take in the great weather we’re having.” Kara joked. 

Lena smiled, and to her left Kara pretended not to notice Nia roll her eyes. 

“Yes well. Even so it’s time for it to go back home.” Lena pocketed the jar and stood back up, pulling a piece of paper from her coat. “And if you can forgive my absentmindedness and cowardice - this is the address to my favorite coffee shop. Tomorrow at 7? I promise to be there this time.” 

Kara took the number, her fingers brushing against Lena’s own. “I’ll be there.” 

Lena flashed a megawatt smile. “Great. I’ll see you then.”