#old person voice: back in my day I knew how to do text posts

[fixyfics]

Okay listen I wrote a mini fic based on the broken elbow vine okay?? I did it. 1k words of millennial indulgence!!

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I don’t care that you broke your elbow

The room is silent.

The five of them, J’onn, Alex, Brainy, Kara and Lena sit quietly around the table, not a word spoken between them as the seconds tick by.

Alex looks furious in the way only Alex does: thin lips, tightly folded arms, carefully narrowed stare.

J’onn looks disappointed, hands folded on the table as he leans forwards, eyebrows up and forehead lined.

Brainy looks confused, glancing around at each of them as if trying to work out the math that makes up the choices that led them here.

Lena looks stoic and cold, face blank and expressionless as she sits ramrod straight, perfectly sleek hair over one shoulder.

And Kara looks… well, grumpy, probably. A bit bruised? Dirty, for sure.

She takes a furtive look down at herself without drawing any attention to the movement. Yeah, her hand resting on the table is gross, her wrists are all scraped and- gosh, the ends of her hair are still wet from the bay.

The only part of her that is clean is the white bandage and sling holding her arm to her chest.

When she darts her eyes back up to the group, Alex’s glare is focused directly on her.

Kara feels the urge to respond to the look start to bubble up, but she pushes it down.

Alex’s eyes narrow further.

Kara twists her lips in effort.

Alex tightens her folded arms.

Kara bites on her tongue until it hurts.

Alex quirks one eyebrow.

Kara opens her mouth to snap but moves herself in doing so, jostling her arm and wincing at the pain.

Because yeah, she can feel this stupid broken bone.

But it’s not her fault! Okay, she didn’t wait for backup, okay, she went too full on, okay, she blew out her powers. But, like, whatever! It happens! It’s happened before and it’ll happen again. Honestly she’s not sure why everyone is so moody about it, they’ve worked with and known her long enough to know that diving in headfirst is kind of her thing. She’s just staying on brand! Cat would be so proud.

Anyway, broken bones suck, they hurt, and sun lamps don’t heal them and she’s just going to have to wait for them to heal by themselves. Jeez.

If anyone is to blame it's the alien, surely. They’re the one who had a shell that apparently couldn’t be penetrated without a severely large amount of her power. They’re the one who was way faster than what she’d expected, seeing as it looked like a ten foot high turtle. They’re the one who didn’t find it funny when Kara yelled ‘turtle power!’ while throwing it into the bay, instead launching itself back out simply to grab Kara and pull her back in with it.

All in all it’s the big ninja turtle’s fault, and she refuses to listen to Alex’s ‘we literally have a ray-gun designed to incapacitate that exact alien species and it would have worked if you hadn’t dunked him in the ocean first’ reasoning.

It’s high pressure being supergirl! You’ve gotta think fast, and fast means… fly, punch, zoom, win. Ta-daa!

And now she’s in trouble, everyone sitting there all angry wangry at her because she made them ‘worry unnecessarily’ and ‘could have gotten hurt in her recklessness’ and ‘cost the DEO over one hundred thousand dollars in repair’. And anyway, that last one she really doesn’t get, because seriously the DEO gets attacked at least every other day and yet somehow whenever she comes back the place has been fully repaired. There’s clearly a lot of funding here, enough to fix endless windows by some mystery midnight staff, so surely there’s enough to fix a few little buildings by the waterfront. C’mon.

So, Alex is furious at her, J’onn is disappointed, Brainy is confused he didn’t see it coming, and Lena-

Wait, why is Lena even here?

She doesn’t work here. Did she just… file into the room when everyone else did? What is happening. How did she get here?

Kara chances a glance at the woman, squinting in curiosity.

It makes no sense, Lena has absolutely no reason to be here.

Sure, Lena isn’t exactly Kara’s biggest fan at the moment, what with the whole Supergirl betrayal, so Kara understands why she might want to sit in on the reprimand Kara is probably about to get, but despite that... How did she get in?

Kara quickly looks to Alex, who catches her eye, and Kara indicates Lena with the tiniest tilt of her head. Alex looks at the woman, looks away, then does a double take. She glances back at Kara and opens her mouth once, twice, before snapping it shut again in confusion.

Kara clears her throat to address the… sleek and stylish elephant in the room.

“Uh-”

“You know what?”

Lena’s voice makes Kara jump. The others all stare sharply at Lena, Alex with mounting confusion over the woman’s random inclusion in this… everyone-is-mad-at-Kara session, the others seeming to only just realise Lena is here in the first place.

Lena looks at them one by one, skipping Kara, obviously, of course.

“I’m about to say it.” Lena continues, shaking her head with a humourless chuckle.

Kara hears everyone hold their breath.

Lena turns to stare directly at her.

Lena inhales, chest almost puffing out as she straightens herself even further, shoulders strong and the lines in her face hard as she looks to be gearing up to deliver some scathing insult that will surely knock Kara so hard she’ll break apart in this very room.

Lena glares icily.

“I don’t care that you broke your elbow.”

Silence, for a beat. Then-

Alex snorts.

Inelegant laughter bursts from her as she cackles, making Lena jolt in alarm next to her.

J’onn drops his head into his hand wearily.

Brainy narrows his eyes as he tries to understand Alex’s reaction to Lena’s words.

And Kara- Kara just… gapes. Let’s out an indignant noise, almost a squawk as she stares at Lena.

Kara throws up her hands.

“How did you get in here?”