#remember how she knocked herself out against the glass table just to have Supergirl running to her?

[innamorament0]

"Supergirl will save me"

© Drama Queen Lena Luthor

[foxx-queen]

give us the Earth Prime Lillian concepts that SG is too cowardly to deliver

took me while but here u go! part 1 of idk maybe a few more if people would like! also on ao3

never knew such tenderness 

When there’s a knock on her door, Lena considers ignoring it. She’s half way through her second glass of wine, and considering she still doesn’t know enough about who she is in this world, it could be anyone. She takes another sip, contemplating whether to pretend she’s not there, but the knocking persists, and she snaps, ‘come in’.

The door opens, and Lillian steps into her office. Lena rises quickly, setting her glass down and folding her arms tightly over her chest to place a barrier between them. Her jaw clenches, and she mutters, ‘what do you –’

Lillian moves much faster than Lena might’ve expected from her, and places her hand over her mouth. Lena freezes, her eyes widening, the surprise stopping her from instinctively shaking the woman off, as Lillian puts a finger to her lips, and grips her by the shoulder. She tugs, and Lena finds herself following her out onto her balcony, vaguely wondering if her mother is about to throw her off it. That snaps her out of it, and she jerks away from Lillian, her jaw set and her eyes narrowed. ’Mother, what are you doing?’

Lillian shuts the door to the office behind her, and turns to look at her. She’s still wearing the same petal pink suit skirt from earlier, that colour that looks so strange on her, her hair loose around her face. She looks softer than her own mother, the one from her world, her hair longer, something in her face gentler, but Lena knows it’s a lie. She knows this version of her mother is just like the other one, perhaps worse, because she doesn’t remember the moments they had. The moments that seem so important, now that she’s the only one who can remember them.

There’s something odd about the way Lillian is looking at her, and she’s so wound up, so highly strung, so tired, that when the woman takes a step closer, she snaps, ‘don’t’.

Supergirl lands on the balcony in front of her, and Lena isn’t really surprised. She isn’t surprised that Kara was still there, still listening, still making sure she’s okay. Her arms are held out from her body, pressed back a little like she’s trying to shield her, and Lena feels that familiar ache in her chest. She’s so close that Lena could easily place her hands on her shoulders, like she used to whenever Supergirl – whenever Kara – protected her, and she hates how much she misses that simplicity. Kara lifts a hand, and Lillian moves closer, keeps moving, crossing the space towards them until Lena is pretty sure she’s going to hit Kara, and then –

Lillian reaches out, and embraces her. She wraps her arms around Kara’s shoulders, cups the back of her head, and pulls her into what could only be described as a hug. Kara seems to freeze, her arms going slack by her sides, and Lena can almost picture the look on her face, the furrow between her brows, the wide eyes. Lillian lets go of her shoulder, reaches out, her arm sliding around Lena’s shoulders, and before Lena really understands what’s happening, her body is pressed against Lillian’s side, her face pressed to her shoulder, because Lillian is hugging her.

Lillian hasn’t hugged her in years. She never seemed like a naturally affectionate person, even with Lex, even with her father. But she’d hold Lena, sometimes, usually after the nightmares she had when she was young, and the memory of her mother’s death was still fresh. She held her after her father’s funeral, even though she herself seem so unaffected by it, and once, very briefly, after Lex went to prison. She’s never known what to make of them.

She has no idea what to make of this.

Kara’s arm is pressed tight against her own, and Lena feels like it’s burning her, like the warmth of her is seeping through her suit to burn into her skin. Kara clears her throat, and Lillian pulls back suddenly, a hand on each of their cheeks, her eyes wide and concerned. Are those tears? ‘I’m so glad you’re both alright’.

Lena opens her mouth, and nothing comes out. She glances at Kara, glad to see they’re united, at least for a moment, in their utter bafflement. She’s distracted by the way Lillian runs her thumb over her cheek, and turns to stare at her again. ‘What –‘

‘I’m so sorry for the things I said’, Lillian says, her voice choked like she’s struggling not to cry, and Lena feels like she’s stepped into a bizarre dream, ‘I had to’. She takes a deep breath, her hand warm against Lena’s cheek, and Lena, despite every reason not to, finds herself tilting her face into the touch. What was it she told Lillian about not wanting to be an island? She can’t remember, really, with her mother being so affectionate. Lillian takes a deep breath, and says, ‘after Lex told me what happened, I… I realised it would be best to pretend to be on his side’.

Lena’s horrified to realise that her lower lip is trembling, and she swallows tightly. ‘I… why did you pretend, with me?’

Lillian runs her thumb over her cheek again, and Lena feels like she’s unravelling. ‘He bugged our offices. He would’ve known’. She leans in, and Lena sucks in a sharp breath as Lillian presses their foreheads together. It feels like someone is squeezing her heart in a fist. ‘I’m so sorry’.

Lena doesn’t know what to do. She doesn’t pull away, but she doesn’t know how to relax, either. The only person she’s ever really been comfortable hugging is Kara, and she doesn’t know if that’ll ever happen again. Lillian pulls away with a quick kiss to her forehead that makes Lena’s eyes burn, and turns to look at Kara. ‘Are you alright?’ she asks, her voice full of genuine concern that sounds so strange coming from her. ‘What am I saying? You can’t be, not after what you’ve been through’.

Kara blinks rapidly. She seems just as stunned by this as Lena, and she can’t help but wonder if Lillian is somehow the most changed person on this Earth. If this isn��t some strange facade. ‘What I’ve been through?’

Lillian frowns. ‘Well, your Earth dying. Losing people. I mean, we’re alive here, but it doesn’t erase the trauma’.

Lena nearly goes bug eyed. Hearing Lillian casually referring to trauma, to Kara’s trauma, makes her head hurt, and she pulls away a little. Lillian takes a step back, biting her lip as she looks between them, and her shoulders slump. ‘I really was awful in your world, wasn’t I?’

‘How do I know this is real?’ Lena snaps, and the way Lillian flinches hurts. All of this hurts, in a way she can’t even begin to describe. ‘How do I know you’re not… lying?’

It’s Kara who flinches this time, and Lillian lays a hand on her shoulder. She’s biting at her lip, a sign of anxiety that Lena has never seen from her before, and she gestures slightly. ‘Ask them’.

Lena turns around, and two women appear from the sky to touch down on the balcony. Lena has a brief moment to take in the fact that they have identical faces, before Kara makes a sound Lena’s never heard from her before. She turns to look at the woman she once considered her best friend, and something about the look on her face almost makes her reach out. She’s never seen Kara look so young.

‘Mom? Aunt Astra?’ Kara steps forwards slowly, almost like she can’t believe this is real, and then she’s lunging forwards and wrapping her arms around the womens’ necks. They hold her tight like she’s a child, whispering words in another language into her hair, and Lena looks away. It doesn’t feel like something she should see.

She glances at Lillian, only to see that her mother is watching the reunion with tears shining in her eyes. The corner of her mouth is crooked faintly, and she looks almost fond. Lena stares, and somehow, impossibly, she knows this is real. She knows, however strange this seems, that this is her mother now. It’s who she is. Someone kind, someone nice, who now turns to look at her with such affection that it leaves her feeling winded.

This time, when Lillian leans in to hug her, Lena lets herself hug her back.

~   ~   ~

‘So what exactly did Lex tell you?’

Lillian pauses, and then sighs heavily, pouring Lena a cup of tea before she slides it across the coffee table towards her. That’s the same, at least. Lillian’s always preferred tea and coffee over a stiffer drink. She might’ve been the only Luthor who did. She sits back, tucking her ankles together like she always does, and rests her hands in her lap. ‘He told me some nonsense about Superman and Supergirl being evil and trying to take over the world, and something about how terribly he’d been treated, and that I’d helped him take over the last world to keep it out of their hands’.

Lena raises her eyebrows. That does sound like Lex. ‘But you didn’t believe him?’

Lillian shrugs slightly. ‘No. I mean, I have no idea what the last world was like, other than… the fact that I wasn’t… good to you’. She glances away, picking up her own cup with faintly trembling hands, and Lena hates that she feels bad. This Lillian isn’t her mother, but that doesn’t make it easy. The woman clears her throat, and says, ‘I don’t know what he was expecting but… I have memories from this world, Lena. I know Kara just wants to help. I know her people just want to find a home. They’re kind, and they saved my life. Your life. Lex’s life, even’. She snorts, and shakes her head. ‘He doesn’t… I don’t know what he expected. But if I was really that awful back on your world, maybe he just expected me to go with it’.

Despite all the information being thrown at her, Lena finds herself fixating on one thing. ‘You know Kara is Supergirl?’

Lillian blinks at her, and frowns slightly. ‘Of course I do. You both told me’.

‘We told you?’

Lillian sits up a little straighter, her frown tightening. ‘Are you not… oh’. Lillian bites her lip, and looks suddenly sad. ‘I’m sorry, I assumed…’

‘Assumed what?’

‘Well, you and Kara are – were – dating, in this world’.

Lena opens her mouth, and nothing comes out. She feels dizzy, and for a moment she’s not sure if she’s going to burst into tears, or start laughing. She doesn’t know which one would be more appropriate. When she blinks, Lillian’s sitting by her side, a hand on her back as she squeezes her hand, and Lena reels around to look at her. Lillian bites her lip, and says, ‘I’m sorry, I just… when she landed, thinking you were in danger, I assumed… that you were dating’.

She wants to say that they’re not even friends. That she doesn’t want anything to do with Kara. But all that comes out is, ‘Lex didn’t know?’

Lillian snorts. ‘There are a lot of things Lex doesn’t know’.

To her surprise, Lena feels herself smiling. ’He’d hate that. He thinks he knows everything’. She wipes at her eyes, her jaw tightening a little, and exhales shakily. ‘What else doesn’t he know, then?’

Lillian seems to hesitate. She tucks her hair behind her ear, and murmurs, ‘I… a lot of it is… a very long story. Involving… well, things I assume you don’t know’. She glances at her, fiddling with a ring on her finger, and says, ‘do you know… about your father? Did your version of me tell you about him?’

Lena frowns slightly, glancing down at what she realises is a wedding ring on Lillian’s finger. Her frown deepens. Lillian stopped wearing her ring after Lionel died. ‘You told me that Lionel was my father. That I wasn’t just adopted’.

Lillian grimaces slightly. ‘That’s it?’

Lena shrugs. She’s distracted by the way Lillian keeps touching her ring, and gestures at it. ‘Did you and Dad… make it up, I mean, properly? Did you… fall in love with him again?’

Lillian makes a face, one so bizarrely unlike her that Lena almost chokes. Lillian glances at her, and smiles slightly. ‘No, sweetheart. I’m like you, actually. A raging lesbian, as Alex puts it’.

‘A raging –‘ Lena can feel herself going bright red, and she stands suddenly. ‘Sorry, I just… need a minute’.

She leaves quickly, crossing into the dining room. Lillian had taken her to her house, a much smaller, more homely place than the Luthor mansion. She’d never visited Lillian’s house on Earth, so she has no idea if this is similar. She braces her hands on the table for a moment, and takes a slow, deep breath. She inhales the scent of flowers, and glances up to see a vase of her favourite on the table. Her mouth twists, and she turns away to face a side table that’s covered in photos. There’s several of her at different ages, and one of her and Kara, their arms wrapped around each other as they smile out at the camera. Lena’s throat tightens, and she quickly looks away.

There’s another of her and Lillian that seems to have been taken on the same night. Lillian has an arm around her shoulders, and Lena is leaning very far to towards her, a glass of champagne dangling from her fingers. She looks a little tipsy, but happy, and Lillian’s smiling down at her. She’s grinning. Lena’s never seen her smile like that, and certainly not at her.

‘That was the day you and Kara told me you were together’.

Lena jumps, and turns to see Lillian leaning against the doorframe. She’s changed into black slacks and a short sleeved white shirt, a look that is almost casual on her. Her eyes are wistful, and Lena swallows tightly. ‘You were happy for me’.

It’s not a question, but Lillian nods anyway. ‘I was happy for both of you’. She hesitates, and says, ‘there’s… more. There’s some in my room, but there’s quite a lot in yours’.

Lena blinks. ‘My room?’

Lillian smiles, and she looks almost embarrassed. ‘I… kept your room for you, after you moved out. You thought I was just being sentimental, and you were definitely right, but… you stay over quite often’.

‘Oh’. She stares at Lillian, and the sad way she’s regarding the photos, and it suddenly occurs to her how hard this must be for her. This Lillian has years of memories of her, of loving her, and Lena doesn’t remember any of it.

In that moment, she hates Lex for taking that from her.

Something rises in her throat, and she hears herself say, ‘do you love me?’

Lillian’s eyes go very wide, and she reaches out to cup Lena’s face in her hands. Her touch is gentle, her hands warm and soft, and tears blur Lena’s vision. ‘Oh, baby, I love you so much’. She bites her lip, and Lena reaches up to curl her fingers around Lillian’s wrists. ‘I… for a long time, I didn’t think I was really capable of loving anyone. That I couldn’t… do it properly. But…’ she smiles, and even though theres tears in her eyes, it’s a genuine thing. ‘I loved you almost from the moment you came to us’.

Lena closes her eyes, and lets Lillian strokes away her tears for a moment. Then she takes a deep breath, pulling away to wipe at her eyes, and mumbles, ’sorry’.

‘Don’t apologise, sweetheart’. Lillian smoothes her hand over her hair, and Lena huffs a laugh. ‘You haven’t done anything wrong’.

Lena shrugs slightly, and mumbles, ‘I guess’. She looks up at Lillian for a moment, a thousand questions tumbling over in her head. She wants to ask about her childhood, and Kara, and why Lillian is so different. But instead, she says, ‘who did you marry?’

Lillian smiles, a sudden, bright thing, and reaches out to pick up one of the framed photos. She passes it to Lena, and Lena finds herself looking down at a photo of herself, in her early teens, sitting on the floor in front of a chessboard. There’s a beautiful, dark skinned woman sitting beside her, staring down at the chess pieces with a puzzled frown. Her younger self seems to be attempting to explain how they work to her. Lena’s lips twitch, and she says, ‘who is she?’

‘Lara’, Lillian says softly, and there’s an almost reverence to the way she says the woman’s name, ‘you’ve always been very close’.

‘How did you meet her?’

Lillian’s smile broadens, and she laughs. ‘Oh, she’s Superman’s birth mother’.

Lena thinks she might laugh, if she had any energy to do so. She wonders how Lex reacted to that. How she did. How many memories of this woman her mother married she’s supposed to have. She takes a shuddering breath, places the photo down, and whispers, ‘you really have a lot to tell me, don’t you?’

Lillian reaches out to cup her cheek, and draws her gently into her arms. ‘It can wait’, she murmurs, ‘if you want’.

Her hand strokes slowly up and down Lena’s back, the other cradling the back of her head gently, and Lena has a sudden, vivid memory of another moment like this, years ago when she’d awoken from a nightmare to find Lillian sitting beside her. Lillian had held her just like this, her touch a little more hesitant, but maybe its the memory that causes Lena to sink into the embrace with a soft sigh. She closes her eyes, and wraps her arms hesitantly around the other woman, her fingers curling in her shirt, and nods.

It can wait.

[the-wlw-cafe]

Burning the Candle at Both Ends

Request:Maybe a oneshot where b!d has a caffeine withdrawal from countless sleepless nights because she learns for the last exam for her school and she is all crazy and shaky and just out of control and K and A first think she took some drugs but then they go into her room and there is everything full of empty energy drinks and coffee?

Fandom: Supergirl (Alex & Kara & Sister!Reader)

Warning: some cursing

Wordcount: 1078

You groaned as you felt a migraine coming on the second you lifted your head from the textbook you’d fallen asleep on. One of the pages pathetically sticks to your cheek. With a disgusted grimace you wipe the drool of your cheek. A glance at your phone tells you it’s 6 am – crap. You lost about three hours time with your impromptu nap during what should have been the third caffeine fuelled all-nighter in a row.

You blink at the papers spread across your table, trying to re-orient yourself, trying to get back into the flow of cramming as much knowledge for the exam that’s due tomortow into your over-encumbered brain in as little time as possible, but it’s no use. You’ve slept for three hours and somehow, you’re even more tired than before. You desperately fight against the exhaustion, barely managing to string a coherent thought together – the caffeine crash is must be hitting you hard. You desperately need to refuel.

You get up from your chair – oh. Getting up is harder task than it sounds, because your knees are shaking harder than those of a newborn fawn. In fact, your hands are shaking too. Your entire body is vibrating with nervous energy, and your sluggish mind can barely keep up. You feel slightly nauseous.

Still, you soldier through it, making your way to the kitchen with slightly uncoordinated steps. Oh, crap again: as you bend down to your secret energy drink stash under the sink you’re greeted with nothing but empty cans, and a sticky note from yourself reminding you to stock up again soon. You could wring past you’s lazy neck for always procrastinating and leave it up to future you. Maybe there’s a 24 hour supermarket somewhere nearby, you muse as you get up again. This time, the dizziness and nausea hit you full force, your world turns dark for several seconds and you lose your footing, slamming backwards into the sink as your heart races faster than you can ever remember it beating.

You should call Kara, she only lives a floor below you, there’s no way she won’t hear you.

But you can’t let her see you like this. You’re a grown up, you’re supposed to have your shit together by now. Your sisters have so much on their plate already, you don’t want to burden them with worrying about you on top of it all, and besides, you’ll probably be fine in a bit…

In the end, Kara takes the decision out of your hand. Over the pounding of your heart you hear a frantic knock, and your sister’s voice: “(Y/N), are you okay? You’re heart rate is all over the place!”

You manage a pained groan. “(Y/N), if you don’t answer this second we’re coming in!”

Alex is there too. Guess you can’t just disappoint one sister at a time.

“I’m fine”, you try to say, but you barely get past the first word before an urge to retch powerful enough to make you curl into yourself hits you.

You hear the lock click as your sisters let themselves in with the key you’ve given them, and you still fight against the bile rising in your throat as you hear a loud gasp of your name. Then, suddenly, you’re being held upright by warm, steady hands.

“Kiddo, hey, kiddo, can you hear me?”

You manage to stutter out an affirmative between chattering teeth, but your voice gets lost in Kara’s panicked rambling.

“Her heart rate won’t go down, it’s like she’s running a marathon!”

Alex pushes her aside gently, but resolutely, one hand grabbing your wrist to measure your pulse, the other turning your head.

“Can you open your eyes for me, kiddo?”

You don’t even have to think about it, you do. There’s something about Alex in situations like these, your sister calls it her Doctor Danvers voice, that makes you feel less like the world is going to end, because Alex knows what to do, she always does.

But Alex is frowning, her Danvers Crinkle drawing a deep line between her eyebrows.

“Her pupils are dilated”, she murmurs, as if only to herself.

“(Y/N)”, she says, slowly and deliberately, “did you take anything?”

“N-no.”

She shoots you a long, stern look.

“You need to tell me the truth here, kiddo. I promise I won’t be mad, but you could be in serious danger and I need to know how to help you.”

“I didn’t take anything, I just…”

You don’t think words will work for you in this state, so you just scoot to the side slightly to give them a view of the empty cans that are all that remain of your caffeine fuelled study marathon.

“Shit, kiddo…how many of those are from today?”

“A third, maybe?”, you mumble. You know it’s still too many. Those have to be at least six cans, and you haven’t even shown them all the coffee you drank in between…

“Why would you do-?” Kara asks, but stops herself short. Alex promised they wouldn’t be mad, not right now at least. What’s important now is that you’re safe, and that you’re looked after, but you don’t believe for a second you’ve escaped the stern talking to.

“My exams are tomorrow”, you croak, “and I just can’t get the stuff to stick in my brain. I just…keep forgetting the most important stuff!”

Tears shoot to your eyes in frustration, and goddamn it, you can’t even keep yourself from crying pathetically. How on earth will your sisters ever see you as anything but dependent on them now?

“(Y/N)”, Kara sighs, brushing a strand of unkempt hair from your face. “No exam, no anything could ever be more important than you and your wellbeing. Please don’t torture yourself like that.”

You don’t know how long you end up sitting there, sipping slowly from a glass of water Alex brought you and waiting for the nausea and the headaches to subside.

You feel silly, now, and maybe even a bit ashamed for letting things escalate so far without seeing the path of self-destruction you were on, but it pales in comparison to how safe you feel as Alex and Kara help you get your home into a presentable shape and your notes and textbooks back in order.

But most of all, you feel like no matter what’s going to happen in the exam tomorrow, with your sisters by your side it’s going to be okay.

[dimensiontripperhibiki]

Hold it Together (As We Fall Apart)

Summary: Kara and Lena try to move on after 5x08, slowly realizing their true feelings as everything crumbles around them. My first venture into writing Supergirl. Hopefully, you guys enjoy this and want me to continue. I look forward to diving further into Supercorp shipping!Note: Maybe include crisis/the aftermath of Crisis.Let me know if you think I should continue. :)

Kara let out a shuddering breath as she slowly brushed her thumb over Lena’s jaw, her eyes misted with tears. She wished that she could actually touch her best friend again, that it wasn’t just a photo she was touching but after what she’d done she wasn’t sure she would ever have the opportunity again. There was a light knock at her door and Kara looked up, surprised that she hadn’t heard anyone approaching. Usually, her super hearing would have picked it up. Her heart leaped with hope and she narrowed her eyes, using her x-ray vision on the door. Her heart sank in despair when she saw that it wasn’t Lena. “Kara?”

Kara begrudgingly set the photo she’d been holding onto the coffee table and got to her feet. She walked across the room, hastily wiping away her tears as she did so and opened the door to greet Nia.

“Nia.” Kara managed a meek smile at the sight of her friend. “What are you doing here? Did Alex send you?”

As Kara stepped out of the way to allow her entrance, Nia stepped into the loft, closing the door behind her. “No, of course not. Why would you even think…” She paused at Kara’s disbelieving stare. “Okay, maybe she called and mentioned you weren’t feeling great but coming over was my idea, I swear! I brought potstickers!” Kara blinked at the paper bag Nia was suddenly holding in front of her face. Usually, she’d be salivating at the thought of her favorite food but now her stomach just clenched uncomfortably at the thought of eating anything. “I-I’m not really hungry. Thank you though.” Nia’s brow furrowed in confusion at the response. That definitely wasn’t normal for Kara. “You heard me say potstickers, right?” She let her hand fall to her side as she watched Kara look away like she felt guilty at not accepting the offer of her favorite food. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here for what happened with Lena.” Kara swallowed thickly against the lump that formed in her throat at the mention of Lena’s name. “It’s okay. I’m okay, I just need t-to figure out how to fix this. I’m not giving up on her. I can’t give up.” Nia watched as Kara made her way back to the couch, sitting back down. She carefully set the bag in her hand on Kara’s counter before she made her way toward her friend, sitting down next to her. “Maybe instead of the food, you could use some company instead?” Kara nodded, tears clouding her eyes at the thoughtful suggestion. She didn’t deserve such amazing friends. “I would like that. Thanks, Nia.” Nia moved closer to Kara, wrapping an arm around her shoulders to hug her from the side. “What are friends for?” She hadn’t expected the rhetorical question to garner a response from Kara and her eyes widened when a broken sob escaped the girl of steel. “Oh, I-I’m sorry…” Kara shook her head against Nia’s shoulder. “It’s my fault.” She replied through tears. “I should have been a better friend, I should have been honest. Instead, I was just a...a coward. And look what’s happened because of it.” “You did what you thought was best,” Nia replied gently, her chest aching as Kara’s tears soaked through her sweater. Her words were weak, not because she didn’t believe them - she absolutely did, with every fiber of her being, but because she knew that Kara wouldn’t believe what she was saying. “You don’t have to blame yourself.” “But it’s my fault!” Kara jerked away from Nia. Her eyes widened when she saw the surprise on Nia’s face. “I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” “I’m not afraid of you, Kara. Well maybe a little, you could...actually snap me in two if you wanted to. But I know you wouldn’t. I trust you.” “I should have trusted Lena.” Kara murmured, lifting her hand to wipe her face with her sleeve. She cleared her throat, trying to compose herself. She had cried more than she deserved to already. Even if she wanted to curl up into a ball and sob until she couldn’t anymore, she wouldn’t. “Let’s talk about something else. How are you and Brainy?” A smile sprung to Nia’s face at the mention of Brainy. “W-We’re good. Great actually. But are you sure you want to talk about that?” “Why wouldn’t I? It’s not like I broke up with my girlfrie-” Kara paused as her heart leaped in her chest for some unknown reason. “Lena is my best friend but that’s all.” Nia was unconvinced, especially as she looked down and saw the photo Kara had obviously been clutching before she got there. She reached down, carefully picking it up and set it down on the coffee table in front of them. Kara stared longingly at the picture. She missed those days. When Lena was her friend, when Kara could walk into a room and give the CEO a hug for no reason besides the two of them not seeing each other for a couple of days. When Lena didn’t hate her enough to imprison her in the fortress of solitude. Kara wished she’d made more use of that time she’d had with Lena. Now she might never get the chance again. “Kara?” Nia pressed gently, resting her hand lightly on Kara’s knee. Blue eyes flicked back to her own. “Did you hear what I said?” Kara silently shook her head. Nia smiled gently. “I said how about I go and warm up those potstickers for us and you try to eat something? We can watch a movie to take your mind off things.” “Right…” Kara said faintly, still lost in her own thoughts. She shook her head, forcing herself to focus. Alex had said she would be stopping by later and Kara was well aware of how her sister could get when she didn’t think Kara was taking good enough care of herself. “Thanks, Nia.” “Anytime.” As Nia got up to reheat their food, Kara sank into the back of the couch, her eyes glued to the picture. She had fought hard for Lena, sure, but she would do that for any of her friends...wouldn’t she? ---- Lena stared blankly at the plain white ceiling above her bed. She couldn’t sleep. Her thoughts tormented her too relentlessly for her to be able to catch a few precious minutes of sleep. Exhaustion would catch up on her. She knew that. Eventually, she would succumb to the blissful reprieve of slumber and she wouldn’t have to think anymore. She wouldn’t be stuck with thoughts of Kara racing through her mind. No, she corrected herself sharply, her brow furrowing, Not Kara. Supergirl. She isn’t Kara anymore. Not her Kara. Maybe she had never been her Kara. Maybe her Kara wasn’t even real. 

Supergirl had lied to her, used her. Made Lena believe that Kara Danvers was someone she wasn’t. Staring at the ceiling, Lena remembered the blinding fear she’d felt when she’d thought that Kara was in danger. She’d never felt fear like that before. “Kara, the safest place for you to be right now is with me.” Kara must have thought her to be such an idiot for saying that. It was laughable. A Luthor trying to protect a Super. Her feeble attempts must have been hilarious to supergirl. “Kara, are you okay?!” “Yeah. Mercy must have hired terrible marksman. They totally missed me.” Lena gritted her teeth and twisted onto her side, curling into a ball as tears prickled at her eyes. “I’m about to die but at least I lived without ever being a fool.” Lex’s words rang in her ears as if he were in the very same room as her. He was right, she had been a fool. She’d been a fool to turn her back on her vow to never let anyone in. She’d been a fool to trust Kara as much as she had. She’d been a fool to not see what was right in front of her. She hated Kara for doing that to her. She hated her. She hated her with every fiber of her being. “Kara Danvers, YOU are my hero.” Lena buried her face into her pillow, crying silently into the soft cotton. She wished she could just make it stop, that she could just forget it all. She’d prefer anything to this utter misery she was feeling. Kara Danvers had crushed her, had humiliated her. Had broken her as nobody else could. 

---- “Alex! Alex, help me!” Kara’s hands pounded against the small glass window of the pod she was confined in, her breath coming in short, panicked gasps. She could feel the burning agony of kryptonite coursing through her, seeping her power away. Outside of the pod, there was darkness, pure darkness with no sight of the person she was calling for. Alex wouldn’t be coming to save her this time. Nobody was going to come. Still, Kara slammed her hands frantically against the glass. She couldn’t get out. There was no escaping the prison she’d been trapped in. “Alex! ALEX!” “ALEX!” “Hey, hey, hey!” Alex caught Kara’s arms as her sister bolted upright in bed. The force with which Kara had sprung up with almost had Alex tumbling to the floor but she managed to steady herself before she could fall. “Kara! Hey, you’re okay. I’m here. It’s okay.” It took a moment but finally, Kara’s wide, tear-filled baby blue eyes focused on Alex’s worried face. “A-Alex, I-I…” “It’s okay.” Alex crawled further onto the bed and Kara fell forward into her arms, her tears coming thicker and faster. “It’s okay,” Alex repeated, gently running her hand over Kara’s hair. “It was just a nightmare. You’re safe, I promise.” “I couldn’t get out.” Kara choked brokenly into Alex’s shoulder. “I was calling for you a-and you weren’t...I couldn’t...a-and Lena…” Alex gently shushed Kara, trying to calm her down while also trying to quell the sudden feeling of fury blooming in her chest. Lena had better hope that she didn’t find herself in Alex’s path anytime soon. “I was so scared.” Kara whimpered into the shirt Alex had borrowed from her when she’d gotten there. “I didn’t think you were coming…” “Of course I was coming,” Alex said firmly. “You think a crazy Luthor and an impenetrable fortress would be enough to keep me away?” She felt Kara tense in her arms and gave her a gentle squeeze. “I’m just joking, Kara.” Kara nodded and slowly pulled away, wiping at her eyes. Alex didn’t miss the subtle tremble of Kara’s hands. “It’s been a long time since you had dreams like this,” Alex remarked softly. She remembered Kara used to have them all of the time when she was younger. Nightmares. Panic attacks at being in an even slightly enclosed space. Kara guiltily bowed her head. “I’m okay…” “No, you’re not.” Alex disagreed with a sad smile. “It’s okay not to be okay, Kara. It’s only me here. You don’t have to hide it from me.” Kara chewed thoughtfully on her lower lip for a moment before she nodded her head. “Will you stay here with me?” She jerked her head toward the pillow next to her own. “I don’t want to…” “Of course. I was sleeping here anyway. Nia’s crashed on your couch. I don’t think she wanted to leave until I got here and I was...really late.” Alex said sheepishly. “I didn’t have the heart to wake her.” As Kara lay down, Alex moved to lie next to her. As Kara turned onto her back to face the ceiling, Alex turned onto her side to silently watch Kara. Kara was silent for a few long moments before she spoke, her voice trembling. “I really...I love her, Alex.” Alex knew that Kara wasn’t talking about Nia. “I know.” Kara swallowed convulsively. “She’s my best friend.” She murmured before she turned onto her side. Alex stared at Kara’s back, wondering why her sister had felt the need to elaborate on what she’d meant. “Kara…” “Goodnight, Alex.” Alex sighed softly. Kara was stubborn. If she didn’t want to talk, she wasn’t going to talk. “Goodnight.” ----- A week later “You can do it, Danvers.” Kara mumbled to herself as she stared at herself in the mirror. Thankfully she had checked that nobody else was in the stalls before she’d started talking to herself in the mirror. “It’s just a day at work, that’s all. Just a normal day at work.” She tucked her hair behind her ears, letting out a slow breath. She hated to admit it but her work had suffered after everything that had happened with her and Lena. She could barely focus on anything anymore. Everything at CatCo reminded her of Lena. She knew that she couldn’t keep doing this to herself. She had to give Lena time and space, that was all. She needed to give Lena time to heal. As much as it pained her to do so. Kara was torn from her thoughts by her phone ringing in her pocket. She quickly scrambled to answer it, noticing it was Alex. “Hey, Alex. I was…” “Kara, it’s Lena.” Alex interjected before Kara could finish speaking. “Something’s going down at L-Corp. There’s talk of shooters. You can get there faster than us. I know she-” Kara didn’t let Alex finish what she was saying. She dropped her phone and tore her glasses off before fleeing the bathroom, followed by the building as her suit formed around her. Her super speed had never felt slower than at that moment and Kara was struck by the idea that she wished Barry was there to give her a boost. “Come on, come on…” Kara gritted her teeth to push herself faster. It could have only been seconds but it felt like hours before she finally burst into Lena’s office. She glanced frantically around, noticing the office was smashed up, the entire contents of Lena’s desk seemingly on the floor. Her super-hearing picked up the sound of a smash beneath her feet and without hesitation she dashed off again, making her way down to Lena’s lab. She crashed through the door, still at a speed that would easily rival the Flash’s. Her eyes widened when she saw Lena standing with her back against the wall, her eyes wide with fear as five heavily armed men pointed their guns at her and pulled the triggers. Without thinking, Kara flew across the room, pressing Lena against the wall with her own body. Time seemed to speed up around her again as she cupped the back of Lena’s head drawing it to her shoulder to shield her. Bullets hit her back, falling harmlessly to the ground but the men kept firing, clearly alarmed at the sudden presence of Supergirl. Kara held Lena throughout it, feeling the woman trembling in her arms. Her face was pressed into Kara’s neck, her hands clutching at Kara’s back under her cape. Kara couldn’t feel the bullets but she could vividly feel Lena’s nails digging into her shoulder blades through her suit. Guiltily, Kara couldn’t help but soak in the feeling of being so close to Lena. She’d missed it. Her warmth, her scent. Everything about her. Finally, the shooting died down and Kara reluctantly pulled away. Lena’s eyes met hers and Kara swallowed thickly. She hesitated for a moment before she remembered the men behind them and turned on them, anger blazing in her eyes. “Shit…” One of the men muttered, struggling to reload his gun as Kara advanced on him. Just as he lifted his weapon, he was hit with a punch to the jaw, knowing him unconscious. Lena let out a slow breath as Kara dealt with the mean who’d attacked her, disarming them one by one. Kara let the final mercenary fall to the ground and she made her way quickly back to Lena. “Are you okay? W-Were you hit?!” Lena silently shook her head. She was still shaken, she had to admit but she didn’t want to let it show. “I’m fine, Supergirl.” Kara grimaced slightly but chose to ignore Lena’s pointed comment. She looked down at Lena’s wrist, frowning slightly. “You don’t have the watch I gave you…?” “I have it somewhere,” Lena answered, trying to seem nonchalant about it. “I don’t see the need for it anymore. You can have it back if you wa…” “Why didn’t you use it?! What the hell were you thinking, Lena? You could have died!” Kara was close. Suddenly too close and Lena felt like she couldn’t breathe. “I didn’t want you!” She pushed at Supergirl’s chest but of course, the Kryptonian didn’t budge. “I don’t want you. That’s why I didn’t call you.” Hurt flickered across Kara’s expression, her anger replaced by pain. “Lena…” Lena gritted her teeth and looked away. She couldn’t stand it. The way Kara said her name. Gentle and reverently. Like she cared. She was momentarily distracted by Alex rushing into the room with a few other agents. “I believe I made my feelings perfectly clear, Supergirl. I don’t want you here.” Kara’s lip trembled. “Lena, I’m sorry. I just…I know you don’t want to see me. I know you...hate me. That I hurt you more than...more than I can imagine but don’t do this. Don’t put yourself at risk to get back at me. I’m not worth it. I’m here if you need me. It doesn’t have to be as a friend but I can protect you if you’re in danger and...” “You’re rambling, Supergirl.” Lena snapped, effectively silencing Kara. “You’re the very last person I would want to protect me after what you’ve do-” “Alright, enough!” Alex suddenly appeared between them, her hand going to Kara’s arm. “Supergirl, leave. I’ve got this from here.” “Alex…” Kara’s teary eyes turned to Alex. Pleading with her. “I won’t hurt her,” Alex said softly. It was a promise she hoped she could keep. “Go.” Lena stared at Kara as the woman glanced at her one last time before she flew off. She barely had time to breathe a sigh of relief before Alex turned on her, anger written across her face. “I understand that you’re angry and hurt. That you feel betrayed.” Alex said, keeping her voice low. “But what you’re doing is cruel. What you’ve done to her is cruel!” Lena’s eyebrows shot up. “I’m being cruel?! What about what she’s…” “How could she tell you?!” Alex interrupted sharply. “You barely even liked Supergirl! She thought you’d hate her. That you’d stop being her friend.” “That’s not the…” Alex held up a hand. “I’m not finished! Do you know she’s been having nightmares since you locked her in that prison?!” “What?” Lena’s brow furrowed in confusion. “She knew I wasn’t going to kill her, she…” “She’s claustrophobic!” Alex hissed, trembling with anger. “And you attacked her with Kryptonite even though you know how she feels about it!” Lena stayed silent, at a loss for words. She hadn’t known that. How hadn’t she known that? Alex scoffed and turned to walk away. Lena may have still been her friend but Alex was too angry to even look at her. She was surprised to see that during her exchange with Lena and Supergirl, the other DEO agents had dragged the mercenaries out of there. “Alex.” Alex paused near the door, debating whether she should respond to Lena or not. She turned her head slightly. “What, Lena?” “I wasn’t Supergirl’s biggest fan at times,” Lena spoke softly, the crack in her voice betraying her feelings. “But I was Kara Danvers’. I would have hoped she’d known that. That she would have trusted me. Clearly, I misread our friendship.” Alex let out a soft sigh. “She adores you, Lena. She made a mistake, that’s all. Who doesn’t?” Lena opened her mouth to answer but she stopped as Alex walked away. Trembling, she slid down the wall, her hand going to her chest. She could still feel Kara’s warmth. TBC?

[wolf-555-writer]

Another One?

Here is- um... another one for Alex Danvers. Hope you enjoy it! ;)

Alex Danvers x Reader

Summary: Reader works as bartender at their Uncle’s Alien bar. You meet Alex during work as the bar is her regular spot. And… you obviously fall in love with her.

Word Count: 2,098

Gazing at the warm, cozy, crowded place, standing behind the wooden bar counter, you feel grateful. If it wasn’t for your Uncle you wouldn’t have a job in this new, terrifying, huge city where you moved to some weeks ago. It’s not something you expected to be doing at all, working in an Alien bar, but you love it, even though you just started. Casually leaning against the work table, having a moment of free time, you see a woman with blond hair and glasses cheerfully stride towards you.

“Hi! Another one?”, you politely suggest, remembering her order from earlier this evening. “Yes please! Can I actually have four of these?”, she gently responds, as you’re already reaching for the drinks while she pays. “May I ask? Are you new here? I haven’t noticed you here before”, she delicately continues, placing some money on the counter. “Yes! I’m new. I started working here last week as I just moved here”, you brightly answer since she seems friendly. “Ah, that’s great! My name is Kara Danvers and welcome to National City!”, she joyfully expresses, introducing herself to you. “Thank you, I’m (Y/N). It’s a pleasure meeting you. Here you go”, you respond while you’re handing Kara her cold beverages. “Thanks, you can keep the change!”, she mentions as she cautiously turns around. That's very sweet of her. You watch her walk towards a round table, apparently able to carry those four filled glasses with ease, and notice three other people seated there. But only one person in particular catches your undivided attention.

///

Hearing what seems to be a dispute between two people up front, you're pulled away from the task in the back, where you were busy stacking some heavy crates. As you hastily walk up towards the main bar area, you notice a woman with auburn hair color. She is, with a strict tone, interrogating an alien customer who's seated on a barstool. You immediately recognize her. She visits this place often, mostly with the blond woman you know as Kara Danvers. And of course you have a slight crush on her, I mean... just look at her. While you were standing there, speechless and staring at her with dreamy eyes, she suddenly smashed the alien's head on the hardwood counter. As a reaction you flinch, eyes widening. 

“What the hell just happened!? Was that necessary?”, you debate, while quickly marching up to them, since you don't want this to escalate any further. Honestly, this bar is a safe place for aliens. Positioning yourself right in front of them, reaching out to interfere, it kind of did escalate as you promptly end up in the crossfire. A filled glass is shattered to pieces due to the alien's violent outbreak and it scatters around, chunks flying everywhere. Unfortunately, some sharp, broken glass shards end up in your extended arm. It happened rather unexpected so there was no time to evade the fast moving fragments anymore. You avert your eyes to inspect the damage, bending the arm towards you.

“Shit…”, you painfully exclaim as the woman is now gazing at you, her beautiful brown eyes overflowing with guilt. “S-sorry… I-I can help you remove those if you want?”, she carefully proposes because she feels terribly responsible for what just happened.  

Seated on a large crate, you're back in the stockroom again. The sleeve of your right arm completely rolled up.

“My name is Alex by the way, Alex Danvers”, she introduces while she walks towards you, carrying some bandages and other medical supplies. “I'm really sorry about all of this. I needed information for a case I'm working on. For -eh, the FBI.”, she explains as she's currently examining your wounds. “Wait- Danvers? So, Kara Danvers is your sister?”, you swiftly puzzled together. “Oh, eh, I'm (Y/N) (Y/L/N).”, eyes highly fixed on Alex her movements. 

“Beautiful name”, she softly answers, while focused on removing the remaining splinters of glass embedded in your skin. “And yes, Kara is my sister, you've already met her I see?”, she chuckles. “Yes, I-”, you’re interrupted by an electrifying pain, quickly radiating through your arm, causing you to lightly groan. Alex just removed the largest and last piece, leaving a nasty cut as a little blood seeps out. “Sorry, but this is also gonna sting”, she announces, her voice laced with sympathy. She still needs to clean and disinfect the wounds. “Okay, let's get it over with”, you firmly state while you close your eyes and clench your teeth forcefully. Still holding up the sleeve, bracing yourself for that unpleasant burning sensation. “Ok, here it goes”.

As Alex is cleaning up after, you slowly roll down your sleeve. Carefully covering your bandaged skin while noticing some blood stains on your shirt. “I'm really sorry about all of this”, she apologizes again since she also noticed the red spots. “No worries. It's not that bad. I mean, I'll live”, you joke, seeing her expression change from shame to relieve right away. “I actually have to go now, I'm already running late, so... till next time then?”

“Yeah, guess I'll be seeing you around, Alex Danvers”, you keenly respond. Noticing a small grin appear on her face while she turns to the doorway. You watch her walk away, not feeling the pain for a minute because it feels like you’re weightless. No gravity pulling as if you’re temporary floating. Alex Danvers has caused all kinds of warm emotions to rush through your body. You’re heating up, while sensing a weird, yet pleasant feeling igniting in your stomach. Never having felt like this before, being totally amazed by her stunning appearance.

From this day onward when she visits the bar, which is rather frequent by the way, she always takes the time to make a chat with you while you're working. Without a doubt looking forward to this moment as it lights up your day, every single time.

///

Cleaning some used, dirty glasses due to your shift being almost over you delightfully watch Alex, patiently waiting for you to play some pool as you most often do. You avert your eyes to your Uncle, who's scrubbing the bar counter spotless. With your most hopeless, desperate, sad facial expression you stare at him. “Again?”, he sighs, whereas he quickly nods, giving you full permission. Only reason he probably lets you go is because he knows how happy Alex makes you.

“Ready to get your ass kicked again Danvers?”, you confidently joke while you've reached the pool table. “You do know that I let you win last time, right?”. “Wait- you did what?”. Alex laughs as she prepares the game. Slight disappointment that you didn’t actually beat her is already overtaken by happiness when you hear her goofy laugh, causing a subtle grin to appear. It doesn’t matter that she let you win. It also doesn’t matter that you lose the game every other time since Alex is far more better at playing pool than you are. It doesn’t matter, because you feel extremely lucky. Thinking you would have never met her if it wasn't for that little accident. Or for your Uncle. Or if you would not have moved to National City at all. 

You were pulled from your thoughts, perceiving aggressive shouting noises, becoming louder and louder. Averting your eyes to the entrance to check what’s causing it when all of a sudden the door slams open, forcefully, causing the nearby glass windows to shake. A couple of people with shiny golden masks covering their faces are as of now barging in, yelling loudly, pushing chairs away and breaking other things. 

They're better known as the Children of Liberty. Well-aware of their existence and their negative opinions on aliens, you stand there. Completely frozen, unable to move, as you have no idea what to do. You watch them viciously attack the aliens that were still in the bar while the situation quickly intensifies. Alex has already taken action and engages, knocking down the disturbers, being totally fearless. Supergirl also joined the fight, now posed next to Alex, offering each other backup. “Where the hell did she come from?”, you think as you had seen her flying inside, appearing out of nowhere.  

Now one of them marches up to you, barbarously shouting at you: “Are you also one of them!? Are you a cockroach!?”. Staggered by his yelling, you can’t seem to produce an answer and freeze, again. It’s taking him too long for you to react, so he decides to take a swing at you. Luckily, you duck in time, evading the blow since you had rapidly snapped out of your paralyzed state. Instinctively, you try to punch him back. It's a hard left hook, colliding with his face, while turning your whole body to provide the extra punching power needed. But it hurts… like a lot. You stupidly forgot he was wearing a gold-coloured, metal mask. Which now meets your balled fist as you knock it off his face. Ouch… definitely gonna end up with bruised, hurtful knuckles later, definitely...

Not shortly after you had landed that hook, the police arrived, expertly arresting the aggressive troublemakers. So you noticed in the corner of your eye while painfully shaking your left hand. Fortunately, there is no time to hit you back because the guy now starts running, fast, hoping he can escape law enforcement. But, of course, he's not as fast as Supergirl. So, jokes on him, being uncomfortably struck to the ground. Face pushed into the dirty floor, as he was easily captured by the heroine.

After the raging event, everything had settled down again. Officers are currently taking statements from the eyewitnesses that were in the bar, including your Uncle. You're leaning against the pool table, painfully looking at your left hand when Alex walks up to you, finished with her conversation with Supergirl. 

“Come on, let me put some ice on that for you”, Alex caringly offers since she had already examined the injury. You and Alex step behind the bar counter where she grabs a small towel and some ice cubes. “You've got a mean left there (Y/N)”, Alex grins, complimenting your fighting skills. “Yeah... I kinda regret doing that. It hurts like hell”, you painfully answer, maybe exaggerating a little. “Here, put this on. To suppress the swelling”. 

Gladly accepting the improvised cold-pack, you're as of now noticing how close you're to Alex since there is not much space behind the bar. Turning your head away from the injured hand, you stare at her with all of your desire, desperately longing for her. Trying to stay cool, but it’s not really working as you feel your heartbeat rapidly pounding in your chest. Suddenly your eyes meet, now deeply staring into her beautiful brown ones. You both stay silent. It seems like time stood still because all the noise and voices around you had vanished. The space between you two becomes less and less, slowly moving closer, both tilting your head a little. Eventually, your lips tenderly touch. Easing in this magical, loving moment of affection while satisfyingly closing your eyes. Moving your warm bodies even closer together when kissing each other.    

Your sensual kiss was miserably interrupted as you -not so cleverly- pushed the just cleaned glasses from the bar counter while moving your hands to Alex her hips. In the heat of the moment, right? The glasses had fallen onto the solid floor. Hearing a loud fracturing noise while glass shattered to pieces which, sadly, made you pull apart. All eyes are now fixed on you and Alex. With Alex her soft hands still on your cheeks as you look up. You notice your Uncle giving you that approving nod again. But also someone else. A very, very enthusiastic, wide smile on their face, once seeing you and Alex totally making out with each other. It's Supergirl. Weird... why would she be so thrilled about this? So happy? Does she know Alex that good, almost...  personally? 

Anyways... everyone in the bar is still staring at you two, quite unashamed, making you whisper: "Ok... can this become any more awkward…?", with a face turning quickly bright red as a ripe tomato. But Alex doesn’t care. She doesn’t care what all the staring people in the bar think. She only cares about this moment. This tender moment with you. Instantly craving your touch and soft lips again. She had already turned your head back towards her, gently with her hands. Still embracing you as she passionately gives you another one. 

[fernwehbookworm]

Broken Hearts- Chapter 14

I could feel Lena's long slender fingers tracing circles on my back. I smile before I even open my eyes. I turn to face her and her eyes shine like emeralds.

"Good morning beautiful." Lena whispers

"Mornin'" I sleepily respond.

"Do you want some breakfast?" My grin spreads wider at the question.

"You know me so well."

Lena kisses my cheek and rolls away. She reaches for her robe on the bedpost on her side and stands to put it on. My eyes wander her body without my permission. I gasp and leap out of bed and stand in front of her. My fingers flutter over her still exposed skin.

"Oh Rao, Lena! You're covered in bruises!" I exclaim.  Small bruises pepper her body from my fingers the night before. We didn't use the solar emitting ring to dampen my powers and now Lena's skin was covered in dark purple splotches wherever I gripped. She looks down at herself and grins, then she ties her robe shut around her waist.

"Relax Kara, bruises heal quite easily. Just looks like I'll have to wear pants to work for a couple of days." Lena rests her hand on my cheek. "Kara, don't worry so much. If you were hurting me I would have stopped you, okay?" I nod in response, but I can still feel that stupid crinkle of worry between my eyes. She leans in to whisper in my ear,

"Now crawl into bed so I can bring you breakfast." At the mention of food, my worry fades slightly and I crawl back under the sheets of the bed.

Lena pads softly to the kitchen and I hear cupboards opening and closing. I settle back into the pillows and doze lightly as I wait for her to return. Wonderful smells of bacon cooking and eggs frying fill the air and waft through the room. I feel a weight settle over me and open my eyes to a near-naked Lena placing a folding tray of food over my lap. I lift myself up to sit higher against the headboard. Lena climbs into bed next to me with her own food. I crinkle my nose at the sight of her plate. Egg whites, tomatoes, kale, and something that looked like meat but didn't smell like it. She sees my reaction and laughs.

"Not all of us have your metabolism, now just be glad I don't make you eat it also."

I look at my own plate laden with bacon, hash browns, eggs, and pancakes. I moan slightly and dig in. Lena laughs at the sound I make. She picks up a remote on the bedside table and clicks a button. A panel slides to the side of the wall opposite us and large flat-screen slides forward. I give her a sideways glance as she turns on the news. She catches my eye.

"I don't like having a television in my room all the time. But I do occasionally enjoy a lazy morning in bed."

"Occasionally?" I ask, raising an eyebrow at her.

"Okay, maybe once a year when I am too sick to stand. Small difference." I laugh and a comfortable silence falls between us as we eat and watch the news.

When I am done I set both our trays on the floor and settle my head onto Lena's shoulder as she writes down stock prices and trends on a notebook that seemingly just appeared in her hand. We stay like that late into the morning. Lena switches channels occasionally and I zone out, running my fingers up and down her arm, memorizing how her muscles move as they hold on to the notebook and her pencil works across the page.

A small sound begins at the edge of my hearing, almost like an annoying ringing in my ears. Lena shakes my shoulder to get me to look at the television screen.

"Shouldn't you go?" She nods to the fire in an apartment building being broadcast live. I kiss her cheek and speed to get my uniform from the amazing compacting purse Winn made for me. Then I open the window and glance back to look at her one last time.

"Be safe." Is all she says before returning to her writing. 

I collapse onto the surprisingly comfortable couch in Lena's office. I had been chasing emergency after emergency for most the day. Lena texted me that she was headed to work. I glance over at the raven-haired women on the floor of her office. Several blueprints lay in front of her as she hunches over them, making markings on them. She had abandoned her shoes by the desk and pulled her hair back into a bun using a pencil. She had such an intense look of concentration that I am not even sure she noticed my entrance. The building was mostly empty since it was the weekend and the quiet was kind of nice. We were so far above the city that I was able to ignore the sounds from the street.

Lena's pen scratches on the paper and paper rustles. Her breathing is steady and her heartbeat is actually slow, almost like her concentration was putting her in a trance. I watch her until my eyes close and sleep finds me. 

I rush around my apartment putting the final decorations up. I should have started the preparations sooner but CADMUS was keeping me busy with random alien attacks and abductions. A coffee station was set with mugs, a table laid out with finger foods, and of course a mimosa station because a bridal shower for Alex and Maggie must include alcohol.

A knock on the door and Alex walks in hand and hand with her fiancee. I blur to a stop in front of them and grin with my hands on my hips in a very un-Kara like way.

"Whoa, sis. It looks great in here. But I think you forgot something." I wheel about and run through my mental checklist but everything is in place. I wheel back to them and give them a questioning look.

"Your glasses, Supergirl." Maggie laughs as my hands fly to my face and then rush to the bathroom and back to settle them on the crook of my nose.

Soon after the guests of honor arrive, people begin to filter through the door of my apartment. I had left my super-suit at the DEO in case of nosy relatives. Laughter fills the air as Maggie's female coworkers arrive. Some of the Agents at the DEO that Alex is closer to are invited also. Distant relatives, that we hardly ever see but Eliza insisted on inviting, also pepper the room. Drinks are poured and Eliza floats around talking to everyone trying to learn the names of the people her daughters work with every day. One last knock on the door and the person who enters causes the small crowd to fall silent. Alex is the first to make a move and break the awkward tension.

"Lena! You made it. I am so glad you are here." Alex walks towards the women and gives her a quick, one-armed hug. The raven-haired woman responds in kind and most of the tension leaves the room. People turn back to their conversations and I make my way through the crowd toward the beautiful woman dressed in red.

"You ready?" I ask when I get to her.

"To come out to your friends and family?" I nod. Lena grasps both my hands in hers and kisses my lips in response. It wasn't long or passionate but it was clear. I drop one of her hands and guide her to the mimosas. We receive a few sideways glances but no one says anything. I hear a few whispers exchanged about the kiss but nothing that Lena would be able to pick up.

"Okay, one small step," I say under my breath. Lena squeezes my hand then pours both of us a drink.

The next couple of hours are filled with games and conversation. Then Alex and Maggie take turns opening wedding presents. Both moving quickly, obviously uncomfortable with being the center of attention. People begin to say goodbye as the party winds down. Eliza and I stand side by side washing dishes talking to each other. When we finish I turn and see everyone gone except for most of my favorite people. Alex and Maggie sat on one couch closely and Lena on the other. I move to sit next to the graceful women and Eliza sits on the chair. The conversation falls into a natural lull and after a few heartbeats, Lena clears her throat.

"So as you know, I don't have much family. I won't be able to give gifts to my brother for his wedding, and I won't be able to watch my niece marry whoever she chooses. So please, I love Kara, I love her family. I hope one day to be family. So please, accept my gift, because it really is the least I can do for you. For Kara's family." Lena reaches into her purse that I just noticed on the coffee table. She pulls an envelope from it and hands it to Alex.

Alex takes it tentatively and breaks the seal. She pulls out several papers folded together and opens them too. Her eyes scan the paper and Maggie's follow hers. They both seem to understand what the page says at the same time and look across to Lena.

"The Bare Naked Ladies." Alex almost breaths out.

"What?" Eliza asks.

"The Bare Naked Ladies are playing at our wedding." Maggie clarifies in a slightly louder whisper.

"Long story short they owe me a favor. I've covered all their costs, that's the contract for it. They have only agreed to a five-song set but yes, they will play at your wedding." Laughs of joy erupt from the happy couple and they thank Lena for the present.

When the laughter dies down to a conversation I settle against Lena and weave my fingers into hers. Eliza soon takes her own leave and Maggie and Alex follow closely behind. Lena helps me clean the apartment and when we finish we settle in front of the televisions and order food for dinner.

Darkness falls and we head to bed. Everything seems so natural and easy that I can easily see us doing this the rest of our lives. I wrap my arms around her and fall into a peaceful sleep. 

"J'onn why did you call me here?" I ask, standing in the middle of the DEO. Its calm so clearly there is no emergency.

"Well you see, remember that DEO raid last month where we rescued you and Ms. Luthor."

"Yes..." I respond, unsure of where this is going.

"We took in a lot of technology and several experiments. One experiment in particular."

"J'onn just get to it. I do have a wedding to help plan today." I was starting to lose my patience with his slow, cautious, words. I was supposed to meet Alex in an hour for a cake tasting.

"Well, it seems they took some of your DNA while you were there to run an experiment."

"What experiment?"

"They spliced your genetic code and combined it with that of a canine fetus. Due to the process that they used, the canine grew quickly as we monitored it. Now the canine has reached full development and has been removed from the incubator."

"J'onn are you telling me that CADMUS, the organization that hates Aliens, used me to make some sort of Super Puppy?"

"Yes." J'onn gestures to someone waiting behind me and an agent in a lab coat who carries a squirming creature towards me.

Tears spring to my eyes and a smile almost splits my face in two. I take the squirming white fluff ball from the agent and bring it face to face with myself. It stills and stares back. A slow blink from its startling blue, intelligent eyes.

Food. The thought invades my mind and I turn to J'onn, stunned.

"Did you hear that?" He nods with a slight grimace.

"We believe that the dog can communicate with you since you share DNA. I can feel him seeking you. I believe that the puppy will do better in your care than in ours." I squeal and clutch the puppy to my chest and zoom out the window, then I hurry back and kiss J'onn on the cheek.

"Thanks." I head out the window again. 

"Lena" I call through the door to her office from the balcony. I awkwardly hold the puppy behind my back. She doesn't even turn from her paperwork.

"Hello dear. Just a second while I finish this." I hold the squirming white fur ball towards her face and inch closer and closer. The puppy sticks its tongue out and licks Lena's cheek. I keel over in laughter at her startled expression.

"Kara, love, what is that?"

"Apparently, my puppy. It actually shares half my DNA. You can thank your mother for that." After she gets over her shock I see the scientific mind start to work behind her eyes.

"Share? DNA?" Is all she gets out. I nod and smile as she takes the puppy from me and begins to look it all over.

"What's his name?" she asks.

"Well, I think he should be both of ours. But I was thinking Krypto, after my planet, my people."

"Krypto. I love it."

Chapter 15

[mrsluthordanvers]

Supercorp prompt: "Actually, I've never been trick-or-treating"

So I had been saving this prompt for a bit closer to halloween, so here it finally is! Also Kara and Lena aren’t yet officially a couple for this fic but are on their way lol

“Actually I’ve never been trick or treating.���

They were sitting on the couch in Lena’s office eating donuts again. Kara had been giving Lena an enthusiastic history of halloween in the Danvers household before she asked Lena what she did for halloween growing up.

“You’ve never been trick or treating?” Kara’s mouth hung open in disbelief as Lena shook her head breaking off another piece of donut.

“I mean I probably went as a baby with my mother before she died. But I don’t remember. And Lillian never had time for those sorts of things.” Lena shrugged as she put the piece of donut in her mouth.

“What about boarding school?”

“Oh we had costume parties.” Lena smiled deviously at the memory. “But we never went trick or treating.”

“We’ve got to change that.”

“What?” Lena coughed against the food in her mouth taking a moment before she stared at Kara. “I don’t think that’s really necessary…”

“Of course it is!” Kara was already shrugging into her coat. “Halloween is something every kid should experience.” Kara echoed Alex all those years ago when she had just got to earth. It turned out that Alex was right about how much she’d love halloween. A time when everyone was dressed up as something not of this world. Plus Alex had dressed her up as a ghost the first year and she floated around, they were so pleased with themselves that no body could figure out how they had done the effects.

“I am not a child.” Lena reminded Kara, bringing her back from her memory to where she stood in front of Lena in her coat, purse tucked under her arm. “Where are you going?”

“You’re not a child, but its not too late to still go. And we are going costume shopping.”

“Kara.”

“Please.” Kara smiled, weakening all Lena’s fight as she held open the trench coat she had grabbed off Lena’s coat rack.

//

“Witch?”

“No.”

“Vampire?”

“No!”

“Why not? I feel like you could really put them off.”

“Gee thanks.” Lena stood in the aisle surrounded up cheap adult costumes her arms wrapped tightly around her middle. If it was up to her she would have had her costume custom made, not bought off the rack. But it was too late for that, honestly she was surprised there were any costumes left at this point.

“Wonder Woman?”

Lena shook her head. She might not have a lot of time on her hands to go to the theatre and watch movies but she did know that Wonder Woman was probably going to be the most popular costume of the year.

“You have the hair for it! We could put in a few curls, and bam! Wonder Woman.”

“I’ll freeze.” Lena nodded down to the tall boots and short skirt.

“Oh.” Kara stood on her toes looking over racks on the other side. “We could find you a long dark men’s coat. Diana wears one in the movie over her costume at one point, that would help keep you warm. Plus we’ll probably only go to a couple houses before we meet everyone at the party.”

“The party?”

“The costume party at the bar.”

“You didn’t mention it.”

Kara paused, she hadn’t mentioned it, she had got so excited to take Lena costume shopping she forgot.

“Oh.” Kara repeats, before turning to Lena looking a little sheepish. “Did you want to go? I don’t want to presume…”

“Kara. You just dragged me to god knows where to go costume shopping to take me trick or treating. I think I can handle a costume party.” Lena smiled, trying to loosen her body language.

“Alex will be there.”

“We’ve met.”

“And her girlfriend and my friends.”

“I believe I’ve met Detective Sawyer, Mr Schott and Mr Olsen too.” Lena took the costume, trying to show Kara some enthusiasm as she looked it over.

“Wonder Woman it is, now what should you be…” Lena started to push through the costumes for the first time, ready to exact her revenge. Kara didn’t have the heart to tell her she had a costume sitting at home she had picked out weeks ago.

“Sexy nurse?”

Kara groaned as she turned bright pink, adjusting her glasses.

“Why are these all sexy?” Lena shuffled through a bunch, “here we go!”

Lena held up a costume that made Kara’s stomach drop. She couldn’t lie, she had wanted to go as supergirl as a joke ever since Clark told her about the year he went as superman, but the idea still did give her a bit of anxiety.

“We could be the ultimate superhero duo.” Lena smirked. “You have the hair for it! We could put in a few curls, and bam! Supergirl.”

Kara couldn’t help but smile at Lena mocking her.

“Do you have contacts?”

“No.” Kara shook her head, there was no way she would be going without her glasses in this costume.

“That’s ok. You’ll still look great.”

“Then I guess we’re going to the ultimate superhero duo.” Kara replied as she led them to a till, Alex was going to kill her.

//

Lena’s driver dropped them off in the suburbs of National City with strict instructions to stay close because they wouldn’t be long. The streets weren’t overly busy, groups of children running from house to house with bags of candy.

“Here.” Kara held out a white pillow case. Lena hadn’t even noticed when she disappeared to have been able to grab them but there they were.

“Really?”

“We gotta do it right.” Kara replied seriously, almost drawing out a laugh from Lena as she took her bag and shook it open. “Where’s yours?”

“I’ve already done my trick or treating.”

“Kara!”

Before Lena could say more a little girl pulling on her mom’s hand interrupted them.

“I’m sorry.” The mom looked guilty. “She wanted to know if she could get a photo with you two.”

“Of course!” Kara exclaimed as she moved to stand at the girl’s shoulder striking a supergirl pose that had Lena vibrating with laughter as she shed her coat and mimicked Kara on the other side.

When the mom got her picture, Kara knelt down whispering in the girl’s ear before she ran off grinning, dragging her mom along to another house.

“What did you say?”

“I told her Rey is my favourite Star Wars character too.” Kara shrugged before taking Lena’s hand. “Ready?”

“As I’ll ever be.” Lena followed her to the end of a walkway, leaving her coat laying on the back of the town car.

“Wait here.” Kara ran up the steps, knocking on the doors before talking to an older woman, her hands waving erratically as she pointed at Lena. The older woman looking over at her before nodding with a chuckle and closing the door again as Kara returned back down the stairs.

“Your turn.”

“What?” Lena stood there holding her bag staring at Kara.

“Go knock on the door and say trick or treat.” Kara gave her a little nudge, as Lena hissed. “You’re coming with me.”

Kara followed Lena practically bouncing on her toes as Lena knocked on the door, the two of them saying trick or treat as soon as the door started to open. Candy was poured into Lena’s bag as the woman’s eyes danced.

“Beautiful costume dear. You have a wonderful girlfriend.”

“Girlfriend?” Lena lifted an eyebrow looking at Kara who shrugged, ears a little pink but the door was already closing.

“I may have told her that my girlfriend had never been trick or treating before and I was trying to give her the full experience and asked if she could help me out.”

//

“Fuck it’s cold.” Lena’s teeth chattered as they slid into the car, “How are you not freezing?”

“My costume has sleeves?” Kara offered as she stole a kit-kat from Lena’s bag, leaning away when Lena took a swipe at her.

They had only gone to four houses, so there was only a couple handfuls at the bottom of the bag but Lena was feeling strangely protective of her haul.

The two of them were feeling the sugar rush as they walked into the bar hand in hand, no one even turning to look at them as they passed through the sea of masks. Winn and James managing to snag a booth early in the evening, waving down Kara and Lena as they spotted them weaving through the crowd.

“Wonder Woman. Supergirl.” Winn toasted his glass towards Lena and Kara sitting across the table in his red star trek uniform.

“Where’s Alex and Maggie?”

“Playing pool?” Winn pointed over the back of the booth, to where Maggie and Alex stood, Maggie in a typical t-shirt and pants her hair pulled back in a tight ponytail her detective’s badge hanging on her hip, Alex awkwardly leaning over the table in a white medical jacket.

“Rizzoli and Isles?” Lena questioned, quickly looking over both women. All eyes at the table widening. “What?”

“You’re the only one that got it.” James laughed as he drank. “We all had to ask.”

“I mean I get Maggie, but why is Alex Isles?”

“She’s actually a doctor.” Winn piped in at the same time as Kara. “She has her medical degree.”

“And here I thought she was impressive just as an FBI agent.” Lena smiled at the table as she excused herself to go start a tab for the group leaving Kara alone to join Alex and Maggie.

“Seriously Kara?” Alex hissed as she wrapped an arm around Kara’s waist pulling her for half a hug, her other hand still wrapped around a cue.

“Lena picked it out.” Kara blushed as Alex glared at her.

“If Kara makes the joke of looking like Supergirl herself no one will take it seriously.” Maggie flashed her dimples at Kara before taking a shot, pretending to be disappointed as it ricocheted off the corner of a pocket and back to the middle of the table.

“And I think Lena felt more comfortable us being in a couples costume.” Kara didn’t think anything of what she said as Maggie and Alex exchanged looks over the table.

“What did Lena come as?”

“Wonder Woman.” Maggie answered Alex, grinning as Lena came over to the table passing Kara a club soda. “Supergirl and Wonder Woman. I love it.”

“Thank you.” Lena smiled politely. “I like the Rizzoli and Isles.”

“Thank you!” Maggie threw up her hands, “Someone gets it!”

“Absolutely. And much more original then Starsky and Hutch.” Lena smirked towards Kara who was shaking her head.

“Can I play winner?” Alex looked at her in surprise as Maggie happily handed over her cue.

“Sure. I think I’ve lost enough times for tonight.”

James and Winn gave up the booth when they realized they weren’t being joined anytime soon. Instead they joined Maggie and Kara as they stood against the wood railing watching Lena and Alex prowl around the table. It was a much more intense game then when Alex played with Maggie, Lena almost clearing the table of her half of the billiard balls before missing a shot giving Alex a turn to catch up. Eventually it came down only to the black ball, on Lena’s turn, letting her sink it with ease into the far left pocket.

“I guess I owe you a drink.” Alex smiled as she waved someone over, trying to eyeball Lena’s drink as Kara pulled her in for a victory hug, before making an order.

“Oh. I, uh, I already put the table on my tab.”

“Lena!” Kara leaned back to look in Lena’s face, “you don’t need to do that.”

“I know.” Lena pushed a strand of Kara’s hair out of her face before she went in for a second hug, burrowing her face in the crook of Kara’s neck. “It’s just my way of saying thank you… for tonight.”

[dontshootmespence]

Spreading Christmas Cheer

A/N: Day 9 of the 25 Days of BAU Christmas! This is a piece where the BAU has a diner they go to every time they get back from a case. There’s a waitress (the reader), who’s a single mother, who barely makes ends meet. Similarly, every Christmas, the BAU gathers together as a team and does something nice for someone they may or may not know. They decide that this year, the reader will be that person.

Garcia ran into the round table room in a panic. “Who’s our person this year?”

Immediately, everyone turned to face her. Year after year, they’d gotten together and done something nice for someone they knew or even someone they didn’t - someone who needed it. With cases coming in and out at lightning speed, they’d barely gotten time to breathe, no less think of who they’d try to help this year. “Oh my god, I don’t know,” Emily said. “We finally have time to think. So who should we pick this year?”

Tara sat across the table from Emily, combing her hands through her hair when it dawned on her. “What about Y/N? From the diner?”

“She did say she was going to have some issues doing Christmas for her daughter this year because she’s barely making ends meet,” Spencer said. “That could definitely work.”

Rossi nodded enthusiastically. “What should we do?”

Luke instantly had some ideas. “She said she has a tree, but that’s all she’s going to be able to do. For dinner, she was able to get picked through a local charity for a free meal, but for her daughter’s gifts, she said she was barely going to be able to do anything. Can we get a hold on her Christmas list without Y/N knowing?”

As they continued planning everything out, their faces lit up. Y/N was their favorite waitress at their local diner and she worked her ass off to provide for her little girl. The five year old was in school now, so money had gotten even tighter. Though Y/N did have her own mother, who could babysit while her daughter worked, Y/N was still barely making ends meet. “She said she might even have to tell Quinn that Santa isn’t real because she doesn’t have the money to buy anything,” JJ continued. “No one should have to say that to their five year old. But maybe we can keep the magic going for another year.”

Garcia had already pulled out her phone and texted Y/N to see if they could get together. “I have plans with her tonight. I’m going to take her and Quinn out to dinner. I’ll get the list then. Operation Save Christmas is underway!”

When Garcia arrived to pick Y/N up for dinner, she excused herself for a moment to head to the bathroom, and instead found Quinn. On her little play table was her Christmas list. It was very modest, almost as if she knew Santa was actually her mother and her mom didn’t have enough money, but now the team had something to work with. “Here we go,” she said, placing the list on the table the next morning. “This is where we start.”

Rossi grabbed the paper and looked almost sad. “Wow, she doesn’t have a lot on here.”

“But we can work with that,” Spencer said, scanning the page. When he got to the bottom, he beamed. “She wants books. It says lots of books.” He would obviously be taking care of that. 

“She also wants a pop up castle,” Emily said softly. “The kind you can sit in. Oh my god, she’s so cute. We can definitely work with this. Should we go shopping after work?”

Rossi patted his pocket, his wallet at the ready. “Sounds good to me.”

After a truly long ass day at work, the team headed to Target. It should have been a crime to be such big babies, running around the store and putting things into the cart that they thought little Quinn might enjoy. “Here’s the pop-up castle!” JJ beamed. “What about this too?” Superhero dolls. Wonder Woman, Batgirl and Supergirl were just the beginning. JJ put three into the cart and then Rossi got the rest.

“What?” He laughed when Luke gave him the side eye. “She needs the complete collection.” Rossi so rarely got to spend the money he’d earned over his lifetime; making a little girl’s Christmas dreams come true was just what he wanted to be spending it on. 

Spencer emerged from one of the aisles with a square package in hand. “It’s a tablet made just for kids. She could learn and watch tv shows and Y/N can put on parental controls and everything!” He didn’t even put it in the cart; he just gathered it close to his chest. This was something he was buying.

Luke grabbed an art kit. Matt chipped in where he could, buying her a basketball she wanted, but considering he had four kids of his own, he couldn’t do much else. It didn’t matter. The rest of the team was surely making up for it. Garcia bought...everything. A cute owl backpack for school, more barbies, but not the ones with dresses because Quinn had written on her list that she didn’t like dresses, a care bear, and even some clothes. 

Just an hour and a half after they’d arrived, they approached the counter. Spencer bought his own gift and Rossi, Emily, JJ, Luke, Matt and Tara took the rest, with Rossi happily paying for a large chunk of the bill. As they gazed upon the pile of gifts in the back of the SUV, Matt chuckled. “Now we have to get to wrapping all this.”

Over the course of the next few days, they all wrapped gifts whenever they could. They might have gone a little overboard. And in addition to the tablet, Spencer had gone and bought nearly $150 in books as well. Of course, they didn’t want to forget Y/N. Emily, JJ, Garcia and Tara had gone out and bought her a nice outfit, including shirt, pants, bag, coat, a hat, mittens, boots - the whole nine yards. 

“What’s wrong, Garcia?” Luke asked when she walked in the room. 

She was a little deflated. “Apparently Y/N had to tell Quinn that Santa wasn’t real. She got really sad. I mean I know we’re giving her stuff, but I was hoping we could keep the magic alive for her.”

Matt and JJ in particular looked distraught. With kids of their own, it was hard to  take in the fact that such an integral part of Christmas was taken away from the young child. “It’s okay,” Tara said. “She’s going to have the best Christmas ever anyway. When can we meet up with her?”

“I asked her when she’d working and when she’d bringing Quinn to the diner again. She’ll be there tomorrow night,” Emily replied. “We’re all wrapped up, right?”

A wave of nods went around the room. They were so ready for this.

Even if Quinn knew that Santa wasn’t real, they’d be damned if they didn’t make this a Christmas to remember.

There was only a week left until Christmas and Y/N was working more than ever. Her own mother dropped Quinn off at the diner about an hour before her shift was over and the diner was closing up for the night. Just as Y/N locked the doors, Spencer knocked lightly on the glass. “Hey, Spencer,” she said with a smile. “How’ve you all been? I haven’t seen you in a while.”

“Been a little busy,” he said brightly. “Is Quinn with you?”

When she nodded, Spencer waved his friends over. Y/N was amazingly confused as everyone from the BAU walked in the doors with packages in hand. “What’s this?”

“We decided that Quinn needed some Christmas presents this year?”

“This is for Quinn!” She cried, bringing her hand to her mouth and attempting to hold back tears. “You bought all this for my baby?”

She burst into tears against Rossi’s shoulder as Quinn ran outside to see what was happening. “Mommy, what’s wrong?”

“Mommy’s friends got you Christmas presents this year,” she sobbed. She kept mouthing thank you to everyone as she picked up her daughter. “These are yours.”

Quinn’s eyes went wide. “All of these are for me?”

Spencer, Garcia and the rest of the team nodded at the little girl, barely containing their own smiles. “All yours.”

“Mommy, can I open them now?”

When she gave her approval, Quinn got giddy and started running around to every package, ripping open the paper and hugging each member of the team after every single gift. Hearing Quinn exclaim about each gift she received was the best soundtrack Y/N could’ve asked for this season. “Mommy! It’s a basketball! A castle! Superheroes! Mommy, look at all the books!” That last one made Spencer particularly happy. “How are we going to get all this home Mommy?”

“I don’t know,” she laughed. “But we’ll figure it out.” Taking a deep breath, she looked up to her customers, her friends. “I can’t begin to thank you enough for this.”

Quinn gave them all big, fat hugs again, while Y/N did the same. “What about these mommy?” She asked, pointing to a much smaller pile of gifts. “Who are those for?”

Tara turned around and grabbed the pile. “These are for your Mommy.”

“You didn’t...” Y/N said as she began to cry again. Everything she opened was beautiful - way more than she could ever afford and even more than she felt she deserved. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.” She couldn’t stop crying.

After loading up everything in the car, they followed Y/N back to her apartment to help unload it all. It took everything in Y/N’s body not to sob the entire way home. There was no way she would’ve been able to do any of this, no less all of it. Between all of them, Quinn’s gifts were brought upstairs in about 10 minutes. The little girl was already sitting by the tree using the art kit that Luke had picked out for her. “Alright, we better get going,” Garcia said. “We’ll see you after the holidays? I need the diner’s cheesecake.”

“I’ll make sure I have it all ready for you,” Y/N replied. The BAU walked out the door, feeling like they’d accomplished their mission. Quinn was smiling from ear to ear and Y/N was in a permanent state of sobbing. “I don’t know how to say thank you. Just...seeing her smile this year was more than I could’ve asked for. Thank you all so much.”

“Anytime,” JJ said. 

Garcia continued as they made their way down the stairs. “Just spreading some Christmas cheer!”

@unstoppableangel8 @coveofmemories  @iammostdefinitelyonfire26 @jamiemelyn @sexualemobitch @rmmalta @lukeassmanalvez @reddie-for-mileven @hogwarts-konoha @original-criminal-fanfics @sassygeek77 @rt8815 @amarislestrange @sarahkay-19 @bagelsofdoom @xxfeelmylovexx @psychoticantisepticeye @emllyprentiss @dsgirl4987 @captainreid @teatimewithtiya @queenanneslace4 @the-awesome-one-with-pigtails @tippy06 @ultrarebelheart @static-001 @remember-me-forever-silent-angel

[pippytmi]

Whenever you get the time: supercorp + iconic clois floating dance scene

sorry for the long wait! thanks for being patient with me (and thanks for the prompt!!)

Here’s the thing: Lena knows Kara is Supergirl.

She enjoys pushing the boundaries sometimes, to see if Kara will slip; she’ll invite Supergirl and Kara to the same party, or ask Kara how Supergirl is doing just to watch her grip her glasses nervously and laugh-blush her way through a conversation.

At the end of the day, Lena doesn’t mind that Kara hasn’t told her about her identity. It’s Kara’s secret, and Lena has never been the type to push.

(She will, however, admit that it hurts.)

There is something bittersweet about the fact that her friend—her only friend—doesn’t trust her with such a big secret, when Lena has tried to be nothing but supportive. She certainly tries not to let it go to her head, though, because she is by no means entitled to information about Kara’s life. They’re friends, and she should be content that Kara has welcomed her into her life at all.

But sometimes she wishes Kara could tell her. It hasn’t been easy, to accept the obvious excuses and act as though she has no idea what’s really going on. Sometimes after a hard day for Supergirl, Kara will show up at Lena’s door and it will take everything Lena has not to fuss over her. She just wants to help, and instead she’s left to invite Kara in and pretend she didn’t just see Kara get thrown into three different buildings on the news.

Kara has always been mysterious in her own way, but she is also so beautifully open; even now, as she thumbs through a magazine with a baffled furrow of her brow, she is widely expressive. And definitely opinionated, as she declares,

“This is a terrible article. It’s…it’s trashy.”

Lena leans back against her couch and tries to bite back a smile. “Is that so?”

“Yes! Very trashy. And wrong,” Kara says, “for the record. So don’t believe it.”

This time, the smile slips through. “Thank you for trying to defend my honor,” Lena says, “but trust me, TMZ ripping my dress to shreds isn’t something I’m offended by.”

“It was a very nice dress, and they’re wrong,” Kara stresses, glaring at the magazine as if it’s personally wronged her, and Lena laughs and yanks it away.

“Forget about TMZ,” she says. “Tell me what you’re doing next weekend.”

Kara sinks back into the couch herself, shoulder pressed right against Lena’s as she makes a show of pursuing her lips, acting as though she’s seriously pondering Lena’s words. “I have very important plans,” she finally says. “Rewatching Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”

“That does sound very important,” Lena says, nodding along, but a second later Kara breaks into a huge smile and Lena’s unable to keep from mirroring it.

“What are your plans?” Kara asks, reaching over to the coffee table so she can properly cradle the popcorn bowl in her arms. “You’re welcome to join me.”

“I would love to,” Lena sighs, and she’s never said a truer statement. “But I have something to attend, about the opening of some firm who invests in L-Corp.”

“Say no more,” Kara announces, offering the popcorn bowl sympathetically. “I’ll be there.”

“I wasn’t fishing for company,” Lena says, which is only half-true. “I can just take Jess.”

“Jess needs a break. You overwork her.”

“She overworks. Bring it up with her, not me,” Lena retorts. “She has very good work hours. I see to that myself.”

“And who’s fault is it that she stays late, hm?” Kara tilts her head pointedly, giving Lena a smug look. “Case in point.”

“Fine, I’ll take you as my date,” Lena says. The last word just sort of slips out, and she lets it hang heavily in the silence; she’s never formally called Kara her date before.

But if Kara’s thrown by the thought, she doesn’t show it. “Don’t act so eager,” she teases, flicking a piece of popcorn into Lena’s hair.

“I appreciate your sacrifice very much,” Lena assures her, though her heart skips a beat at the sound of Kara’s laugh. “And you certainly beat Winn as my date. He’s a terrible dancer.”

“So what you’re saying is…I’m your favorite.”

Lena rolls her eyes, but she knows she’s smiling so hard Kara won’t take it seriously. “Sure,” she says. “As long as you can prove you’re a better dance partner.”

“You’re on,” Kara says, because for as many times as Kara has accompanied Lena to these stuffy parties, they’ve never danced together.

(Then again, they’ve never alluded to it being a date, either; there’s always a first time for everything.)

.

.

.

Inevitably, something Supergirl related comes up.

Lena lets herself get too swept into the illusion of a date that she forgets about Supergirl for a minute. It’s so easy to lose herself in Kara Danvers instead, because Kara—Kara looks amazing, a backless dress swishing as she walks into the room, hair tumbling over her exposed shoulders.

And when she spots Lena, she smiles. She smiles that disarming, cheeky smile that lights up her whole face and Lena knows she’s a goner.

“Hey!” Kara says, smiling not fading when she makes her way over. “I’m not late this time, see?”

“You’re a little late,” Lena counters, but she knows she’s flushing pink; it’s hard not to, when Kara looks like that, and her words come out shakier than intended as a result. “Thank you for coming, Kara. Really.”

“Of course! I couldn’t leave you to this buffet alone,” Kara jokes, but her eyes are soft, warm, as she reaches out to shyly brush a strand of hair out of Lena’s face. Her hand lingers by the edge of Lena’s jaw, fingertips just barely brushing skin.

The sensation is ticklish, but not unwelcome, and Lena’s heart races. “Well,” she says, “you’re welcome to go check it out. I’ve got some people to go hunt down.”

Mentioning food is enough to distract Kara any time of the day. “Are you sure?” she asks, hand falling to rest by her side once more. “I can hang out with you while you talk business with old men. I won’t even fall asleep, if you want.”

“No, it won’t take me too long,” Lena promises. “Just give me a few minutes, and then I’m all yours.”

“Okay,” Kara says, and this time she’s the one who looks a smidgen flustered. To her credit, she recovers nicely: “Remember, you still owe me a dance.”

(As if she could forget.)

“I know,” Lena says, and she playfully pushes at Kara’s shoulder. “Go on. I’ll come find you later.”

Kara lets herself be pushed away, and Lena refocuses on playing nice with the people investing money in her company. It’s not necessarily riveting material, but Lena is well-versed in appearing more interested than she really is, and it goes well for half an hour or so.

That is, until someone decides to ask, point-blank, if Lena is anything like her brother.

The question gives her pause. “I would hope not,” she says, perhaps a beat too late. She’s slightly thrown, she will admit; her first instance is to make sure Kara hasn’t overheard the conversation, but a cursory glance around the room helps her see Kara is still by the buffet.

And the graying man across from her looks hardly swayed by her words, haughtily raising his chin as he dives into a long-winded spiel about Lex’s business tactics that tells Lena he would’ve liked a yes instead of a no.

Before Lena can make up a reason for her escape, the room goes black.

No one fully panics; the band stops playing, and conversations turns into hushed whispers of what’s going on and muffled confusion, but no one starts screaming. Lena supposes it’s because they’re so used to things like this happening in National City.

The lights flicker back on a full minute later, and Kara is gone.

Lena uses the momentary blackout as an excuse, ducking away into the coat room as the people around her murmur amongst themselves about whether or not it’s worth it to end the party early.

She sends Kara a text. Where’d you run off to?

Kara doesn’t reply, and Lena isn’t surprised. She taps out be safe, but she hastily deletes it before she can accidentally send it. The best thing she can do is sit and wait for some news of Supergirl to surface, so she does what she does best and focuses on finding a way to escape the stifling party.

(Answer: calling a mildly amused Jess and pretending she’s just called her very sick mother instead.)

At the very least, she muses on the drive home, there’s no dancing to be worried about. The thought is both disappointing and relieving, and she casts another glance at her black phone screen and wishes things were different.

.

.

.

Lena sits out on her balcony when she gets home.

The news plays quietly in the background, detailing the brief power outage and something related to interference with the power lines, but Lena doesn’t really listen to it. It drags out some spiel about a fight between some aliens and Supergirl as the cause, but all Lena thinks about is how Kara had left without a word.

She gnaws on the edge of her nail and stares out into the dark sky, wondering what Kara’s up to. Her text remains unanswered, and Lena debates sending another, but she doesn’t want to be that person who can’t take a hint.

She pours herself a second glass of wine just as a knock sounds on her door.

Kara is, predictably, on the other side of the door. She’s still wearing the dress from earlier, sheepishly readjusting her glasses with one hand and holding out a bouquet of flowers with the other.

“Hey,” she says, casually, as if nothing’s happened.

“Hey?” Lena echoes. “Kara, where have you been? You—you had me worried.”

Kara’s face falls. “I’m sorry,” she says. “I didn’t think. Alex called me with an emergency, and I had to leave right away. I would’ve texted you, but my phone died.”

“Next time just tell me,” Lena huffs, turning away without even accepting the flowers. “You know I understand that you…need to leave for emergencies, sometimes.”

“I know,” Kara says, patiently hovering by the door as Lena walks around, closing the door out to the balcony and picking up random things strewn about. “I would’ve just called you, but…you do still owe me a dance.”

Lena stops. Kara looks so hopeful, and Lena’s heart flutters. At the same time, she’s hesitant to let this play out. “Kara,” she says. “It’s late.”

“Too late?”

“We can talk tomorrow,” Lena suggests, as a weak way to get Kara to go, but Kara steps closer.

“Lena,” she says, softly. She sets down the flowers, and holds out her hand as a tentative invitation. “Come here.”

Lena does, but she’s somehow unable to resist trying to avoid this longer: “I don’t see how this will work, Kara. We’re missing the band, the music—”

“Lena.”

It’s Lena’s turn to smile sheepishly as she slowly wraps her arms around Kara’s neck, almost shivering at the touch of Kara’s hand to her waist. “Shut up?” she guesses, and Kara’s smile is the answer.

Her heart is beating fast, and she’s sure Kara notices, but she lets herself sink into this for a minute. She lets everything Kara envelop her, from the warmth of Kara’s touch to the brush of her hair against her fingertips, from the crinkle of her smile to the blue of her eyes.

(And, in their true awkward fashion, the actual dancing is a nightmare.)

“Ow!” Lena swears before she can help it, moving her foot out from under Kara’s.

“Oh my gosh, Lena, I’m sorry! Was that me? Did I step on your foot?”

A laugh escapes before she can help herself, and Lena shakes her head. “No, you know what, I put my foot under you.”

A bit of the awkwardness eases, and Kara laughs along, too. “Here,” she says, guiding Lena to step on top of her feet. “Let’s try this.”

“I’ll hurt you…”

“You won’t, I promise,” Kara says, and they move again, Lena holding a little tighter just so she won’t disrupt the balance.

She closes her eyes, and exhales, shakily, against Kara’s neck. She doesn’t know what this means, and it confuses her a lot, because a second later Kara whispers,

“Lena?”

“Yeah?”

“I love you,” Kara says, and she’s said it before, surely; she’s told other people that a lot. She says it to all her friends. But the words are said so calmly, so surely, that Lena’s stomach swims.

What she replies is, “I love you, too,” but she doesn’t dare shift in their embrace to see if Kara’s eyes tell a different story than the one she’s holding out hope for. She feels a brief rush of guilt run through her when she remembers that Kara isn’t just Kara; Kara is also Supergirl, and Supergirl probably doesn’t get to say I love you.

She tries to bring it up. “Kara,” she says, eyes opening regretfully. “We need to talk about—”

“Shh,” Kara interrupts, though not rudely. It’s a bit more tired, a bit more troubled, and she says, “Can we not worry about anything else right now? Just—leave it for tomorrow?”

“Okay,” Lena says. “Tomorrow.”

She rests her head against Kara’s shoulder, and Kara’s hands grip her waist just tightly enough to make her feel safe; that’s enough, she supposes. Just for tonight.

(She closes her eyes again, and doesn’t even notice they’re floating.)

[accio-ambition]

Summary: Bouncing around with her son for the majority of her life, Emma Swan has told herself she’s happy in the city. It’s where the most camera operating jobs are, and that’s how she makes her money. But when an old friend calls her and asks for her help on a new project in small town Maine, Emma finds herself in a place she’s never been with people she doesn’t know filming a profession she knows nothing about. But when the captain of the ship she’s filming begins taking a keen interest in her and her life, she finds herself wondering whether she might just catch something other than fish. Deadliest Catch AU Rating: M Content warning: Character death, some violent situations

And here we are: another week, another update. Four million and six thank yous to @sotheylived​, @shipsxahoy​, @queen-icicle-fandom​, and everyone over at @captainswanbigbang​, for this would be absolutely nothing without any of you :)

FFnet/Ao3/Cover/Snapshots/Gifset

Chapter Seven

Gaining her sea legs is a bit of a challenge, but after ten minutes on the water – the Jolly Roger isn’t even out of the sound yet – Emma begins to steady. It’s all in the knees, she finds, along the lines of ice skating: bent knees are better for absorbing the shocks. She’ll probably have a bump on her knee from knocking into the walls of the ship – the hard way of learning that lesson – but it’s a surface injury.

“You’re a natural, love,” Jones shouts from the captain’s hut as they finally hit open water. She turns  with the camera to catch his brilliant smile. “I’ll be able to add you to my roster in no time.”

Behind the viewfinder, she scoffs. “Please, Captain, don’t you have a boat to steer?” she responds, focusing back on Scarlet and Robin preparing some ropes for the first throw of the season.

Even from her spot on the deck, she can hear his groan. “Ship,” Jones says, “it’s a ship, Swan, not a little dingy boat.”

She believes herself to be doing well: she’s only fallen on her ass once so far and that’s because she missed a step going down to interview Whale in the galley. She’s been on the boat – ship, one of these days she’ll remember – for half an hour, so she’ll be fine.

Right?

Nope, not at all.

The true test comes once they get out of the sound. Jeff and the Jolly Roger’s crew had explained the basic layout of the general harbor: the docks lead out to a sound where boats pass one another in their comings and goings at a slow speed, sort of like a merging zone on a highway. Once they float past the end of a certain jetty, the captains are allowed to proceed full speed in whatever direction they desired to go that day.

It’s when Robin and Whale shout at her to take a hold of something that Emma notices the wind picking up. It seems that Jones is going to nail the gas pedal until they get to their first destination, something that his seasoned crew is prepared for, but she – being the new guy and the one without any background in boats – is not. She finds herself on the ground in a hot second, her back sliding and bumping into the aft of the ship the next, and her grip on the camera dangerously loose.

Unwilling to test her chance at standing, Emma sits, curled in the fetal position at the back of the boat, for probably 15 minutes, until her hair begins to settle into a mess at her shoulders and the crew comes toward her.

“Are you alright there, Emma?” Robin asks, offering her a hand up.

She gratefully takes it, hoisting herself back to standing, and just steadies herself for a second. “Yeah,” she assures him, “I should be fine for now.”

“We’ll be sure to give ya a bit more warning next time,” Scarlet assures her, standing in the doorway heading below deck. And then, yelling into a walkie-talkie, he says, “Isn’t that right, cap’n?”

Jones’ voice crackles back, “I don’t rightfully care unless you lot are throwing the cages into the ocean.”

“Well, you heard the captain,” Whale shouts. Clapping his hands, he jogs to the pile of cages on the side of the ship. “To work, boys!”

Not getting in the way of their work, being a fly on the wall like she’s supposed to be, proves a lot more difficult than Emma originally thought. She’s got no sense of what the guys are going to do yet, except that she’s usually in the middle of the way. When they come to a new trawling grounds, Robin kindly tells her to move this way or that so they can throw the cages into the ocean as fast as possible. She throws Scarlet many a glare after he uses some colorful language to give her the same message. And Whale – she’d rather not think about it.

(Honestly, it’s a miracle that she doesn’t give him a black eye for the things he did to get her to move.)

She bumps into people and objects so many times that she’ll be surprised if she gets one second of good footage today. Luckily, nothing major happened – no broken bones or men overboard. It’s something that she, David, and Jeff accounted for, some time at the beginning of the endeavor to get the lay of the land, or the deck in this case.

In total, Emma comes home from her first day – about nine hours total, from leaving the last step of her front porch to the moment her toes touch the same stair – with that knee bump, two toes that feel broken, a slew of bruises up her right arm, some scratches on her back, and shoulders tense from unused camera-holding muscles. She feels used and raw and beaten. She’s never felt so productive in her life.

Walking in the front door shortly after dark, she leans against the wood and sighs happily. She leverages herself just enough to kick off her sneakers and sink into the entrance rug.

“Mom?” Henry’s voice echoes through the halls of mostly-built furniture and empty cardboard boxes. His face peeks around the corner of the living room. “How was your first day?”

“Pretty good,” she answers as she follows her son into the living room. Mary Margaret is sitting on the couch and cranes her neck over the back to smile at Emma. “David should be already home.”

“He is,” her friend says casually. “He texted me about an hour ago.”

“Then why are you still here?” Emma asks, shuffling into the kitchen. Despite being around it all day, she’s dying for a glass of water and then, maybe once Henry’s in bed, something a little stronger. To, you know, ease her wounds and unwind or whatever.

Mary Margaret’s voice is closer, coming from the other side of the counter when she says, “I wanted to make sure Henry was okay.” Turning around, Emma tilts her head, a sign of comfort and appreciation. “And I wanted to hear about your first day.”

“Well, I’m sure it’s similar to your husband’s first day.” She downs the entire glass in one go, pouring and starting to drink a second one before continuing. “Different names, but same general idea.”

“And he’ll tell me all about his day when I get home.” Skirting the island, Mary Margaret comes and rests her hand on Emma’s arm. “You’ve been around practical strangers all day, Emma. I just want to offer you someone you know to share any grievances or stories from your day.”

Raising her eyebrow, Emma qualifies: “So you want to pretend to be my boyfriend? I don’t know how your husband will feel about that.”

Mary Margaret shrugs. “I want to make sure you know that whatever’s happened in the past is in the past.” Dragging her hand down to meet Emma’s, Mary Margaret gives her a hopeful squeeze. “David and I are always here for you and Henry. Even if that means babysitting or picking Henry up when you’re running late or whatever.”

Emma shifts forward to hug her. “I know, Mary Margaret. I know.” And she does. Or she’s learning to rely on others after years of relying on herself. “Thanks, but it’s been a long day. I just want to hang out with Henry before he goes to sleep and then end the night with a drink and maybe some Supergirl.”

“Well, I won’t be in the way much longer,” Mary Margaret says, grabbing some stuff from kitchen table. She turns to both of them. “You guys are coming over for dinner Friday night.”

Chuckling, Emma takes another sip of water. “That sounds like a statement and not a question.”

“It’s not. You’re coming.” Mary Margaret leans down and presses a sweet kiss to the top of Henry’s head before turning back to Emma. “Enjoy your night.”

“You too, Mary Margaret. Have a nice evening with your husband.”

Mary Margaret winks as she leaves and Emma shudders at the mental image that pops to mind. She hears the front door close as she’s facing to Henry.

“Alright, kid, shouldn’t we be getting ready for bed?”

“But Mooom,” her son whines. He’s hunched over his game controller, staring intently at the TV screen. “I’m so close to completing this mission.”

Emma sighs and picks up the extra controller. “Can I be any help?”

“Yeah.” Pausing the game quickly, Henry turns on her and fixes her with a pointed glare. “But then we both finish this mission and the next one.”

Groaning, she resignedly relents. “Ugh, fine. Then bed. No questions.”

Goofy smile on his face, Henry puts his attention back to the screen and plugs her into the game. “Deal.”

0000

By the end of her first week of work, Emma’s gotten the hang of things. Sort of. Jones gives her a heads up as to what his plan the next day is so she can plan what sort of shots she’s going to try and get. He gives her a time of departure every day and she mostly makes it on time. She mostly stays out of everybody’s way, but since it’s the beginning of the season, the stakes aren’t as high. Everyone – captain included – is dusting off their trawling instincts.

Robin is definitely the most helpful of the crew, the most compassionate. Something about having kids creates the ultimate bond between even the most unlikely of compatriots. Emma realizes that on her second day when, before leaving port, Robin gives her a run through of where she should stand or go when certain things happen. While Whale and Scarlet load the galley with snacks and games in what little off time they’ll have, Robin’s trying to teach her trawling 101 on the fly.

Their conversation fades into small talk, Emma revealing small, unimportant bits of her story to further cement her and Robin’s friendship. She succeeds in her mission if him telling her that he and Regina recently found out they're expecting a baby is any indication. Even for people she barely knows, she’s ecstatic for them.

“You can’t tell anyone, though,” Robin makes her promise as he’s coiling rope. “I’ve been sworn to secrecy until told otherwise. Even the lads don’t know.”

Miming zipping her mouth closed, Emma grins. “Your secret’s safe with me.”

Robin returns the smile tenfold. Leaning closer to her, he whispers conspiratorially, “I just really wanted to tell someone. It’s quite exciting.”

Scarlet, it seems, has adopted her as his little sister. He teases her at the most inappropriate moments and makes her laugh during the best shots of the day, therefore rendering them almost unusable. The few times he’s seen her about town, Scarlet stops what he’s doing, no matter how important, and takes a few minutes to walk with her.

Whale, on the other hand, is still a sleaze. Her first impression wasn’t wrong about that. But he seems to soften when Emma approaches the topic of the diner or, more specifically, Ruby. Maybe there’s a chance he is partially human after all. She’s made several mental notes to set those two up, give them a slight nudge in each other’s directions.

The only person who she still doesn’t know where she stands with is Jones himself. He’d made attempts to befriend her at the Fourth of July shindig, and a few times in the days since, but there’s just something about him that doesn’t click with her.

(She knows what it is, in the deep recesses of her mind. Emma doesn’t want to connect with him because she fears she’ll connect with him. It’s much safer for her and Henry if she doesn’t, if she just keeps things cordial and professional.)

It’s an unspoken agreement between the two of them that things stay work-related unless Liam is around. He acts as a buffer, an older brother to both of them, with teasing and scolding and such. Things don’t seem as awkward with Liam around, and for that, Emma is grateful.

Before she knows it, Emma is flipping her calendar – homemade, a birthday gift from Henry last year with pictures of them on their various adventures – to August. A month until school starts and a month since she started this gig. A little over a month since they moved to Storybrooke.

“It’s been a good month,” she mutters to herself before going to empty the dishwasher and start on dinner. “Hopefully that’s a good sign.”

[lostinamazon]

You can't say you hadn't see that coming. You're not surprised. You saw the signs maybe even before Kara did.  Hell, even before Maggie and that's saying something. She's your little sister, after all. Your best best friend, your family, your hero. You know Kara like the back of your hand, she always wore her heart on her sleeve, her emotions easily readable through her facial expressions and body language.  And she can't hide the fact that she's completely in love with Lena Luthor. Not anymore. But of course, you already knew that. . "Clark's in National City!" You look up just in time to see Kara sliding inside your lab, her red cape flowing graciously behind her and you try to stifle a laugh when you notice she's trying her best to not start jumping up and down in excitement.  "Yeah, I know, I just saw him outside remember?" You respond with a light chuckle. "And I still think he s-" "Stop talking about my cousin's smell!" Kara quickly cuts you. "He asked me to help him, can you believe that? I'll visit Lena Luthor with him later to see if she had anything to do with the Venture explosion." You frown at that because... well, you don't exactly trust the Luthors. You were there when Lex tried to kill Superman for the last time almost three years ago with the blade made of kryptonite, his war suit making him almost as strong as Clark. Fortunately, the DEO was there and they managed to get him in jail for the rest of his miserable life.  But still, your sister was Supergirl and there was a Luthor in the city. Of course you were worried.  "Just be careful, okay?"  Kara smiled and kissed your cheek. "Always." Then she walked out. Later that evening she texted you saying that apparently Lena was clear, and she had a feeling the young woman was really just looking for a fresh start for herself and her company. Plus, she was really pretty. Agent Danvers [18:46]: And how does that make her innocent?  Lil' Sis [18:47]: It doesn't! It was just a comment, Rao... You only roll your eyes at your sister. . Lena Luthor shot Corben to save your life. So not a villain. Maybe. Kara decided to become a reporter and you're very happy for your sister, because you know she can't be a superhero 24/7, and the whole gang celebrates her first article about the Luthor alien detection device with a special Game Night. "She talked about Lex today." Kara says after you both start to clean her kitchen.  "What?" You raise your eyebrow at Kara from your spot at the sink. "Lena. I went to visit her at her office." You see the way she bites her bottom lip nervously, as if waiting for you to yell at her for going there, but when you don't, she keeps saying, "She was adopted too. She said Lex was such a good brother and now... she looks so lonely." You don't say anything because you don't now what to say. Kara has always taken people's burdens as her own, but this time you realize it hits very close to home. Then she smiles and suprises you with a tight hug. "Thank you for being such a incredible big sister!"  . For the next couple of weeks you don't have too much time to think about Lena Luthor, and about how Kara was right when she said she was very pretty, because you already have too much in your hands trying to get the alien fight club down with another pretty girl.  Wait. You didn't mean that. Detective Maggie Sawyer was insufferable! Completely insufferable... and okay maybe a little pretty, but only a little! You're surprised when Kara says she asked for Lena's help to get the next fight club location, because you still don't know how to feel about Lex's sister. You don't think she's a threat but she's still a Luthor.  But then again, you have all those new feelings inside you and you need to talk with your sister about how lost you are and about how you think you're in lo- And Lena Luthor gets in your way. Again. And... maybe you're not as straight as you think you were, but did you just spot the gay in Lena's eyes as she glared at you? "She's my sister." Kara says and Lena visibly relaxes when she looks back at your sister with soft eyes. You're so silly.  Just because you realized you're a lesbian it doesn't mean every woman you'll meet is too.  After that, you're very glad to hear from Winn that Lena saved everyone's asses (including Kara's) with her field generator. He and Kara keep gushing on and on about how smart and brave and pretty she was in that black dress and you pretend you didn't see the way they blushed after agreeing to that.  You also pretend you're not heartbroken because you didn't get the girl, but that's just life. . You totally get girl. You're here and you're queer and you've never felt so happy in your entire life because you have a girlfriend! A very hot and very badass girlfriend. You walk in Kara's apartment without knocking like you usually do to give her the news, but she's not expecting you like she usually is after hearing your familiar heartbeat from the corner of the street. She's distracted as she types away a text on her phone, giggling when she reads the response. "Kara?" She suddenly looks at you with widen eyes.  "Alex! I didn't hear you coming." She pats the spot beside her and you move to sit there as Kara types something quick in her phone with a small smile, before leaving it on the coffee table. "Who were you texting?" You ask with a smirk because you know your sister and her silly smiles.  "Oh! No one!" She replies too quickly and too loudly for you to believe that. "You're a horrible liar." You say with a chuckle and she blushes. "Was that Mon-El?" You know that not too long ago Kara finally got over James and you're happy they're still good friends. (You're happy you didn't have to punch his face.) You see the way the dexamite keeps staring longingly at your sister and how she sometimes stares back, as if thinking about the possibility that that could be something, that she could have what Clark has. Maybe Mon-El wouldn't be your first choice for someone you'd want your sister to fall for, actually you don't think there's anyone worthy of Kara, your precious innocent baby sister, but you're in love and you want her to have it too.  "What?! No! That's not Mon-El!" Kara says, scrunching up her nose. "Okay..." you bite your lip. "James then?" "What are yo- no! It's not James. It's Lena." Oh.  Unexpected.  "Lena Luthor?" "Yes." She admits. "We traded numbers after the police sent her mother to jail. I wanted to thank her for saving the entire alien population in National City. I mean... I told her Supergirl told me that, because... you know." You nod. You were ready to tell Kara 'I told you' when Lena surprised all of you, including J'onn, by betraying her mother.  She saved hundreds of innocent lives and Kara was the one with a smug smile after everything. "How is she?" "She has been better. She sent her mother to jail, so it wasn't easy, but she told me she's glad no one died because of a Luthor this time."  You notice Kara's very proud of Lena for that, if the smile she's trying to hold back it's any indication, and after everything Lena did for the the past few months, you decide to give her a chance from now on, after all, Kara trusts her. "Anyway, you wanted to talk to me about something?"  You smile. "Guess who got the girl?"  She squeals and wraps you in a hug. . All of the evidences tell Lena's guilty. But Kara is having none of that. You've never seen your sister defend someone so much to the point of going against everyone, punching cement blocks all over the training room.  And that's how you find her. "Kara." She's breathing heavily and you approach her slowly, looking down at her hands closed in fists.  "I don't want to talk right now, Alex." You cross your arms over your chest, but you don't leave. And she's not pushing you away either, so that's something.  "You need to calm down." She smiles bitterly, surprising you, because the last time Kara acted like that she was under the influence of Red-K. "You want me to calm down? Lena is inocent and now she's stuck in a cell all alone because your girlfriend arrested her without even letting her explain and you want me to calm down?!" Kara yells, pointing a finger a you. "Hey!" You yell back. "Maggie was only doing her job, she has nothing to do with it! "She has everything to do with it!" "Kara!" She shakes her head, moving to sit on a bench, elbows on her knees as she rubs her face with her hands.  "She's innocent, I know she is." Kara whispers. You sit next to your sister, trying to calm down too, before wrapping an arm around her shoulders.  "Everything's gonna be fine." But you don't know that. Not when later Kara flies after Lena without even considering Metallo might explode everything around him.  Of course she succeeds and carries and injured Lena in for the DEO doctors to check on her. Through the infirmary's glass you see the way your sister's running her hands carefully through Lena's hair and how she caresses the CEO's cheek with the tips of her fingers, before walking away with a pained expression, probably so Lena couldn't see Supergirl if she woke up. You're not sure why you feel like you're intruding in a very intimate moment.  (In the back of your mind, you know why.) When you visit Kara the next day after reading the amazing article she wrote about Lena being innocent, it feels like you just stepped inside a flower shop.  There are so many flowers. You're very confused when Kara tells you later she kissed Mon-El. .  Game Night was full of tension that week. Kara still refused to share a full sentence with Maggie since the day she arrested Lena, and both of them were too proud to be the one to say sorry first.  Mon-El had been all over Kara and yet, somehow, she didn't seem all that interested anymore. You remember seeing him move to kiss her mouth and she quickly using her superspeed to turn her head and laughing at something Winn had said, the dexamite planting a kiss on her cheek instead. When you're alone in your apartment with Maggie after everyone leaves, you feel your girlfriend poking your ribs to get your attention. "Babe, I have a theory I want to share with you... but brace yourself because it might come as a shock." You frown. "O...kay?" Maggie took a deep breath for the drama effect and you can only smile at your girlfriend's antics. "I think little Danvers has the hots for little Luthor!" She says quickly. You blink. "Oh. That." "What do you mean 'that'? It's a big deal, right? Wait..." Maggie gasps. "You knew already!" "I had a feeling." You confess. "But she's with Mon-El, so... I'm confused." Maggie chuckles. "I'm not. You Danvers girls and the gay panic walk hand in hand apparently." "Hey!" You shove her away playfully and Maggie gives one of those laughs that shows off her dimples, making your heart melt deliciously.  "Seriously, though. She wants nothing to do with that outer space man child and I still feel like she might split me in two with her laser eyes. And I'm pretty sure I managed to see her planning a date with Lena through a text." "They're trying something called kombucha." "It's a lesbian drink, honey." You laugh, leaning in against Maggie and letting her wrap her arms around your body. "I just want her to be happy." "I know, baby." You're both not surprised when Kara sends you text not even ten minutes later saying she broke things off with Mon-El. . Your head moves from side to side as you follow Kara pacing around the training room.  "She has a boyfriend!" Kara grumbles. "Ex-boyfriend." You say. "They were together for five years!" She whines. "But only dated for two."  "They made science together!" "Are we talking about science or se-" "I don't like him!" Kara interrupts you. "And I don't trust him! I know he's up to something and I'll find out what it is." She started to pace again. "He won't fool me with that beard of that hair or those eyebrows. Lena deserves better... but the way she looks at him..." You can't stand it anymore. "Kara, do you want to tell me something?" She looks surprised at you, like only now she understands her own words and how she just spilled them out for you. "I-I... No." Then she walks out of the room, bumping against J'onn on her way out.  You've never seen him uncomfortable, not even when he had to pretend to be Kara as Cat's assistant, but the way blushes all the way to the tips of his ears when he looked in shock at Kara's back... You're just so grateful you're not psychic.  . Getting kidnapped and almost dying wasn't in your plans.  But you can't help but feel happy when your sister and your girlfriend join forces to save you. You really have the best family. It takes a week for you to fully recover and go home, and all of your friends celebrate with Game Night, like always. Only this time, Lena Luthor is there too. "Agent Danvers." She greets you after walking inside your apartment, offering you a beautiful bouquet of flowers.  "Oh, I'll give Kara those..." "No, please... these are for you." She says, cheeks turning pink. "Kara told me you got injured on one of your missions, I'm glad to see you're okay." You can't say you're not surprised, but before you open your mouth you feel Maggie's hand on your waist. "Trying to steal my girl, little Luthor?" Maggie says and you're glad Lena smiling, raising her hands in surrender.  "Wouldn't think of that." "Get a Danvers to yourself." Maggie winks at her and this time Lena doesn't say anything. "Lena!" Kara walks out of the bathroom and quickly wraps her arms around the CEO tightly. "I'm so glad you came!" "That's what she says." Maggie mumbles feigning a cough.  "Maggie! Behave." You say, pointing at finger at her. "Yes, ma'am." You observe Lena through the night. She surprises everyone by paying for the food (the best pizzas from the most expensive Italian restaurant in National City), and you giggle as you watch James and Kara teaching her how to eat her slice with her bare hands and not with a fork and knife. Maggie loves the vegan flavored ones the CEO bought specially for the two of them, saying they could be best friends forever, and you almost choke when Kara accepts a piece of the spinach pizza Lena offered her. (Kara and healthy food? Yeah, right.) You notice your sister's hand touching Lena's tentatively as they eat in silence and how they talk in soft whispers, smiling brightly as they look into each other's eyes. You've never seen Kara this happy.  "Babe..." Maggie mumbles after you're both under the covers.  "What?" "I ship it." "Go to sleep, Maggie." You say with a smile.  "Yes, ma'am." . "Do you want to get lunch together?" You ask Kara after a training session. She offers you an apologetic look, already taking off her cape.  "I'm so sorry, Alex. Lena's finally free today, since she's been busy with this new project, so I'm having lunch with her. But we can totally have a sister night, if you're up to it?"  You nod. "Yeah, sure." Kara folds her cape slowly and carefully, and you recognize the famous crinkle between your sister's eyebrows. You know Kara wants to tell you something but she keeps chickening out in the last moment and changing the topic, and you don't want to pressure her. You don't want he to admit something she's not ready to. Kara sighs loudly, and you pretend you're busy checking your gun.  "Alex." She finally says. "Yes?" Kara folds her arms over her chest, approaching you nervously. "I... I just wanted to... I-I mean, there's this thing..." You can't help but smile and touch your sister's shoulder, before pulling her into a gentle hug. She's such a baby sometimes. "You know you can tell me anything, right?" You say, holding her tightly. "Relax." "I'm scared." She mumbles against your shoulder. "Scared of what?" You ask, pulling away to look into her blue eyes. "I think I'm in love with Lena."  Finally. "You think?" You say with a small smile, and she relaxes, clearly relieved you're not biting her head off. "I am in love with Lena." "Well, you just won me fifty bucks. Maggie was betting it would take you much longer to admit it." She gasps. "You knew?" "Kara, when Lena's around you, you're not very subtle." You laugh. "You stare at her boobs like... a lot." Kara has the decency to blush brightly at that. "I do not!" "You do, and I don't blame you. Maggie thinks she has amazing boobs too." "Hey!" Kara points a finger at you, but she's smiling. "But they really are amazing..."  "And she makes you eat kale." "It tastes disgusting." "She listens N'Sync with you." "She's amazing at lip sync." "And she's in love with you too." She blinks.  "You think so?" She asked, eyes shining with hope. "I know, Kara. The way she looks at you sometimes..." You smile. "Wanna tell me about her?" Kara offers you a lovesick smile.  "She's so beautiful, Alex! And so smart... when she talks about science it's so full of passion! But she also loves poetry, classic music, and kids, oh Rao she loves kids! She says they're curious and honest and have the brightest minds, and I'm so in love with her!" You laugh when she finishes almost out of breath, because you're very happy for your sister. "I think its time for you to get the girl." . Clark and J'onn are holding Kara back using all of their strength as she screams loudly, trying to get away from them, trying to fly straight to Rhea's ship consequences be damned.  Lena is up there. "GET OFF OF ME!" "Supergirl, you need to calm down!" J'onn screams back. You see Clark squeezing her arms tightly as he makes her look into his eyes. "Kara, listen to me! We're getting Lena back, I promise you!" She groans loudly, the veins around her eyes making themselves visible before she's hitting Superman with her laser eyes, throwing him away against the DEO's wall and managing to get away from J'onn's grip.  Clark shakes his head from his spot on the floor, before standing up and superspeeding towards Kara, breaking through the wall to the other side of the bulding. They're hitting each other so fast you only see blurs of red and blue, a glimpse of a punch here and there, flashes of quick heat vision, Kara kicking Clark in the chest so hard that the vibrations sends everyone to the ground.  Including you. Before you know what's happening, Clark has Kara on her knees, trapped in his arms as he holds her from behind, and you run to your sister when you realize she's crying. "Kara..." You whisper. Superman finally releases her from his grip and Kara falls with her hands against the ground, tears running down her cheeks. "Lillian was right... she'll hate me, Alex... she'll hate me when she finds out..." And you finally understand. You understand what she meant when she told you she was scared. She was scared Lena wouldn't love her back after realizing Kara was in fact Supergirl.  "She won't. You're her hero, remember? She won't hate you, sweetheart." . Clark brings Lena back as promised. And Lena saves the world with Lillian's help. The city is destroyed, but you can't go another day without making sure Maggie is yours and you're hers, so you ask her to marry you. That's your happy ending.  But not Kara's.  Mon-El was a man child, but he was still their friend and she let him go. And she's been avoiding Lena since Clark carried the CEO back safely to the ground. You're not sure she should be alone right now, so you pay your sister a visit, but someone's already there. "Lena, please..." you hear Kara's voice through her door. "So you lied to me?" Oh shit. "N-No... I-I'm sorry..." "You've been lying to me since the day we met and now you're sorry?" Lena spits out, her voice trembling. "You made me feel like I could trust you, like I meant more to you than just my name but you were the one who couldn't trust a Luthor!" "Lena, you got it all wrong, of course I trust you, please, believe me!" "And why would I believe you?" "Because I love you!" You gasp. "Well, now is too late." The door opens and suddenly a teary-eyed Lena is standing in front of you, before she briskly walks past you towards the elevator.  You walk inside Kara's apartment and she's sitting in her couch.  "Kara..." "Just.. don't." . Maggie tells you it's better to wait for them to figure things out on their own, and you agree to wait. You wait for three months. And then you're walking inside Lena's new office. She doesn't take her eyes away from her computer screen until you're standing right in font of her desk, but apparently she's not surprised to see you there. "Agent Danvers." Lena greets you, sitting up straighter in her chair, one of her eyebrows raised. "Lena." You say back. "I don't remember seeing you on my schedule." "There are some perks of being a federal agent." You smile smugly. "Except you're not a federal agent, right?" Lena asks defiantly. You sigh and decide to make yourself comfortable on the chair in front of Lena's desk, before looking right into those green eyes that seemed to have the power to scan her like Kara did. "I'll be honest here, Lena." She scoffs and you ignore her. "Kara lied to you. I lied to you. We all lied to you." She looks away but you keep going. "But we also cared about you. I still care about you." "Then why did you lie to me?" She asks in a small voice, vulnerable.  "To protect you!" You say. "And it is lame, I know, but Kara..." Lena's eyes flicker to yours at the mention of your sister's name.  "I got kidnapped for being Supergirl's sister. I was tortured and almost died because of Kara. And to this day she still hates herself for it. And I know she wonders sometimes how my life would've been be if she wasn't here. She wouldn't be able to forgive herself if something happened to you for the same reason." Lena closes her eyes for a moment and you reach over her desk to rest your hand on top of hers, and you're surprised when she holds your hand back. "But I'll tell you how my life would've been if Kara wasn't in it: it would've been be miserable." A single tear runs down Lena's cheek. "I said awful things to her." You smile. "She understands why you were angry. But you still can make things right." "How?" You reach inside your pocket and offers Lena your first wedding invitation. . Your wedding was amazing. Your wife is amazing. The honeymoon... amazing. You're almost sad to come back from Italy, but you want to see your sister. And Lena.  You remember seeing the CEO finally approaching Kara by the end of the party and both of them slow dancing together, sharing a few whispered words every now and then. But you were too busy thinking about the honeymoon.  (And how someone anonymously gave you a full paid honeymoon in Italy as a wedding gift.) You share a kiss with your wife before walking inside Kara's apartment only to immediately step back, tripping against Maggie and making her scream in pain. "ALEX!" Kara screams, quickly sitting up from her spot under Lena and covering their very naked bodies with a blanket.  "Jesus FUCKING Christ!" You yell, covering your eyes. "Where are your clothes?" "Oh my God..." Lena mumbles, hiding her red face behind Kara's back. "Don't you know how to knock?" Maggie looks at them over your shoulder. "Thank you for the wedding gift, little Luthor." You want to punch Maggie because now it's so not the time. "And add amazing ass to that list, by the way."  "Hey!" Kara yells. "Let's go home." You grab Maggie's hand and drags her out of Kara's apartment, because your job's clearly done here. "Yes, ma'am." ▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪ ORIGINAL ON AO3! ENJOY!

[dankaroo-writes]

something along the way

Someone’s trying to destroy Supergirl and the Super name, too. In a freak accident, all of the Superfriends have switched bodies with each other — except Kara. Now they have to get the bad guy (and switch back) before he strikes again.

ao3

chapter 1/3

Kara Danvers loves a good sunrise. She’s well aware that sunsets are supposed to be more romantic or more beautiful or whatever, but there’s something about how the light creeps up the treetops and over buildings, up the toes of her boots and over her face, warming every inch of her— she can’t get enough of it. It has little to do with getting her powers from the sun, although she does appreciate the sentiment that’s she’s literally soaking in the strength of it as it rises. If she’s honest, it’s more about the serenity and quietness of dawn. She loves the silence right before the birds start chirping, the street lamps extinguish themselves, car horns blare, the airwaves clog with radio signals and pop hits singles of the week.

It’s the colors that she likes best of all, though. The soft pinks and oranges and yellows and blues remind her of the home she lost. Even though they have nothing on a Kryptonian moonrise, they’re as close as she can get these days. As close as she’ll ever get, probably. Kara doesn’t make a habit of getting up early enough to watch the sun wake up the whole city, but she’ll keep herself awake an extra half an hour to see it on the days she spends the early morning hours patrolling National City. It’s special enough to her to warrant the extra morning grumpiness that she — um, everyone else — will face later for that fleeting moment of peace. Those are the days she can fool herself into thinking that everything will be okay somehow, and that her life is pretty good. Not that she doesn’t like her life! She has wonderful friends and a loving family. And being a reporter makes — made — her feel like she is — ugh, was — contributing to something important. Like she’s making a difference, superhero or not. Sure, Supergirl could knock bad guys three city blocks away with a single punch and hold up a building until everyone can escape, but Kara wants to help too and now that she doesn’t have a way, she feels lost. Cliché? Yes. True? Double yes. She feels lost but not quite as lost as when she first came to Earth, of course. Nothing will ever compare with the loneliness of being the sole survivor of an entire culture. Maybe she’s having a quarter-life crisis or something. She hasn’t had one yet, not counting the whole coming out as Supergirl stuff. So what if she was born 50 years ago? She’s technically only 26, she’s as much a millennial as Winn and James and Alex. They all had one. Alex had, like, three. So maybe that’s what it is. She’ll have to ask Alex for her opinion later. The whole funemployment thing stopped being fun when it meant she had extra time to think about all this crap, genius-alien-brain-that-should-know-better-than-to-be-all-existential be damned. She heaves a sigh and is ready to turn in for the night. If she gets home now, she’ll have… forty-five minutes of sleep before she’s due at the DEO. Great. She decides that it’s a sunrise morning. She’s sitting on the roof of her apartment watching the rays peek over the CatCo building and then L-Corp, and then— The unmistakable sound of metal crushing against cement has her pushing off into the sky, full speed towards what can only be a car accident. She arrives to see the front end of a silver Lexus flattened against the side of an overpass. Without a moment’s hesitation, the hero rips off the roof of the car to free any people inside but instead finds a small gray device with a flashing red light. The device begins to blink more rapidly, and, oh shit, it’s a bomb. She scans the area for potential casualties and finds none, grabs the device, and launches herself and it into the sky. When she’s above any possible flight path or where any kind of living thing might be dwelling, Kara throws it further still as the light turns solid and the device explodes. Everything is quiet. The city is safe. Again. For now.

---

“Supergirl! Check out this thing I did! It literally downloads—” Winn is flanking Kara with some sort of metal USB drive as she beelines to the center of the room, but she dismisses him with a quick Sorry, later! and a grimace. He heads back to his desk, grumbling and fiddling with the memory stick for a while before busying himself with security updates to the network. “Something weird happened this morning,” Kara walks up to J’onn, arms folded across her chest. “I heard,” J’onn says, “But I thought NCPD had it handled. Nothing extra-normal, alien or otherwise.” Kara inhales deeply and explains, “It just didn’t feel right. It was early morning. No one was out, no one was around. Why plant a bomb if there weren’t going to be any casualties? I’m glad no one was hurt, but…” “It doesn’t make sense.” J’onn says. “You think it was a decoy.” “Yeah, but, for what?” “Whoever is behind this is trying to lure you out.” “You read my mind,” Kara jokes, and the faint pull at the corner of J’onn’s mouth is the only indication that he appreciates her jab at the limitations of his Martian abilities. “Okay, so you’re being targeted. That makes this DEO territory.” Kara sighs as J’onn takes his leave to make some phone calls to the National City Police Department. “I’m gonna go get some food before something else blows up,” she announces to no one in particular, arms crossed. “Mind if I tag along?” Oh, Winn. She’d been sidetracked and completely forgot. It’s been a while since the two of them hung out one-on-one, since she and Mon-El started doing… whatever it is that they’re doing. On and off relationships are so not her thing, and she’s so stressed, and gosh, she misses her friend. She breaks into a grin. “Let me change real quick.” He drives them into the city, and Kara’s grateful for the sense of normalcy of not flying. Winn parks in front of Noonan’s. “Thought we’d go back to our roots,” he beams. “Also I’ve been dying for those almond bearclaws.” Kara laughs and agrees, “Yeah, I could eat probably ten and not get sick of them.” They chat idly in a booth, sipping their coffees and picking at the dozen pastries they bought to share. They reminisce for a while about working at CatCo together and how they met, and Kara laughs at the appropriate times but her smile doesn’t fully reach her eyes. Winn leans over the table and rests a hand on Kara’s arm. She looks him in the eye, a little surprised by the physical contact, and he asks, “Hey, Kara, are you doing okay?” She adjusts her glasses and looks at her lap. “Yeah, of course, why wouldn’t I be?” Winn looks at her with a sheepish smile, and treads carefully. “It’s just, you seem to be, wound up? I guess. I don’t know if that’s the right word. James and I were talking—” “Look, I know you guys do the whole vigilante thing together but talking behind my back—” the whispering makes it sound harsher than she means it, and she feels a little bad, but then Winn cuts her off. “Kara, come on. No, listen. We’re just worried about you. Ever since you stopped, y’know, having a routine that includes stuff other than saving people all the time, you’ve been a little… touchy. We were just thinking that maybe it’s time for a friend night?” He punctuates the proposition with what Kara affectionately coined his Winning smile back when they first started to become friends. (She’d laughed at her own joke for about five minutes, and Winn knew he’d found a true friend in that moment.) Kara inhales deeply and rubs her temples. “I’m sorry, I’m— you’re right. I am a little moody right now.” She fiddles with her hands and looks up at her friend. “I’d love that. Friend night.” They share a smile, and she continues with a wince, “Is it really that noticeable?” “Oh, yeah. You’re like, eat-a-Snickers levels of grumpy. I’m the only one with enough guts to say anything, though.” Kara clutches her chest in fake agony and bows her head in mock shame. “You’ve all been conspiring against me!” Winn’s glad to have gotten a positive reaction out of her. “Only because we love you! How’s tomorrow work?” “Yeah, that’s great.” But she sits on that for a second, and then remembers, “Oh, wait, I have plans with Lena, actually. Maybe Saturday?” He thinks for a minute, and then surprises himself. “Or,” he suggests, “you could just invite her like a normal person? Because she’s your friend? And this is your friend night?” Kara bites her lip in hesitation. “But she doesn’t know…” Winn gives her a look, eyebrows raised nearly to his hairline and half a smirk, that makes her want to draw her knees to her chest and curl up into a little ball. She knows she’s being silly, but the prospect of Lena knowing that she’s Supergirl has her stomach in knots. It’s her big life secret, that she’s an alien and a superhero. She and Lena are close, but are they there yet? Once they acknowledge it out loud, it’s kind of a best-friend-for-life deal. It’s a big step. A milestone, even. “Kara. The woman built a black body field generator, hatched a foolproof plan against her own mother to render a virus inert and save all the aliens in the city, runs a multibillion dollar corporation at the ripe old age of twentysomething, and has spent more than ten minutes with you. She knows.” “But!” Kara’s nerves have her reaching for any kind of proof that maybe Lena doesn’t know, but she comes up with exactly nothing. “She knows. Don’t insult her intelligence, I’ll tell her you think she’s not as smart as you,” he teases. He wouldn’t really, for reasons including he’s kind of afraid of Lena, but it’s fun to see Kara get flustered. She opens her mouth and gestures wildly with an index finger to defend herself, but only stammers out some vowels before she gives in, shoulders dropping in defeat. “I’ll text her.” She taps out a message and clarifies, “For the record, I don’t think I’m smarter than her. Or anyone else.” It’s not a fair comparison anyway, Kara thinks. Math and science classes are way more advanced on Krypton, and if Lena or Winn had the chance to learn there they probably would’ve done as well as she had. For sure. “Mhm.” Winn plays at being unconvinced, just to see Kara flounder a little. He misses this. She looks up to refute him and realizes he’s kidding. She sits back and crosses her arms, and then lets out a few short laughs before shaking her head and looking down at her phone. “If she doesn’t want to come, we’ll do Saturday, okay?” “She’ll want to come.” “But, I—” “You can’t keep her to yourself forever,” Winn says. She feels a little guilty about that, now that he mentions it. She wants Lena to be a bigger part of her life, she’s just worried because her friends didn’t exactly trust the Luthor at first, and that makes things weird. And Lena’s great, and Kara knows everyone will like her once they get a chance to really meet her, but it’s always hard to be the new person in a group and throwing her into the fire like this may not be the best way. For Lena’s sake, of course. Not because Kara’s afraid of taking that next step. Which she’s not. So Winn’s right. It’ll be totally fine. Just a normal old friend night. A night of friends. Of which Lena is one. “She’s a busy person, she probably won’t answer until tonight,” Kara says a little haughtily, “so I’ll let you know.” Her phone dings with a notification. Winn chuckles to himself, and Kara blushes a little. “She wants to come.” He whoops in excitement, mostly at being right, and they finish their lunch before heading back to the DEO.

---

It’s not awkward. Okay, it was at the beginning, but now they’re collectively three bottles of wine into friend night and things are great. Mon-El has been pawing at her hand for the better part of an hour, which has been kind of annoying, but other than that he’s behaving. Sort of. He’s also been pouting because she’s been paying more attention to Lena than him, but it’s only because Lena’s the newest and Kara’s her only connection to the whole group. It’s more important for her to be a good friend to Lena than a good girlfriend to Mon-El right now. She knows she’ll hear an earful about it later, but whatever. She’s having fun. And so is Lena. And everyone else, too. They’re playing a round of charades, with Kara acting and Mon-El and Lena trying to guess. James, Winn, Alex, and Maggie are sitting on the couch watching the hilarity about to ensue.

Kara holds up two fingers, prompting her team. “Two words,” Lena starts, and Kara makes a circular hand motion with both hands. “About…” Kara points to herself, “Supergirl.” Lena’s eyes are twinkling, and, yeah, it’s confirmed. Kara bites her lip and shakes her head no. “Kara, hero, hot girl, glasses?” Mon-El tries. Kara’s eyes widen and she shakes her head vigorously. She tries again and points between herself and Mon-El a few times. “Couple, dating, in love?” She rolls her eyes, and ugh, no, he’s not getting it, but when Lena blurts “Aliens!” Kara jumps up and down and claps, smiling. The other team is in stitches, and Kara’s pretty sure Alex is in tears. She holds up one finger. “First word,” Mon-El says. She starts to flap both of her arms up and down. A high pitched tone rips into her eardrums and she gasps in pain and doubles over, covering her ears. “Loud, sick, headache?” When she doesn’t respond: “Are you okay?” “Kara what’s the matter?” She’s not sure who’s asking what, but the tone stops and she drops her hands. “Sorry guys, there was this… never mind. It’s gone now.” She takes a breath and nods to show she’s okay, and starts flapping her arms again. Alex watches her carefully, and both Lena and Mon-El guess flying, and she’s ready to try for the second word when the tone starts up again. This time it’s reverberating in her skull and it’s persistent. She winces as she hones in on the source of the noise, and follows it to the windowsill. She picks up a small rectangular black box, and it juts out a lancet and pricks her hand. Well, tries to. The beeping stops when the lancet breaks off. Alex is off the couch in a second and steps towards her sister, holding up a cautious hand. “Kara, what’s —“ Something, no, someone smashes through the window. The intruder raises a massive blue fist and swings it at Kara, who ducks just in time and manages to get a hit in at his stomach on the way down. “Everyone, get back!” They’re matching blow for blow, so Kara throws her glasses aside and squints her eyes to zap his shoulder with her heat vision. The creature roars and grabs for her, misses, and stumbles. Kara takes advantage of his weak positioning to get a hand around his throat, and another around one wrist. She shoves him backward and has him pinned to the wall, next to the window he busted through. “You ruined friend night!” She’s mad, rightfully so, and headbutts the beast in his nose. One of his noses. Whatever. His face. He bares his teeth, but then his mouth twists into what can only be interpreted as a vicious smile. His confidence shakes her and she stares into his pitch black, beady eyes as she tightens her grip on him. With his free hand, he holds up a device identical to the one that Kara had found in her apartment and presses the small button on the underside. There’s a moment where Kara is afraid something terrible is going to happen, but then the brute’s face begins to fall, and oh, something is not right. All of the sound seems to get sucked out of the room, and then the device in his hand explodes. Kara is thrown across the room and lands in front of Lena and Winn, who are crouched behind the couch. The monster catches a glimpse of Lena as she’s pulling Kara behind it, and stumbles as he starts towards her. Kara looks up at him, confused by his hesitation at the sight of a human when he very clearly came prepared to attack a Kryptonian, and tries to stand up. She won’t let him hurt her friends. He takes one more look around the room, snarls, and then jumps out of the destroyed apartment wall to the street below. By the time the group has rushed over, he’s long gone. “Are you guys okay?” Kara’s facing her friends now, and they all look uneasy. Something’s definitely not right. There’s a few mumbled yeahs, and no one has a scratch on them. Thank Rao for small favors.

Kara turns around to inspect the damage to her house. The window is gone and the blast has taken a good chunk of the surrounding wall with it. A few pieces of drywall crumble and fall to the ground. She sighs. James walks up beside her and places a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “Hey, it’s okay Kara, you can stay with me until this gets fixed.” Kara’s flattered, and her and James are good friends, but yeah, no. There’s hardly any awkwardness left from their break-up, and they made up after their fight about James being Guardian, but it would still be… weird, is what Kara settles on. She lets him down easy. “Thanks, James, but I think I’ll just crash with Alex.” She turns and offers him a reassuring smile, and then looks at Alex. Alex knits her brows and turns to look behind her, where no one is standing. “I’m not James,” James says, and then holds his hands up to look at them. “Wait, I’m James? No, I’m not!” “Did you hit your head? Should we go to the hospital?” Kara’s concerned, and reaches up to the man’s face to check for any missed injuries. “I’m James,” says Maggie, raising her hand. There’s a pause as everyone looks around the group. “I’m Maggie,” says Alex. “Wait, wait, wait. Everyone hold on.” Kara’s holding her hands out in front of her, trying to get her bearings. “I think I hit my head.” “Maybe, but, uh, I think something else has gone Super wrong,” and it’s Lena’s voice, but only Winn would talk like that. And make a joke at a time like this. “So if Maggie is Alex, and James is Maggie, who are you?” Kara turns back to ‘James.’ He huffs, “I’m your boyfriend, Kara.” Oh, great. So now her boyfriend is her ex, on top of this all. Perfect.

Kara looks between the two remaining people. Winn pipes up, "Alex." “Right. So if Lena’s Winn, and Winn's Alex, then you’re—” She faces the body of her boyfriend “—Lena.” Lena looks like she’s about to pass out. “I need to sit down,” Lena says. Kara closes her eyes and rubs them with the heels of her hands. “Okay, this is happening.” She takes a deep breath and picks up the device that has fallen to the ground.

“We need to call J’onn.”

[smallamountsofmonster]

A Little More

Supercorp - Read on ao3

Lena made very sure to always, from the beginning, follow Kara’s lead.  She knew what it felt like to have people attach themselves to her name, or her bank account, or her really incredible parking access around the city, and she knew how easy it was to lose sight of what friendship meant, and the difference between actually liking someone, and liking how that person looked at you when you exerted your influence.  So, from the beginning, she let Kara set the pace.  Kara Danvers, though, was probably the only person she had ever met that didn’t seem to want the perks that came with being her friend - and aside from the interview exclusives that she was so hesitant to ask for, Lena couldn’t think of a single favor Kara had called upon.  It was nice, but it wasn’t easy.  Lena spent most of their time together trying to convince herself that maybe Kara kept calling because she liked her as a person, rather than an opportunity.

“So, I need a favor,” Kara said one afternoon as they set up lunch on the coffee table in her office, and Lena had to remind herself to keep breathing.

“Okay?” Lena hoped that something resembling a smile was plastered on her face, but Kara wasn’t looking at her.

“I have a weekly game night with some friends, and since my sister started bringing her girlfriend, our numbers are off.”  Kara tore open a paper bag between them for easier access to the chips inside.  “You don’t mind tacos today, do you?  There’s this great little place I found last week in – town.  In town.”  She didn’t wait for Lena to respond, focusing on the food in front of them and trying her best not to blush.  “Anyway, game night.”

There was a pause before Lena tilted her head and said, “Yes?”

“Yes?  Oh, good.  Great.  Okay.  This will be fun!”

“What?”

“The first thing you need to know is that Alex cheats.  Are you any good at charades?”

“Not particularly.”

“That’s okay, we’ll work up to it.  Poker?  You seem like you’d be good at poker.”

“I am good at poker.”

“Perfect,” Kara grinned.  “Tell no one of this conversation.”

“I’m not entirely sure I could if I wanted to.”

“That’s the spirit.  Maybe you should come over early - to get our story straight?  How’s seven?”

“Seven, when?”

“Seven tonight.”

Lena might be nursing a little bit of whiplash from this conversation, but she knew when to say yes to a cute girl.  She glanced over at the stack of approvals on her desk that needed to be reviewed before tomorrow morning, and briefly wondered when was the last time she even considered putting off work in favor of a social visit.

“Seven is wonderful,” she said, though, and then fought a grimace at her wording.  Kara didn’t seem to notice.  She just grinned so brightly that Lena found herself comparing her to sunlight, and then she grimaced again because get it together, Luthor.

—

Lena had been to Kara’s apartment before.  She knew what to expect in terms of lighting and seating and, probably, food options.  But she always had to remind herself that social engagements were not necessarily business meetings.  Sometimes they were.  But this wasn’t. This was a casual invite to play board games and meet Kara’s friends, which definitely shouldn’t have had her so nervous that her foot tapped through the elevator ride, or that her lip was red from worrying at it.  Maybe she shouldn’t have worn this skirt.  She knocked before she convinced herself to run away, and the door was flung open almost immediately.

“You’re here!” Kara grinned at her, and handed her a full glass of wine before she was even through the door.  Bless her.  “So, listen, we’re actually one short tonight, so teams are out anyway.”

“Oh,” Lena said as she was ushered inside.  Kara was hanging her coat up, but she couldn’t remember actually taking it off.  “I don’t need to crash your party, if you’d rather even numbers.”

“No!” Kara’s hands were on her shoulders now, and Lena thought she might be more disoriented than originally assessed.  Kara seemed to be everywhere, all at once.  “No, please stay.  I was looking forward to hanging out with you.”

“Okay,” Lena nodded.  “Yes.”

“Everyone should be here soon, but I thought you might like a moment to situate.”

“Yes,” Lena smiled.  “That was very thoughtful.”

And then it was easy, Lena realized, to fall into Kara’s genuine domesticity.  She greeted each person with her full attention, but never drifted far from her side.  She introduced Lena to everyone individually, and not a single person recoiled at her name - she wondered if Kara had told them not to, or if they were maybe just nice, too.  She always figured nice people gravitated to other nice people.  

But then, she had met most of these people before.  Maybe the shock was just dulled.  

She lost at cards on purpose, and Kara was dismayed.  Alex brought her another glass of wine when Kara got distracted by pictures of Maggie’s goddaughter’s new puppy.

“Luthor,” she greeted, and it was friendly enough to surprise Lena.

“Thank you,” she said as she accepted the glass.  They sat next to each other and didn’t fill the silence, but adjusted in their own time.  When Kara swooped in to rescue her, she was surprised that she didn’t actually require it.  But she appreciated the thought, and she definitely appreciated how close Kara stayed the rest of the evening.

—

She found herself at Kara’s apartment almost every night for the next week.  And the week after that.  On days she didn’t make it over, Kara brought dinner to her office in dozens of tiny take out boxes, because she insisted on options.  One night, Supergirl dropped a bag of cookies on her balcony with just a wave before zipping off in the opposite direction.

They spent mornings texting, and lunch breaks sharing jokes and articles they thought the other would enjoy.  Kara started throwing her legs over Lena’s lap when they lounged on her couch, and laying her head on her shoulder halfway through movies.  Lena found herself relaxing into it, and was only a little mortified when she forgot to hide the fact that laughing sometimes made her snort.  She learned that she couldn’t eat at Kara’s level, and Kara learned to pick up some healthy options for her along with whatever pile of food she had gotten for herself.  It was nice.  It was something.

“Should we talk about it?” Kara asked one night as the credits rolled on the TV, and the apartment was dark and quiet, and the blanket draped over them made them both feel warm, and safe.

“If you’d like.”

“But would you like to?”  Lena paused.  “Because what you want is important too,” Kara pushed.  “You’re very careful with me, but I like you, and what you want is important.”

“Okay,” Lena nodded.  “Let’s talk about it.”

—

“You shouldn’t work so late.”

“Supergirl.”

Kara hopped down from the ledge of the balcony and leaned against the open doorway with a grin.  Lena leaned back in her chair and capped her pen.

“It’s part of the job, you know,” Kara said, crossing her arms and shifting her weight to one hip.  

“My schedule is part of your job?”

“Well, you’re part of National City,” she shrugged.  “It’s my job to make sure you’re, you know.  Safe.  Happy.  Healthy.”

“I see.”

“So, are you?”

“Would you like to come in, Supergirl?” Kara grinned at her again and took a seat on her couch.  Lena poured two glasses of water before she joined her, and Kara accepted hers with both hands.

“So, are you?” Kara said again when Lena was settled beside her.  

“You had a big day, I hear,” Lena smiled at her, and Kara laughed and shook her head.  “All part of the job, I suppose.”

“It feels awful of me, but these days are starting to feel like less of an accomplishment, and more of a day-job.  Night-job,” she corrected, and then looked completely surprised at herself.  “Oh,” she sat up a little straighter.  “That’s not what I meant to say at all.”

“Don’t worry,” Lena shook her head and let one hand rest on Kara’s knee.  “It doesn’t sound awful to me.”  Kara took a breath relaxed a little.

“So, do you ever go home for the day, or is this couch a pull-out?” Kara joked, and Lena shifted to prop her arm against the back of the couch and lean into it.

“Are you propositioning me, Supergirl?”

“I,” Kara jumped back a few inches.  “No, I,” she said, and Lena laughed so genuinely that Kara stopped fumbling and just watched, a smile tugging at one side of her mouth.

“I apologize,” Lena said as her laughter died down and she swiped quickly at one of her eyes.  “I so rarely get the opportunity to tease a superhero.”

“Oh,” Kara tried very hard not to grin, but really only succeeded with one side of her mouth.  “That’s part of the job, too.”

—

“Is this okay?”

Lena had to check.  Honestly, the last thing she wanted to do right now was pull back from Kara’s arms, but she had to check.  Kara was warm against her, and the fingernails scraping through Lena’s hair were driving her crazy, and she felt Kara nod against her as soft lips met the side of her neck.  She melted into it, hands dragging down Kara’s sides and then up underneath her shirt to rest tightly against her hips.  She pushed forward until Kara was pressed against the counter, and Kara gasped at the jolt, and Lena never wanted to do anything ever again that didn’t make her make that sound.  Her hands moved down to the backs of Kara’s thighs, but before she could tug her up onto the counter, Kara pushed one hand flat against her chest and stopped, breathing heavily into her shoulder.

“Wait,” she said, and Lena dropped her hands completely.  “No, it’s okay, I just,” Kara made a frustrated noise, and Lena took a small step back.  “We need to talk.”

“Oh,” Lena said, trying to calm her breathing and her heart and god, was it always so warm in here?  She took another step back and Kara had to grab her hand to stop her from retreating completely.

“I want this,” Kara said, crouching a little to catch Lena’s eyes, and holding her gaze until Lena gave her a small nod.  “I want this, but we need to talk before,” she paused.  “Before.”

“Okay.”

“Do you want to sit?”

“If you’d like.”

Kara’s grip on her hand was tight as she led her around to the couch, and she sat angled so their knees knocked.

“I don’t know how to tell someone this,” Kara gave a short laugh as she covered her mouth with her free hand.  “I’ve never done it before.”  Lena squeezed her hand, and Kara looked up at her with uncertain eyes.  “You deserve to know what this - what we’re becoming - who you’re -”

“Kara,” Lena breathed, and Kara gave another nervous laugh.  “You don’t have to tell me.”

“I really do.”

“I understand.”

“No,” she shook he head.  “I don’t think you do.”

“Kara, you don’t have to say it,” Lena said, and Kara stared at her.  “You don’t have to,” she said again, softly, because Kara was so still that she was sure she’d shatter right there in front of her.

“I’m Supergirl,” Kara finally whispered, closing her eyes as Lena’s hands tightened around hers.

“Yeah,” Lena nodded.  

“You knew that.”  Lena shrugged and leaned in to press her lips to Kara’s cheek.

“I know you.”

—

Keeping their relationship a secret made sense.  A Luthor dating anybody would signal a media frenzy, and increased focus on Kara Danvers would be good for no one.  And a Super dating a Luthor would be the story of a lifetime, and once that broke the internet it would be just a matter of time before the entire world knew that Kara Danvers was Supergirl.  Those, at least, we Lena’s reasons for agreeing to keep it quiet.  To be honest, she didn’t need her own reasons.  She had committed to following Kara’s lead from the start, and that hadn’t changed.  Kara’s reasons were much more dramatic, and involved intricate scenarios Lena could never imagine on her own, and her explanations included props, and sometimes Lena had to read off a script Kara had prepared.

Either way, Lena didn’t really understand why they were keeping the secret from Alex.  Well, Kara said that’s what the plan was, but she was currently sitting much closer than was strictly friendly, and the hand resting on her thigh was a little too high to be platonic.  Alex and Maggie sat on the couch across from them and were decidedly Not Looking At Them.

“So how did you convince this bakery to deliver cakes to your apartment?” Maggie asked, picking at the plate in her lap.

“I asked them to,” Kara shrugged.

“Yeah, but they closed like four hours ago.”

“Kara keeps them in business,” Alex said.  She flicked a bit of frosting at Kara, but it didn’t land and Kara stuck her tongue out at her.

“Well, I kind of have to,” Kara laughed, elbowing Lena gently.  “It’s the only place in town that caters to Lena’s ridiculous half-caf-extra-hot weirdo drinks adequately enough for her.”  Lena cleared her throat and smiled through a nod while Maggie raised her eyebrows at Alex, and Alex punched her in the shoulder.

“You liked the last weirdo drink I got,” Lena said, and honestly, how was that supposed to be helpful.

“That’s because it was hot chocolate with a fancy name.  You know, if you don’t like coffee, you don’t have to order it.”

“I like coffee fine,” Lena sniffed.  Kara grinned and nudged at Lena’s side with her fingertips until she crumpled into her.  Alex coughed.

“It’s getting late,” Maggie made a show of yawning.

“You have that big, uh,” Alex nodded to Maggie, but came up empty.

“Case,” Maggie supplied.

“Right, yes, big case.  We should go.”

“Are you sure? You barely had any cake,” Kara said, turning from Lena with a frown.

“Yep,” Alex said at the same time that Maggie said, “I had three pieces.”

Kara got their jackets, and they all made plans for the next movie night, and Kara kissed Lena before the door was even shut behind them.

“God, it’s so hard to just be friends like that,” Kara sighed, wrapping her arms around Lena’s waist and leaning her forehead against her shoulder.

“Okay,” Lena said.  She wasn’t going to be the one to break it to her.

—

It’s not that Lena wasn’t comfortable around Alex.  They’d spent many game nights and movie marathons together on the couch in the living room, with Kara flitting around them with an endless supply of snacks, and Maggie nudging her feet up against Alex under a blanket, and Winn chattering on keeping the tone light.  But Lena could count on one hand the times they’ve been left alone together, and never in her life has she been more grateful that neither one of them felt the need to fill silences.

“Kara’s on her way,” Alex spoke up finally, and okay, maybe one of them felt the need.  She gestured to the phone on the table and said, “She called.”

Lena nodded and ran her fingers along the kitchen counter.  Silence settled between them again, and Alex huffed.  She looked like she wanted to say something else, but turned away and found something to fiddle with every time she got close to it.  Just as Alex was liberating a beer from the fridge, they heard the key in the lock and both sighed in relief.

“Good,” Kara breathed as she rushed through the door.  “You’re both here, I’m sorry I’m so late - God, Snapper, he - you know what, it doesn’t matter.  Are you both ready?”  Lena and Alex shared a look before Alex shrugged.

“Yep.”

“Great.  I just have to shower quick, and we can go.”

“Quick-quick, or just quick?” Alex said hopefully, pushing her index finger into the table and leaning up on her toes.

“Just quick,” Kara tsked, and Alex deflated a little.  “You know my lines are clear.”  She sent a smile Lena’s way, who responded with one of her own.  “Oh, and I ordered food on the way, it should be here any minute.”  She disappeared into the bedroom, and Alex shrugged one shoulder at Lena before collapsing into the couch.  Kara did have very strict rules for when she could and could not use her powers - it helped her separate her lives.  Using super-speed for things like showering or cleaning were strictly off limits.  Unless, you know, there was a really good reason.  They heard a door slam and the shower kick on, and still, neither spoke until the doorbell rang.

“Kara,” Lena called over her shoulder, volume more for show than anything else.  “Your food,” she called again, grabbing the bags and unpacking them at the counter.  

“Yes!” Kara’s voice came from the bathroom.  “Can you bring me a curry puff?”  Lena looked uncertain, and when she looked up from the take out containers, Alex’s eyebrows were raised.

“Ah,” Lena said.  “I suppose I should,” she shook her head.  “Perhaps it would be more appropriate if,” she tried, but had no idea what would be more appropriate.  She sighed and let her shoulders sag a little, but grabbed the container and marched into the bedroom, ignoring Alex’s wide-eyed stare the entire way.  

“God, thank you so much,” Kara leaned out of the shower and ate a whole curry puff from Lena’s hand in one bite.  “I’m starving.  I skipped lunch.”

“Kara, are we sure this is the message you’d like to send your sister?”

“She knows I get crazy when I skip a meal.”

“Okay.”

—

“I want to tell Alex about us.”

Lena looked up from her dinner with wide eyes, but Kara held up a hand before she could say anything.  She’d been quiet all evening, fussing over the dishes in the sink and the laundry she had forgotten to fold, and Lena knew that is was best to just give her a minute to organize her feelings.  “I know we said it was safer this way, but these secrets are killing me.”  Lena put her fork down and folded her hands together in front of her as Kara stood from the table and started to pace.

“I tell her everything,” Kara folded one arm over her stomach and covered her face with the other.  “It took so much for her to tell me about Maggie, and I hate keeping this from her.  I feel like I’m lying every time she asks me how I am, or how my weekend was, or what I did after work.  She wants so badly for me to be as happy as she is, and I really want to tell her things like how green your eyes are in the morning, and how sweet and soft you are when nobody is around - and sometimes even when they are - and that I’ve never felt like this about anyone or anything before, and please say something before I combust.”

“I’m sorry,” Lena nodded, making sure to speak softly and standing to reach out to the frantic girl across from her.  “It’s just,” she paused and looked a little unsure of herself, which was a position she was wholly unfamiliar with, “I thought you had already told her.”  Kara stopped pacing.

“What?”

“And, I just want to remind you that you thought it would be safer this way.  I have millions of dollars invested in security systems and sleep quite soundly.”

“No, what about Alex?  Why would you think I already told her?”

“Kara.”

Kara folded both arms across her chest now and turned to face Lena directly,and Lena sighed because she had been waiting for this conversation, but she hadn’t been looking forward to it.

“You’re not the best at secrets,” she said as gently as she could, and Kara gasped.

“I beg your pardon,” she said when she was done stuttering through a pointedly incredulous laugh.  “I am great at secrets.”

“I love you,” Lena stepped forward and took Kara’s hands in her own.  “But you’re not.  And if you think that you behave platonically toward me in her presence, we need to have a talk.”

“I keep the biggest secret,” Kara shook her head.  Lena pursed her lips.  “Actively.”  They were quiet for a beat, and then another, and then one more before Kara’s eyes flicked around the living room anxiously.

“Okay,” Lena nodded and dropped her hands, moving back around the table to continue her meal.  “So, you want to tell Alex?”  

“I,” Kara looked confused.  “Yes.”

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

Kara still looked a little confused, but she sat back down at the table.  She was halfway through her mountain of potstickers and lo mein before she dropped her fork and sighed.  

“You have to tell me,” she said.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Come on.”

Lena sighed, set her fork down again and said, “Literally everyone knows you’re Supergirl,” and Kara just stared at her.  Lena waited for three whole minutes before she picked her fork up.  

“That’s impossible,” she finally said, more of a whisper than anything else.

“I honestly thought you knew,” Lena said.  “Well, I mean, at first.”

“That’s impossible.”  Lena hummed, taking the opportunity to steal a potsticker from Kara’s plate while she was distracted.  “I would know if they knew,” she shook her head.  Lena waved her fork towards the take out containers beside them.

“You only ever order two portions of potstickers from this place, and I have never seen any less than three bags full arrive.”

“They have big portions,” Kara said.  “That’s why I order from there.”

“The delivery guy winks at you when you tip him and tells you to have a super night.”

“That doesn’t prove anything.”

“When you first met me, you told me you arrived via flying bus.”

“That doesn’t count,” Kara’s ears turned a little pink at that one.  “You fluster me.”

“Okay,” Lena nodded.  “I’ll take that back because I like it when you blush.  Last week, four edible arrangements were sent to your office from different elementary schools around the city.”

“They,” Kara trailed off.  “No, that,” she tried again.  “Okay, full disclosure, I didn’t read the cards.  I felt awful, but those pineapple stars are delicious.”

“You get free danishes from the bakery because they have a Super Special special.  Every day.”

“Oh my god,” Kara’s head fell into her hands.

“It’s sweet,” Lena said.  “They love you.  No one will tell.  It’s all of National City’s little secret.”

“This is the worst thing that’s ever happened to me,” Kara groaned between her fingers.  Lena bit her lip.

“What about that time you forgot you weren’t wearing your suit under your clothes and took to the skies half naked?”

“Oh my god,” Kara groaned again.  Maybe sometimes perspective wasn’t helpful.

—

Lena knew there was an explosion.  The walls of her office cracked open, and her desk splintered, and something was on fire.  Maybe more than one something.  Maybe everything.  She knew there was an explosion, and she knew it had everything to do with her last name, and she knew this wouldn’t be the last time she watched the world literally crumble around her.  What she didn’t know, now, was where she was, or what exactly knocked her out, or when she could expect to regain the use of her muscles.

“It’s not that bad.”

“Where is she?”

The room was spinning and she felt a little like she might tip off the side of the bed if she kept her eyes open for very long.  Every color seemed muted, or too bright, or wrong.  She felt like someone’s hands were covering her ears, but Lena picked out Kara’s voice through everything else.  She wanted to call out, but her tongue was heavy, and someone was poking her arm with something sharp, and she had to shut her eyes tightly to try to make sense of any one piece of this situation.

“It’s not that bad,” she heard again, closer now.

“Get out of my way, Alex.”  Kara.  That was Kara.  She felt soft hands against her face, her neck, her chest.  She heard a shaky sort of hiccup, and it took more effort than expected to open her eyes. The bright blur in front of her let out a very wet laugh, and Lena focused very hard on the blue eyes that were not spinning at the same rate as the rest of the room.

“You’re okay,” Kara said, and then something else that was too soft for her to make out, so she just closed her eyes and gave a small nod.  “She’s okay?” Kara had turned away, she could tell, but didn’t stop touching her, which was good.  It made her feel less floaty.

“We need to keep her tonight,” Alex said.  “But she’s okay.”

“She’s okay,” Kara breathed.

“Kara, we need to discuss you breaking protocol.  J’onn is -”

“Can we do this later?”

“Not really,” Alex was getting louder.

“Please, Alex, just a minute?”  There was a pause, and Lena felt everything get a little quieter, a little less fuzzy, and when she opened her eyes, she saw Kara clearly in front of her, eyes wide and pleading with her sister.  Alex caught Lena’s eye from her spot in the doorway and sighed, looking both concerned and supremely uncomfortable.

“You have three minutes before I run out of excuses,” she said as the door clicked shut behind her.

“Kara.”

Kara spun to face her - she couldn’t tell if she used her super speed or not.

“Lena,” she breathed.

“You’re not being very subtle.”

“That’s the first thing you say to me?”

“You should tell her.”

“You’re okay, by the way,” Kara said with a smile.

“Yeah.”

“I’ll tell her later.”  Kara climbed up on Lena’s bed and nudged her until there was enough room for her to curl next to her.  The weight of Kara’s head against her shoulder was - helpful.  She felt grounded and warm and 100% more tethered, and the room stood still, finally, as Kara’s hand skimmed across her stomach and grabbed hold of her hip.

“Not subtle,” Lena said again before shutting her eyes, and this time, the floating felt nice.

—

“You shouldn’t be up.”

“Don’t mother me,” Lena waved off Kara’s grabby hands and leaned into the cane she was stuck with until her leg healed.  Kara’s apartment was bright, and comfortable, and she had finally learned how to feel at home here, but Kara had been hovering for days, and Lena just wanted to walk to the bathroom by herself every once in awhile.

“Don’t tell me how to help you,” Kara clucked back at her while Alex tried very hard to look busy with her bottle of beer.  Kara had been jittery all night, and Alex was doing her best to give her some space and maybe pretend she didn’t have eyes.  “Have you eaten?”

“You dropped seven pizzas on my balcony this afternoon.  You didn’t even stop, you just threw them.  Jess nearly had a heart attack.”

“You should give her a raise,” Alex nodded from the couch.  Lena considered her for a moment and then nodded back.

“But did you eat them?”

“Not all of them,” Lena said.  She took a bottle of water from the fridge and wished for something stronger.  Kara wouldn’t allow it while she was healing.  She caught Kara’s glare and said, “Nobody can eat seven pizzas, Kara.”  

“So what movie did we just have to watch that I had to cancel my plans for?” Alex finally spoke up and Lena sent her a silent thank-you-nod.  She really appreciated that they could communicate almost entirely through stilted body language.

“Maggie cancelled your plans,” Kara corrected.  She lowered her glasses and stared down a bag of microwave popcorn until it popped on the kitchen counter.  Lena raised her eyebrows at her and she shrugged.  “It was an emergency.”

“Yeah, but then I made plans to drink a bottle of wine and marathon Battlestar Galactica, which I had to cancel.”

“Those don’t count as plans.  Those are sad plans,” Kara shook her head and shoved a handful of popcorn in her mouth.

“I was present for the Desperate Housewives Marathon of 2015, so you can get right off that high horse of yours.”

“I have to tell you something,” Kara finally shouted, arms straight at her sides, eyes closed.

“Oh,” Alex said, eyes wides, hands up in front of her.  “No movie?” Lena gave her a look over Kara’s shoulder, but Alex’s smile just got sweeter.

“I know this might come as a surprise,” Kara started, relaxing her shoulders and pushing her hands down flat in front of her.  “Maybe we should sit.  For this.  Do you want to sit?”

“I am sitting.”

“Maybe I should sit.”

“Maybe you should just tell me,” Alex said.  “Or at least give me some popcorn while I wait out your episode.”  Kara gave her a look, and Alex’s grin dropped into a Very Serious Face.  “No, you’re right, I’m sorry.  Please continue.”

“You may have noticed recently some changes in behavior,” Kara started slowly, looking to Lena for help.  

“Maybe I should give you two a moment,” Lena said, gesturing toward the bedroom, but Kara gave her a panicked look and Alex stood to snatch one of Kara’s hands in her own, and everything about their body language was confusing Lena.  She stood stuck, halfway between planted firmly in the room and completely fleeing the scene.

“Stay,” Alex said gently, and Kara swallowed and let out a long breath.

“Lena and I are dating,” she said, softly, firmly, eyebrows furrowed and jaw clenching.  Alex waited for her to relax a little, before she ducked her head to catch Kara’s eyes with a smile.

“Yeah,” she said.  

“What?” Kara’s voice cracked, and Lena took a few steps forward to rest a hand at the small of Kara’s back.  

“Maggie said I should act surprised, but I’m not going to pretend with you,” Alex said.  She sent a half smile across to Lena, and then a full one to Kara, who looked like she was beyond emotion completely.  “I’m glad you found someone.”

“I told you you’re bad at secrets,” Lena teased softly, nudging Kara’s back before getting swatted away.

“So not the time, babe.”  Alex took a step back at that, though.

“Damn it,” she said, shaking her head.  Kara looked confused.  “I bet Maggie $20 you weren’t up to pet names yet.”

“You should really stop betting her,” Lena said.

“I’m going to win one day.”