"No, Lena. It's absolutely unneccessary!"
Kara Danvers turns around, facing away from her best friend and now boss Lena Luthor. She throws her hands up in the air in frustration and starts pacing. Lena just crosses her arms in front of her and taps her foot on the wooden floor.
"No, Kara," the CEO speaks in her best authoritative voice, "There is no way I will allow this. I will not let your life be endangered because of me!"
"Ugh." Kara plops herself down on the bed. "Lena, listen to me-"
"No, you listen."
Lena cuts Kara off, invading the reporter's personal space, propelling herself forward so that their faces are close, looking at her friend square in the eye. Lena's authoritative tone is now her big bad bitch tone, one that she has never ever used on Kara Danvers and never thought she would need to; and of all the times Kara had to be her stubborn self, this had to be one of them. But there was no way in hell Lena was budging for this. Not for Kara Danvers - not for her most important friend. Kara is taken aback by the fire in her best friend's tone.
The two women were at Kara's apartment. They were fine on the car ride home. Well, Kara was because she is Supergirl, but Lena was shaken up - not for herself, however, but for her friend.
It was a few days after the lead poisoning incident at the Luthor Children's hospital and Supergirl's visit with the biggest white male douchebag on the face of the earth - or at least National City - Morgan Edge. Edge had taunted her and called her weak for not being able to kill him. So, Kara decided that if she can't touch Morgan Edge as Supergirl, she was definitely not going to let the opportunity to get back at him as Kara Danvers pass.
She had written a scathing article that was posted on the CatCo Media website early this morning about the alleged involvement of the Acre Lee company and by extension, Edge's group of companies to the poisoning incident. She had also exposed Edge's misogyny and sexism after she luckily uncovered a sexual harassment suit in the man's past that he tried to bury with his money. But when you've got a nose for news like Kara Danvers and not to mention, Clarke Kent as a cousin who has Lois Lane, the best reporter in the planet, as his wife, you can bet that nothing will ever stay hidden.
So, with Edge branded as a rapist and misogynist, it was easy to list down all the instances documented on video or in interviews, where he directed hate at Lena Luthor because she is a woman in power. The article also called him for the spineless coward that he is.
After the article's posting, everything just went downhill from there. Numerous other news stations kept calling CatCo for the details on the story. Kara still remembers the look on Eve Tessmacher's face as she got dizzier and dizzier by the second, managing all the calls and e-mails. If they were in a cartoon world, Ms. Tessmacher would have two swirling spirals for eyes and she would be a limp figure barely hanging on her chair.
Then came the anonymous death threats. Kara's phone kept blaring and ringing. However they managed to get her number, she would never know. She must have been hacked or something. She makes a mental note of asking Winn and the DEO to provide a secure mobile phone for her that's unhackable so she wouldn't have to worry about this happening again.
But, of course, the death threats were nothing to be concerned about for Kara. She was Supergirl for crying out loud. She could definitely take care of herself. Lena was worried, as a friend would be. Everyone in CatCo was confident that these were merely threats meant to scare Kara. The editorial board expected this much when they gave Kara the green light to run the story.
What they didn't expect, however, was the duo riding a big black unregistered motorbike that drove up to Kara Danvers and Lena Luthor in the parking lot and started shooting at them. Kara had heard the roaring sound of the bike's engine as it was a few seconds away, just in time to push her friend down beside the car and cover her. Lena, however, didn't even have the time to scream in terror and shock. The gunshots rang loudly in the parking lot and the bullets ricocheted off of the parked cars, including the CEO's prized Tesla. Kara shot up and tried to shoot the tires of the bike with her heat vision but missed. Lena was crouched down to the ground and was oblivious to what Kara just did.
The CEO was visibly shaken and pale but thankfully unscathed.
Gosh, how many times is Lena Luthor going to get shot at in her life? Kara thinks. Hopefully not too many. Hopefully not when Kara isn't there to save her.
Kara gently helped Lena up on her feet and then dusted off her friends clothes before dusting her own. Her fingertips graze over a bullet hole in her blazer around the part of her shoulder blades and she immediately takes it off before Lena sees her uninjured despite being shot and finally realizes she's Supergirl. The blue of her Supergirl suit peeks through the hole in her cashmere sweater, however, but of course, she can't take that off.
The ride going to Kara's apartment was quiet. They didn't start fighting until Kara alighted Lena's car and stood at her building entrance.
That was when Lena told - pretty much ordered - Kara to come stay at her house for a while instead of staying by herself in her apartment for her safety. Kara had just waved it off, because really, she can take care of herself.
But Lena was not having any of it.
Which takes us back to now...
"Kara, you know what he is capable of. He poisoned children and now he is after you, trying to get you killed. What kind of friend or person would I be if I let you stay in your apartment? Alone?"
Lena is staring Kara dead in the eyes still. There was fire in the CEO's beautiful green eyes and Kara couldn't help but sweat under their stare. She briefly thinks that Lena Luthor has the power to will any wish to reality with that stare and green orbs alone.
Kara leans back, almost lying down on the bed, putting breathing space between her and the persuasive woman. The reporter's thoughts brushes on vampires and their powers of thrall and considers that Lena Luthor could definitely pass off as a vampire.
Or maybe she is? Otherwise, how do you explain her whole look and her ability to make people say yes?
Kara tries to convince Lena again, now that she has more room to breathe.
"Look, I can stay with Alex. She can keep me safe."
Lena leans back, squints her eyes at Kara and narrows her brow. She was not budging and neither was Kara. Whenever she finds herself in between a rock and a hard place, Lena always makes sure she's even more unbreakable and unbendable than the two. So she makes her mind up to not budge on this one.
In a game of stubborness, Lena always wins.
"Your sister is an FBI agent who is almost always out on the field. How is she going to protect you?"
Kara sighs a heavy breath through her nose. She looks down and shakes her head slowly, clenching her jaw. She was losing her patience. The two of them have been going at it for almost an hour now and this is the first serious fight she and Lena ever had for as long as they've been friends. Lena just maintains her stare, eyebrow raised, daring Kara to challenge her.
Kara opens her mouth.
"Lena, no, I don't-"
"My penthouse has 24/7 security and there's no way those hired hitmen can get to you as easily."
"But Lena-"
Fifteen minutes later, Kara pulls a dusty suitcase out of her closet. She sees the dust billow and swirl around in the rays of the afternoon sun. She last used this when she moved into this apartment after graduation from National City University and after getting the assistant position at CatCo. So, she should have expected it to be in this state. She should definitely clean this storage closet when she gets back. She feels a tickling sensation at her nose. She scrunches up her face to relieve herself.
It doesn't work. So, she rubs it with her fingers. This only proves to be counter-effective as-
AAH-AH-AHCHOOOO!
Kara sneezes with the mighty wrath of Rao and Lena jumps from the sheer loudness of the noise. It sounded like a hurricane blew through the house. The CEO was in the reporter's bathroom because she'd been unable to take a bathroom break while they were fighting, not unless Kara gave up. Lena hurriedly washes her hand and fixes her skirt to check on her best friend.
Meanwhile, Kara opens her eyes to see that her breath has frozen her hand over the suitcase handle. Her eyes widen. Oh shoot... She tries to carefully wiggle her hand around, but it doesn't budge.
"Kara?" It was Lena's voice, worried, followed by the sound of a door knob turning, the creak of an opening door and the loud click clack of heels on her wooden floors.
Lena's coming. And her hand was frozen stuck to her suitcase while a third of the said suitcase was also frozen over. Oh fu-Fort Rozz, no, she can't see…
Lena Luthor hurriedly walks to Kara's closet, knowing that Kara was starting to pack. She rounds the hallway, her brow furrowed in concern and sees…
She jumps in surprise as she almost bumps into Kara who was closing the closet door behind her. Kara is equally surprised, a 'deer caught in headlights with a touch of guilty seven year old caught with her hand in the cookie jar' look on her face. The reporter's mouth opens and closes like a goldfish.
"L-Lena! I, uh, I wuh…"
Lena tilts her head and the crease in her brow deepens.
"Kara I heard a loud…" Lena squints as she tries to look for the word to describe it. "Uh… Gust of wind and… cracking noise?"
Oh, shoot… Kara scrambles for some sort of excuse, any sort of excuse. Was she really going to blow her cover with a sneeze, of all things? She imagined all future scenarios of her identity reveal as Supergirl (if there ever was going to be one) to her best friend as much more dramatic.
"Uh," Kara smiles and puts a hand, the unfrozen and warm one, on Lena's shoulder in what she hoped was a comforting manner. "No, that was nothing… Some of my old things fell from the top shelf of my closet and I, uh, bumped my head against it when I stood up, and, uh… Oh, you know, just me being my clumsy self."
The crease in Lena's brow disappears but the concern in her eyes deepen.
"Oh my, are you hurt?" The CEO starts inspecting her friend closely, patting Kara randomly all over her body, to check if the other woman was injured in any way. She suspends all disbelief and casts aside her doubts on what happened because she heard no crashes or thuds, and there was no way that was just a few things falling.
Lena's hands touch Kara's arm and they move down to check her other hand. Kara instinctively moves her arm away, hiding it farther behind her, away from Lena's touch.
"Kara, what?" The CEO is surprised by this but insists on checking it, anyway.
The reporter is breathing quickly now, nervous and panicked, and shakes her head no. Lena raises her eyebrow. Her friend is definitely the seven year old with her hand caught stuck in the cookie jar. Lena's nostrils flare in impatience and she looks determined to see what had just happened.
"Show me your hand." Lena says this in the voice she uses when she wants to make men cower. It definitely has the same effect on Kara Danvers.
Kara looks more and more panicked by the second.
"Kara, I said-"
"It's private!" Kara screams in panic.
What? Confusion is written plainly all over Lena's face.
"What's private?" Lena leans back and tucks her arms together, eyebrow raised. What exactly was Kara talking about?
Kara breathes out, finally relieved that Lena has backed off a bit. The day has been harrowing for Lena Luthor. She wasn't new to these threats, she'd been the object of death threats ever since she took the seat at L-Corp. What she wasn't having, however, was Kara's life being endangered in any way. And now her best friend had an accident in her closet and is being all secretive about it. And while she usually doesn't pry because she's a very private person herself, Lena's nose could sniff the bullshit a mile away. If Kara Danvers was-
"The, uh… My things in this closet, they're, uh, they're private." Kara looks down, fidgets a bit with her glasses, and pushes them up the bridge of her nose. She was caught in a position and she had blurted out the first thing in her head.
Lena observes Kara's behavior and then it just clicks in her head. Oh, private… That kind of private.
The CEO takes a step back and looks down, now feeling ashamed and guilty. Kara is surprised by the sudden change in her friend's behavior when it pieces together in her head, too.
Oh no… She thinks the things in my closet are… Oh, Rao.
"No, no, Lena, I-" then Kara pauses. Was there really a more perfect excuse to get Lena to calm down and not inspect her still-frosted hand and the frozen suitcase she put back in her closet?
No.
"Yes. Those are my, uh," Kara gulps, the word feels stuck in her throat, her face heats up hotter than the sun of Krypton. Oh dear Rao, this is embarrassing. She gulps again before continuing, "- toys… of a sexual nature, and-"
Kara was going to say that she doesn't want her anyone to see them but she's halted as Lena puts her hand up to stop Kara from speaking further; the CEO's pale skin also now red as a freshly picked tomato. Lena's not new to anything racy because, duh, boarding school, but Kara Danvers wasn't one of the people she's used to talking about anything sexual with. So, not wanting to prolong both of their agonies, she's letting Kara know that she's backing off completely.
"It's fine, Kara. I-I'm sorry for being invasive." Lena looks up and into her friend's eyes, shaking off the awkwardness of the situation and trying to get back on track. "I was just worried. Today's been crazy."
Kara holds Lena's gaze and nods. She understands everything, she understands that Lena's just trying to keep her safe. A smile blossoms slowly on Kara's lips. This was new, someone was treating her and trying to take care of her. It made her feel like a normal girl. She laughs and the sound surprises Lena. The CEO raises a questioning eyebrow.
"Oh, you know," Kara waves a nonchalant hand. "Guess you now know my secret."
Lena laughs. Kara Danvers, sex toy enthusiast? Lena licks her lips and takes a step forward. The air between the two women shift and Kara wasn't sure what's changed until she sees Lena lick her lips. The reporter gulps.
"Well, Kara, you're not the only woman with secrets…"
The way the other woman said it makes her skin break into a light cold sweat. What was that? What did that mean? Kara shakes her head and laughs nervously. Lena's eyes scan Kara from head to toe, a glint of something in them - what it is, Kara can't quite figure out. But she feels unnerved.
The CEO laughs and turns around. She decides to let Kara pack by herself so she can bring anything she wants to her apartment
"I'll go downstairs and wait for you in the car."
When the door closes behind Lena's back, Kara immediately pulls out her phone from her pocket and speed dials her sister as she walks to her sink to wash off thaw her hand with warm water. Alex picks up at the third ring.
"Hey, Kara-"
"Alex," she interrupts her sister, "Lena and I got attacked at the CatCo parking lot."
"What? Are you guys fine?" There was worry in Alex's voice.
"Yes. There's a bullet hole in one of my favorite sweaters, though."
In the DEO, Alex laughs and shakes her head. In her apartment, Kara runs the warm water over her frosted hand.
"Do you know who attacked you?" Alex asks.
"Lena and I know for sure that it's Morgan Edge. I ran an article that could basically ruin his reputation." Kara closes the faucet and heads back into her closet to find another bag to put her clothes in. "He's the only one who would want to kill Kara Danvers and he's more than capable of it. But that's not my problem right now."
"What is?"
"Lena now wants me to live with her until my life isn't in danger any more." Kara throws her hands in the air in frustration. "Because she has no idea that I'm bulletproof!"
"What? Oh. Right…"
"I even told her I could stay with you but she thinks you're an FBI agent and you're not home for most of the day and I'll still be in danger, anyway."
Alex sighs.
"Lena does have a point Kara. Just…" the DEO agent throws a hand in the air, "just go along with her on this, so she doesn't find out you're Supergirl. In the meantime, I'll talk to J'onn and we'll see if we can figure something out."
Kara blows out a breath of frustration.
"I knew you'd say that. Okay, Alex."
Kara ends the call and goes back to her storage closet to look for another bag she can use.
Oh, boy…
Kara bounds down the steps of her apartment building. She can see through the tinted windows of the very expensive limousine parked in front that Lena Luthor was typing away at her phone in the backseat before her friend rolled down the window - x-ray vision.
After the attack that afternoon, Kara's senses were on high alert. She listened for any suspicious noises and scanned for any threats. She'd actually flown around to check, bird's-eye view, if there were any more masked gunmen trying to kill her or her friend. Thankfully there were none.
Kara opens the door and slides herself in. The limo tilts to accommodate her weight then rights itself back up - the motion doesn't budge her friend in the slightest. Lena was focused on whatever she was typing as evidenced by the crease on her brow and the intense concentration on her face.
"Hey," the reporter greets her.
Only at the sound of her friend's voice does Lena look up from her phone.
"I was just writing an e-mail - uh, Kara?" The CEO stops mid-sentence, a sculpted brow raised in confusion. "What is that? Why are you carrying a black plastic garbage bag?"
Kara looks down at the bag she's holding.
"Oh, th-this… It's, uhmm…"
One of the strongest beings on the planet, the girl of steel, is holding a black trash bag that contains all of her clothes and things because she didn't have any other suitcase or bag that was big enough to pack a week's worth of clothes in. Never in her wildest dreams did Kara Danvers think she would one day be packing her things in a garbage bag. Not to mention Lena probably thinks she's a big weirdo for not having a proper suitcase yet managing to have a sex toy collection. Lena must think her priorities are out of whack. It doesn't help that the black bag is making her look very homeless and pitiful right now.
Kara scrunched her nose and fidgeted with her glasses. If I told Lena that I am Supergirl, this would all be a lot easier… She laughs nervously.
"Oh, well… You see, I had a, uh, s-suitcase but now… well, it's unusable at the moment, s-so I had no other choice…"
Lena looks at her friend in a mix of confusion and pity; confused because surely there were better options than this and pity because not only was her friend's life in danger, she was unsafe in her own home, she also doesn't even have a proper suitcase! The CEO thinks of ordering two bulletproof suitcases on Amazon later - or maybe five and two kevlar vests for each of them.
"We should get you a nice suitcase then."
Kara nods. Wait, what? We? But before she could say anything else, Lena presses a comms button at her side to speak to her driver who is way up at the front of the car.
"Joseph, to the penthouse, please."
The CEO turns back to whatever e-mail she was composing and Kara feels the engine of the vehicle come to life. She's going to be living with her boss slash best friend for at least a weekend, something they both agreed upon earlier, or for Rao knows how long until Lena can be assured that she's out of harm's way.
Oh boy...
