So I may get yelled at by a few people for starting a new multichapter story while I'm currently working on one already. I would say I'm sorry, but I'm really not. I wrote my first Supercorp fic recently, and I had so much fun with it. It made me want to write more. So I am. Here we go. Please enjoy my new fic.
Kara triumphantly slapped a pair of DEO power dampening cuffs on the hostile alien she'd just beaten. He was from a planet not far from her home planet Krypton, and Kara knew as soon as she saw him she was in for trouble. His species was known for destruction and violence, and he had the strength to match hers. The fight had taken both her and J'onn (in his alien form) to bring him down, and by the time it was over they were both sweaty, tired, and filthy with dirt and rubble.
Kara smoothed out her blonde hair, which now stood up at odd angles. Dust fell into her eyes, and she blinked rapidly to try to clear them, all the while coughing. The green Martian patted her on the back, trying to help her get over her fit. When she was done she gave him an appreciative smile. He squeezed her shoulder and looked at her proudly.
"Excellent work, Supergirl," he told her.
"Thanks, J'onn," she said in an airy voice, trying to catch her breath. "Rao, I'm exhausted. Is this what humans feel like when they exercise? It's awful!"
"I wouldn't know," J'onn said with a chuckle. He looked to the alien at their feet, who was knocked out cold from Supergirl's final blow to his face. "We should get him back to the DEO before he wakes up."
Kara nodded her agreement, and together they hoisted him up and flew away, anxious to get the criminal behind bars before he could recover and try to go into round two of sparring. That was not something Kara wanted or had the time or energy for.
Once the alien was safely locked up Kara's anxiety eased. That was one less thing to worry about. Now that her Supergirl work was done for the day she could get back to her human life: Kara Danvers, CatCo reporter and devoted friend and sister.
She was thankful they'd been able to contain the hostile in under an hour. She'd almost wanted to groan when the red alert went off literally moments before she was heading out the door to go home. But they'd wrapped up with just enough time for her to go home and shower before her guests arrived.
Kara found it important to try to live as normal of a human life as possible. She found it gave her balance and stability amongst the Supergirl craziness. Spending time with the people she loved most in the world reminded her why she put on the cape in the first place, to protect them. After all, it had been her need to save her sister, her favorite person in existence, that drove her into the spotlight in the first place.
"I still can't believe you didn't let me back you up," the same sister said as she stood in the medical unit at the DEO, checking Kara's vitals.
"Alex, I told you, it was too dangerous," Kara said, rolling her eyes. "I didn't want you to get hurt."
Ever since J'onn had stripped the DEO of all their weapons Kara started worrying about Alex more. She knew her adopted sister was a badass, but she was still human. She was more fragile, and Winn was still working out the kinks in the new DEO armor. She didn't want Alex out there until she was one hundred percent sure no harm would come to her.
"I can take care of myself, if you hadn't noticed." Alex fixed her with a playful glare. "Everything checks out, by the way. You're good to go. You should probably shower." The brunette crinkled her nose at the younger woman and reached out to swipe dust off Kara's shoulder.
"Thank you," Kara said quickly, hopping down from the exam table.
Alex watched her with an amused smile as she rushed out of the room. Typical Kara. She'd just gone through a tremendous battle with an alien life form, and Alex could tell it took a lot out of her. But from the moment she sat on the exam table the blonde couldn't sit still, fidgeting and casting glances at the clock when she thought Alex wouldn't notice. Kara couldn't sit still if her life depended on it. She was always on the go, and when she finally did sit down she constantly had to have her hands occupied with something, whether it be her phone, talking animatedly with hand gestures, or readjusting her glasses. It was something she wasn't even sure Kara realized she did herself, but Alex did. It was all part of what made Kara, Kara.
Kara returned home, flying in through her living room window and landing in the center of the room. As soon as her red boots hit the ground more dust fell from her, dirtying her already untidy floor. She sighed heavily through her nose, knowing she would have to clean that up. She would have to speed clean the whole apartment before people started coming over. It was game night, and she was hosting this time. Winn, Alex, Sam, Ruby, and Lena were set to come over, and she'd been so busy with work and being a superhero that she hadn't had time to clean the apartment over the week. She would have started on that immediately, but she knew she needed to shower first.
She reflexively reached for her phone in her pocket to check the time before she realized she was still wearing her Supergirl outfit. That meant her phone was still in her pants pocket in her locker back at the DEO. She let out a growl in frustration. She did not have time to go all way back to the DEO to get it, super speed or not.
Thinking quickly, she picked up her laptop off the couch and opened Facebook. She sent Alex a message asking her to grab her things from her locker to bring them over when she left the DEO. She was set to come a little early to help set up, knowing her sister tended to be a bit scatterbrained when criminals ran amuck as much as they had been lately.
After a few moments Kara got a message back from her sister assuring her that she would do that and be on her way soon. Kara sighed in relief and closed her laptop, placing it back on the couch.
Lena Luthor sat in her office, fighting the urge to let her eyes roll back in her head and her chin dip to her chest as the man in front of her droned on. All she'd asked him for were prices on the materials he was trying to sell her, but that turned into a half-hour over-detailed explanation of each one. She waited patiently at first, but when he kept on, not allowing her to get a word in. She stared at him instead, effectively tuning him out. Finally she could take no more.
"Stop," she said abruptly, holding out her hand. "Please, just stop."
The man furrowed his brow and frowned. "But I'm only half-way through with the descriptions."
"I don't need them," Lena said, somewhat glaring at him. "I'm an intelligent woman, Mr. Jacobs. I know what all of these materials are, as I have personally worked with them many times. All I asked you for was the cost." She leaned back in her chair and fixed him with a red-lip-sticked frown. "But you instead man-splained to me things I already knew, effectively wasting both your and my time." She stood, smoothing out her gray dress. "I don't like wasting time, Mr. Jacobs. Therefore, I don't think is a partnership L-Corp will be pursuing." She couldn't help smiling when he stared at her coldly, his hands gripping the arms of the chair he was sitting in so hard his knuckles turned white. "I believe you can find your way out." She gestured to the door before turning to look out onto her sunny balcony, signaling the conversation was over.
She heard him mutter curses under his breath as he trudged across the room, slamming the door behind him. She was surprised to hear it open again a second later and was afraid he'd come back to get in the last word. But she turned to see her assistant of the month, Ashley standing there instead. She sighed in relief and ran a frustrated hand through her long, raven hair she'd worn loose and hanging over her shoulders that day.
"How many more of these are there?" she asked in a strained voice, tempted to fix herself a drink from the bottle of Scotch she kept stashed in her desk before her next meeting.
"That was actually the last one," Ashley said brightly, glad to be delivering what she knew Lena would take as good news.
"Oh, thank God," Lena said to the young woman. "If I had to sit through one more self-proclaimed big shot coming in here and thrusting his toxic masculinity on me I was considering throwing myself off the balcony." She added a smile at the end to show the petite strawberry-blonde that she was joking. Ashley had only been around for a few weeks, and she hadn't quite picked up on Lena's sarcasm just yet. But the young woman laughed and nodded, showing she'd gotten it that time. "Why don't you pack up and head on home, Ashley?"
Ashley's face broke into a smile, before faltering slightly. "Are you sure? There's nothing else you need me to do?" She loved the idea of not being here until well into the night, which she'd discovered Lena was fond of doing, but she didn't want the Luthor to think she was slacking off already.
"Absolutely," Lena said with a dismissive wave of the hand. "I'm heading out myself. I have plans." She smiled to herself as she retrieved her handbag from under her desk. She couldn't help it. She was finally going over to Kara's for one of the Danver's famous game nights. She'd always heard about them from her friend but had never actually gotten an invitation. But since she'd helped to save Sam and started getting close to Alex by association, the invite was officially extended to her. It made her feel included and like she belonged, something she'd never felt before, not after growing up in the Luthor household. It was nice to feel wanted. It was unusual and foreign, but welcome.
"Plans?" Ashley asked, suddenly interested. "Hot date?"
Lena flinched at the question. It was so personal and not something an assistant had ever asked her before. Most only spoke to her about work, never taking an interest in her personal life. She honestly thought most feared her and that was why she couldn't keep one around for longer than six weeks at a time. Ashley was different, though. She was young, hardly twenty-one, only had a little experience, and possessed empathy that Lena noticed almost immediately because she found most others lacked it.
"No," Lena answered slowly, glancing at her assistant shyly. "I just got out of a relationship, actually, so I don't think I'm ready for that just yet."
"I'm sorry to hear that," Ashley said, looking at her sadly.
"Don't be." Lena shook her head. "It was mutual."
And for the most part it had been. Her relationship with James had been so rocky and felt forced from the start. By the end of it Lena started realizing she was dating him more as of a convenience than as someone she was actually interested in. After freezing him out for weeks he finally called things off, and she'd had to stop herself from smiling as he dumped her. She tried her best to keep composed, but she honestly felt relieved he'd finally done it so she didn't have to do it herself.
Ashley nodded, relieved she hadn't put her foot in her mouth. She had a problem with doing that. "Good," she said awkwardly. "Well, have a nice night, Ms. Luthor."
"Goodnight, Ashley."
Once outside of the building Lena stood in front of the doors, waiting for the car she'd called on the way down. As soon as it pulled up her driver Dan hopped out and opened the door for her, though she'd told him many times she was capable of opening the door for herself. He still insisted and eventually she just started letting him. Once she had slid into the backseat she removed her dark sunglasses from her face and placed them in her expensive leather purse.
"Home, Ms. Luthor?" Dan asked once he'd returned to the front seat and got situated behind the wheel.
Lena thought about it for a moment, unsure. She hardly ever finished work with enough time to go home and do anything but shower and sleep. It wasn't exactly a home, per se, more like just a place to lay her head at the end of the day. She hated being in her loft, finding its stark white walls and pristine furniture suffocating. It was honestly the last place she wanted to be at the moment.
"Actually, I'm going to a friend's," she said.
After giving him the address Dan pulled away from the curb and began driving them through town. Lena knew she would be nearly an hour early at showing up for game night, but she supposed to would be better than her usual habit of showing up fashionably late if at all. It was a bad habit, one she tried to avoid, but it was bred into her. As a Luthor she had grown up being told "Always keep them waiting for you. It asserts your dominance over the situation."
It was something Lena was working on and tried to not do when it came to Kara. She didn't think of her sunny companion as someone who needed to be dominated in any way. Their relationship was built on mutual respect, not fear. The blonde had always been an amazing friend to her, believing in her when no one else did. She thought if there was anyone who deserved to be on time for, it was Kara.
But she should at least warn Kara she was going to be early as to not catch her friend too off-guard. So she sent a text saying she was on her way, and that she hoped it was okay. She got back a thumbs-up emoji, finding it a weird response. Kara hardly ever responded so simply to her, noticing the blonde tended to ramble, even during text. But she supposed Kara was probably busy setting up, knowing her friend had the tendency to be a little OCD when it came to entertaining, meticulously laying out snacks and drinks and such for everyone beforehand. She could practically see Kara perfectly stacking the board games on the kitchen table in preparation. That was the perfect explanation for the short answer. If anything, she could help the blonde, so she would feel like she was intruding less.
Kara wished her speed was something that helped when it came to taking a shower, but sadly that wasn't the case. While she moved at superspeed the running water was in real time, and she couldn't exactly shower without water cascading over her body. She knew. She'd tried when she first got to Earth. In, the end, though, she was kind of thankful when she finally pulled back the curtain in her steamy bathroom. The hot water relaxed her muscles, and she felt refreshed, like she was a new person.
She used her towel to dry her hair before wrapping the towel around herself and exiting the bathroom. She opened her wardrobe and looked inside, immediately beginning to rifle through the clothes. Any other night she would have just worn sweats and an old t-shirt, but Lena was coming to game night for the first time. Lena, who was always so put-together and immaculate, something Kara envied. She found herself putting more effort into her appearance lately on the days they got together, wanting to impress her. They'd been spending more time together, and Kara had already used all of her best outfits. She desperately wanted to go shopping, hoping to replace her tired, frumpy wardrobe with something new and vibrant. Maybe something a little more edgy. It would sure be a change from the "librarian look," as Alex called it.
A knock at her door stopped her quest for the perfect outfit, and she let out a sigh. Thank Rao Alex had arrived. Maybe she could help her decide on clothes.
"It's open," Kara called out. She didn't feel the need to lock it most of the time when she was home because honestly, what kind of ordinary intruder could take her? Besides, she knew Alex was supposed to be on her way, and if her sister arrived while she was in the shower and started helping her clean the apartment, hey, that was fine with her. "Alex, can you help me pick out what to wear?" she asked as she walked around the wall dividing her living area from the bedroom. She stopped short when she saw the person standing there. It was not Alex.
Lena stood before her, eyes wide. Kara blinked at her in surprise, silently panicking. She was completely naked, wearing nothing but a towel, and she hadn't thought to put her glasses back on. What was worse, Kara noticed with a sickening chill running down her spine, was that she'd been thoughtless and left her Supergirl outfit in the middle of her living room floor after she'd stripped it off, not wanting to bring it into the bedroom and risk making a mess in there as well.
The garment in question was now in Lena's hands. She clasped the fabric so tightly her knuckles were turning white and the garment sprinkled dust onto the growing pile on the floor.
"Kara?" she asked, her voice hoarse. The suit fell from her hands finally as they began to shake. "You—You're Supergirl?"
"Lena, I can explain," Kara said quickly, stepping forward. She winced when Lena back away.
"Explain how you've been lying to me for over two years?" Lena asked heatedly. Her vision blurred, and she bit her lip to fight back the tears that wanted to fall. That was another thing she learned from her Luthor upbringing. Never let them see you cry. "Save it."
She turned and began walking to the door, stopping short when she blinked and suddenly Kara was in front of her. She nearly plowed into the toweled woman and tripped over her heels at the abrupt halt. Kara caught her elbow and steadied her, gentle yet strong and study hand lingering once the younger woman had caught her balance. The warmth of it was shocking to Lena, who suddenly felt cold everywhere else except where Kara was touching her.
She yanked her limb away, her arm feeling like it was on fire. Kara recoiled at the action, looking like Lena had just kicked her dog rather than rejected her touch.
"Lena, I'm sorry." Kara looked at her pleadingly.
It was the first time Lena was knowingly looking into Kara's eyes without her glasses to obscure them. She recognized them for the eyes of her best friend, but she felt a twinge in her gut as she finally noticed they were the same ones as National City's favorite superhero. The bright blue orbs pierced her, making her heart hammer against her ribcage. She had to get out, away from the confusion, the pain, and the betrayal she felt at her discovery. But mostly she needed to get away from Kara.
"I have to go," Lena said quietly, moving to step around the other women. Kara blocked her way once again. "Move, Kara."
"Lena—"
"MOVE," Lena said so harshly she shocked both herself and the hero.
The older woman's face burned a brilliant shade of crimson and the pained look it held almost made Lena's heart break, but then Lena silently reminded herself that Kara brought this on herself by lying. So, she held her composure. Kara silently stepped aside to let her by, and Lena nearly ran out the door, not bothering to close it behind her.
Kara's knees suddenly felt weak, and she crumpled to the floor, hands finding the soiled suit on the floor and clutching it to her body. She knew she should get up to close the door, but she couldn't move. She felt paralyzed, a dull pain spreading through her chest as a lump rose in her throat.
She caught a glimpse in the doorway and looked up quickly, hoping the CEO had somehow gotten over her anger suddenly and wanted to talk things out. Instead Alex stood there, a frown on her face as she dropped the bag with Kara's clothes at her feet.
"What's wrong?" Alex asked instantly, going over to her sister and bending to place a soothing hand on her back. "I saw Lena leaving in a hurry, but she wouldn't stop to talk."
"She knows, Alex," Kara said, tears finally coming. She held up the discarded suit for emphasis. "She knows I'm Supergirl."
There's the first chapter. Hope you liked it. Please review.
Until next time,
DF