Author's Note: Hey! I'm back! Phew. I know you don't wanna know what goes on in my stupid little life (yeah, yeah, just skip this) but I started the year fabulously acquiring a home with my smart, beautiful wife and... well, apparently buying a house not only consumes your time and ALL of your money, but also your energy, inspiration and will to live. At least, for a little while. Everything's kinda under control now.
Except for COVID-19 and all that. We're under strict lockdown here and I hope that, if you can, you're staying home, practicing social distancing, washing your hands and above all staying safe. Please protect yourself and the most vulnerable.
I shouldn't say this because at this point no one believes me but chapter 17 is almost finished so if you behave, I might get it out next week. BEHAVE, PEOPLE.
For real, after all this time, if there's anyone still reading this: thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart.
(Please excuse any mistakes, no beta, no respect for grammar, too cool for school.
...
Unless, you know, you see something that makes your eyes bleed, because, well, it's happened before, and it's embarrassing, but I'm only a woman, and I don't even speak English as a first language, and well, you know how it is, right? What I mean is that you should tell me. So I can correct it, that is. You know sometimes I go back to previous chapters and I find mistakes that make me crawl into bed and cry for days? No, not really, but you get the idea. What? You want me to shut up? You want to just read the chapter? Then why are you still reading this? How is this my fault? Ok, read, you monster, read. I'm a human being, you know? I have feelings, too. If you just come here waiting to have your chapter ready and you won't even take two seconds to acknowledge the author, then what are we doing here? What is the meaning of life? Yeah, I get it, you want your entertainment. Well, I'm giving it for free so the least you could do is bear with me, right? I might be kidding. Or this could be a desperate cry for love and affection. Nah. Maybe? And if you do read this, can you please leave a comment? Because fic writers feed on comments. Comments for us are like the yellow sun for Kara. You already know that, don't pretend like you don't. C'mon, don't be lazy. The longer, the better. Seriously, why are you still reading this? C'mon. Just go read the freaking chapter. It's almost 10k. I wrote it only for you to ignore it now? Go. Just go!)
National City
Earth-38
The aroma of coffee invaded their senses as soon as they set foot inside the place. Noonan's felt the same in this new reality they had just landed on, and Luna was beyond grateful for that.
Liam, on the other hand, just mumbled behind her, unaware that her sister was having a moment. Luna always said her one true love was coffee and though her parents used to laugh at her for such a dramatic statement, she was dead serious about it. Her brother's affections had always lay with milkshakes, so he didn't quite get it.
"You know, this is starting to feel like a tradition. We always end up here in each new Earth we visit. Obsessed much, sis?"
Luna smiled while they waited in line to place their orders.
"We've only been to three different universes counting this one, don't be a fussbudget. Besides, you know it's one of the steps of our protocol: check if the establishments, corporations and buildings we knew from our world exist in others. If there are resemblances, that could mean –"
"That the Anti-Monitor might be around, yeah, yeah, I know the drill. But you gotta confess, each time I suggest we go to Starbucks–"
Luna was barely able to contain herself before her eyes lit up with heat vision. She shook her head and glared at her brother.
"Over my dead half-Kryptonian body, Liam Jeremiah," she growled between gritted teeth, "Noonan's has the best coffee in NC and I refuse to set foot in that hybrid aberration you call a coffee shop."
"You're biased. I just want a pumpkin spiced latte, I'm not a monster," Liam shrugged.
"Go ahead, you can go get that crap while I enjoy my fresh roasted Nyeri Ichamara Kenyan coffee," Luna retorted as her eyes drifted across the gourmet selection.
Liam smirked.
"Snob."
Her sister glared at him with a frown that made him laugh out loud, genuinely amused.
"Punk," Luna scoffed back, but Liam was already shaking his head in disbelieve.
This exchange, this routine of doing something so mundane together as getting coffee, picking on each other, doing sibling stuff… it almost made them feel like nothing had happened. Like their lives hadn't been turned upside down by a tragedy of apocalyptic proportions. Like they hadn't left behind what was left of their family, including their little sister, to go on a mission that could possibly end up being a suicide one.
But then again, they needed these moments. To stay sane. To breathe a little.
Soon, it would pass and they would go back to being on alert, to heightened senses and minds set on the mission. Still, it was these moments that kept them grounded. It was the hope of saving lives that made them go on and conceal themselves from the unbearable pain of having lost their city and their parents.
They had been jumping different Earths and dimensions for three weeks, and still no sign of the Anti-Monitor. Liam had argued it could be a good thing. There was always the possibility of the monster being badly hurt. Perhaps they had managed to kill it, even, but they couldn't be sure and Luna said they couldn't stop until they either found the monster or gathered proof that he wasn't a threat anymore.
The plan was simple: find a reality similar to Earth-Y with a younger version of their mothers in order to warn them… They knew the Anti-Monitor wouldn't attack a reality with two full-powered half-Kryptonians twins that could help Kara and Lena.
The part of laying out everything to their parents' alter-egos wasn't so clear, though. How were they supposed to explain they were their children from an alternate future, no less?
Luna had suggested a pretty straight-forward speech.
Something like this – "Hello, Ieiu, I mean… Kara. Hello, Mom, I mean, Lena… we're your kids from the future. Twins, actually. Mom gave birth to us in Argo, which is the last city of Krypton, floating in space, perhaps you know it exists, perhaps you don't know it yet – sorry, spoilers, haha, surprise! Anyway. We were brought to this world with Kryptonian tech and grandma Alura's help. Liam's got Mom's eyes and I got Ieiu's hair and we both like potstickers and kale because why the hell not and I'm a writer and Liam's a doctor and according to uncle Brainy we're both level 10 intellect, but I think it should be higher and he's just jealous. Oh, and actually, we don't come from the future, not exactly, not from your future at least, we think, we don't know… we come from another universe, our home is Earth-Y, where you were married for twenty-six years and you raised us and our little sister, Addie. The thing is you guys died… I mean, not you, but our parents, our reality's version of you, well… you died trying to protect the planet. And now we want to get that Anti-Monitor bastard and kick his ass to Krypton and back and get fucking revenge and, if possible, reestablish our world as it was before he attacked us and bring our parents back from the dead? So, yeah, that's it. Nice to meet you."
Yeah, Liam had said after hearing Luna's pitch, perfect plan, sis, sure, can't lose.
Then, he vetoed any unilateral attempt on Luna's part to do the explaining part. So they were back on square one, and would probably have to improvise when the time came.
One thing was clear: the Anti-Monitor had set his mind on hunting down the Zor-Els across worlds, so whatever explanation they could come up with would have to do.
Both sister and brother placed their orders and Luna spotted a good place to sit down and set up a strategy for the day. Liam had second thoughts and, iced tea in hand, he turned around to order a blueberry muffin when he bumped into something. No. Someone.
"Oh, my God! I'm so sorry!"
The high-pitched voice of an anxious young woman reverberated across the place as Liam blinked at her. He had managed to save his own drink, but the cup the girl was holding lied on the floor between them.
Both Liam and the girl began to apologize at the same time with mirrored awkwardness.
"Uh… it's my fault, actually. Jesus, I'm so sorry…"
"No, no, I wasn't looking and I…"
Liam bent down to try to help the girl whose belongings lay on the floor after their collision. The contents of her purse were scattered all around them: cellphone, lipstick, wallet, tissues, a pen, a notebook, and a Catco Worldwide Media employee card.
They both kept rambling and apologizing in unison.
"Here," Liam said, "let me help", and he proceeded to take all the content inside the purse again before the girl had time to get to anything, "God, I'm so sorry, so sorry…"
As Liam rose up to his full height, the girl just stared at him, her mouth hanging open, her eyes completely fixated on Liam's broad shoulders under a light blue shirt, his strong jawline, his green eyes showing a light heterochromia with a hint of blue around his left iris… She was staring, speechless, gaping like a dying fish.
"Dude, you're such a klutz, at least buy the girl another drink," a warm female voice took Nia out of her reverie just to stunt her again by looking at an almost equally tall blonde goddess with eyes like the blue sky and the strong arms of a mythical Amazonian warrior. Not even the black and red checkered shirt she was wearing could hide that. Nia shook her head trying to regain some self-composure just as Liam extended his hand in the most awkward-but-adorable-but-extremely-clumsy-way.
"Oh, sorry… uh… sorry again. Golly, where are my manners? My name's Lucas. Lucas Danforth. This is my very lovely and not sassy at all twin sister, Leah."
Something felt oddly familiar about them as Nia took them in, tall and handsome, both of them awfully cute in their vintage-looking glasses, standing side by side with apologetic, kind smiles on their unfairly beautiful faces. She short-circuited right there because the only thing she could come up with was a blatant stupidity.
"Lucas and Leah, uh? Any chance your parents are Star Wars fans?" Nia snorted at her own joke, and immediately wished for the ground under her feet to open up and eat her whole.
"What?" Liam blinked at her and she felt her cheeks burning up.
"Uh… you know… because of Luke and Leia… The twins from– Uh… nevermind. I'm Nia."
They finally stretched hands and Nia could only think he had really nice fingers.
"Nice to meet you, Nia," Liam smiled warmly at her, "and yes, our parents are nerds. I'm really sorry about your coffee though. My sister's right so let me buy you another one."
Nia shook her head.
"Oh no, no, no, that's not necessary."
"Please, Nia, let my brother deal with his embarrassment or I won't hear the end of it…"
"But it was my fault–"
"That doesn't matter. Let him help, we won't be able to stop him anyway."
Leah's words were just a way of comforting Nia out of her own guilt because Lucas was already on his way to make a new order.
"Wanna sit with us, since we seem to have ruined your morning?" Luna offered, pointing to their table.
Nia just nodded and sat opposite to Luna as she tried to reorganize her purse only to realize her best (and only) work shirt had fallen victim to a massive stain of coffee. Panicked, she reached for a paper napkin and proceeded to unsuccessfully rub it all over her ruined shirt.
"Uh, that's not going away, is it?" Luna's voice was calm while Nia was on the verge of tears of frustration.
"Apparently not…"
"Are you ok?"
Nia closed her eyes and imagined Snapper looking at her with that frown of disgust and disappointment she knew so well despite the short time she had been working for him.
"No, it's nothing but…" Nia put a hand over her eyes and breathed in, trying to calm down her beating heart, "My boss is going to kill me."
"What – why?", Luna frowned.
Nia shook her head and anticipated in her mind all the things that could easily go wrong in the next few hours.
"It's just… I've got this important meeting in an hour and I won't have time to go back to my place and get a new shirt. It's been an awful week at work as it is…"
Luna bit her upper lip and looked at her with real concern. Suddenly, she reached out and touched Nia's hand gently, just for a brief moment.
"Ok, ok, I get it. Listen, we might be able to help out," Luna reassured her confidently, "we just flew in this morning from Metropolis and our hotel is around the block. I can lend you anything of mine. Actually, I have a shirt that might be just right for you."
Nia was speechless for a few seconds and then she just shook her head and sighed, a little bit overwhelmed.
"Oh, God, I can't accept something like that. That's so kind of you but it's too much."
Luna reached out, again, this time she caught both Nia's hands in hers. Nia registered how warm they felt, the same had happened when she had stretched Lucas' hand. That, and the direct eye contact with Leah's bright blue eyes made Nia abandon all reticence.
"Nia, really, is no problem. My brother and I… we… let's say we're used to helping people. Plus, we're here on vacation, visiting friends, it's not like we have any urgent matters to attend. Let us, please."
"Ok," was all that Nia could mutter, softly, looking down at their intertwined hands.
Luna smiled sweetly at her and released her hands the moment Liam put a new cup of smoking hot coffee right in front of Nia.
"Here you go, Nia, again, I'm so sorry," the young man said as he reached out for a chair to join them.
"It's alright, Lucas. You're very kind. Both of you. Thank you, really. It's rare nowadays to find this kindness in strangers, especially in big cities."
"It's our Irish ancestry," Liam smiled proudly.
"Yeah", Luna agreed, "you're lucky this didn't happen at a tavern because right now we would be buying you pints until dawn."
Nia laughed naturally, relaxed for the first time since the incident.
"No, guys, but thank you, really. And Leah, I insist, you don't need to lend me anything–"
"Oh, no, we'll do it. You just need to tell me where to deliver it, and I promise we'll get you a new shirt in time for your meeting."
Nia sighed but smiled anyway and proceeded to rip out a piece of paper from her notebook to write down an address and her phone number.
"Here," she handed it to Luna, "you can probably give it to Fernando at the lobby, he'll get it up for me through Eve. Just say you're delivering it for Nia Nal, they'll know what to do. And I wrote down my number in case you guys need anything. Please don't hesitate to call me if there's anything I can do to return the favor."
Luna read the note quickly and showed it to Liam before blinking back at Nia with wide eyes.
"Wow, you work at CatCo?", Liam said enthusiastically, almost getting to high-pitched squeal level.
As if she had done something wrong, Nia frowned and suddenly had the urge to justify herself. Liam mistook it for Nia feeling uncomfortable as he had shown far too much excitement and raised his hand in an apologetic gesture.
"Oh, no, it's just… we're, we're huge fans…"
Nia sighed and played with the pen in her hands.
"Well, I'm just a sort of glorified junior reporter covering for someone else…"
Luna raised an eyebrow, a carbon copy of the gesture her human mother had made into an art, as her Kryptonian mother used to say.
"Nah, CatCo only has the best, if you're there it means you're talented," Luna winked at her and Nia felt it again: the familiarity, a tingling sensation of deja vu…
"It's strange," Nia thought aloud.
"What is?", it was Liam's voice, now happily chewing on his muffin.
"I keep getting this feeling like I know you guys from somewhere…" Nia responded, trying to search deep in her mind. Perhaps they had crossed paths before? Maybe she had bumped into one of the twins in a club, or a party, or just in line to order something in any other coffee shop?
Liam snorted half of his iced tea and proceeded to laugh nervously as he tried to wipe his chin with a napkin…
"You know we get that a lot? It's my fault. I mean… it's just that I always stand out, I mean I always do something like – because my sister is right, I'm a klutz, my arms are far too big, maybe, I don't know, or maybe it's just the twin thing, but we haven't met before, I assure you, we're just… you know… we have pretty common faces, ha, right, sis?"
"I would have remembered if we had met before, Nia," it was Luna's voice, ever so confident. She just stared intently at Nia, her voice an octave lower than usual, her hands steady. The exact opposite of her brother. But Nia didn't let herself be trapped by those cerulean eyes again.
"You said you flew in for Metropolis," Nia interjected, "I used to live there until I moved here. All I'm saying is that perhaps we met somewhere in the city."
"Perhaps, yes. Could be," Luna nodded her head slowly, the hint of a smirk in the corner of her mouth, "but again, I'm telling you – I'd remember."
Nia smiled back at her understanding that this Leah person was just a player. She couldn't hide her amusement and just sighed and proceeded to take a sip of her coffee.
"Well, as I said, thank you for everything. I better get going."
"Yeah, us too, I'll text you the moment we drop the shirt, is that all right?"
Nia stood up and shook her head, frowning in frustration, still thinking about what was escaping her.
"Really, I'm telling you, I've seen you guys before… I can't tell where or when but–"
Liam looked at her like a deer in front of the approaching headlights of a car and Luna just shrugged her shoulders with a smug smile on her stupidly perfect face.
"Guess we'll never know," Luna chirped.
"Yeah, right," Nia rolled her eyes, but she was smiling. She turned around and wave her hand in the air, "see you later, Skywalker twins!"
And with that, she was gone.
Liam and Luna stared at the door in silence for five minutes straight, neither of them focusing really on anything, perhaps too shocked to say something.
It was Liam who spoke first, but he wasn't very eloquent.
"Wow," he muttered, almost to himself.
"Yep," Luna replied, still fixated on the door.
"We just met Aunt Nia. In her twenties," Liam blinked at her sister then, "wild, huh?"
Luna tilted her head to the side, looking back at her brother.
"Hey, I'm proud of you, dude. You were very smooth in the beginning…" Luna took a sip of her coffee, smiling to herself, "though for a moment there I thought you were going to lose it," she added.
Liam frowned at her, "well, I'm losing it now because you flirted with her! You flirted with our Aunt Nia! No, Loo, nooo!", he pointed an accusing finger at her unbothered sister.
Luna rolled her eyes, "what did you want me to say, exactly? Hey Auntie, yes, we seem familiar to you because someday you'll have the power to see the future in your dreams and we're actually your surrogate niece and nephew!? I had to – you know, distract her with something!"
Luna did have the decency to look slightly embarrassed, though.
Liam blinked at her again, studying every muscle in her face.
"Ok. I get it. It was a strategy."
"Of course it was!"
A pause. Then, a mortified squeak from Liam.
"But even so… ew, sis, ew!"
Luna stood up motioning for Liam to get a move on.
"I know, I know, ok? I feel dirty. Let's head back to the hotel to get her a new shirt."
"You think she might lead us to something?"
"She could, yeah. For now, we know she could have some ties to Ieiu – I mean, Kara, this world's Kara – through CatCo, you know? It's a lead. Let's try to be friendly and see where that takes us, ok?"
Liam opened the door for them.
"Ok. But promise me, no more flirting with our aunt."
Luna laughed.
"No more flirting, I promise. Unless the situation requires it…"
Liam faked the sound of throwing up.
They accomplished their simple mission relatively quickly. Luna chose two shirts so Nia would have some options and made a neatly prepared package with an amicable note signed by "The Skywalker twins". They delivered it at CatCo's security desk without much trouble. Luna immediately texted Nia, and she got a ton of heart emojis in response and an invite to buy them dinner that same night, as a thank you, if they were available. They accepted and Luna called it an easy success. At least now they had something, a lifeline to explore how different this Earth was from theirs.
When they were walking back to their hotel, they fell into a comfortable silence motivated by the thin line of hope the chance encounter with Nia had thrown at them.
Luna watched the people coming and going and enjoyed the sounds of the city thriving around them, the mundane routine of a world that didn't know the danger that loomed above it.
Liam, on the other hand, had his mind on an entirely different topic.
"I swear when we get back I'm telling Uncle Brainy," Liam broke the silence with the same stuck-up tone of a know-it-all he had displayed since he was able to talk.
Luna groaned, mortified. She knew her brother had been going over that thought from the moment they had left Noonan's.
"You wouldn't dare, jackass," she shook her head, laughing.
"Yes, I would, Miss I-Make-Heart-Eyes-At-My-Aunt."
Oh, so the little brother was in the mood for a good fight. Luna chuckled and bit the inside of her cheek with a smug gesture. It was on.
"Then I would have to tell Ieiu and Mom about that time you smoked pot in Mom's lab," Luna winked at him as Liam's jaw dropped to the floor.
"Now, that's low. It was one time and it was just scientific curiosity, as I was trying to study the effects of psychoactive drugs on a half-Kryptonian brain. Since you didn't volunteer for that, I had to do it myself! And – and it did nothing! I didn't get high or anything!"
"Ha, you keep telling yourself that, dude."
Liam just paused every movement and looked at her sister dead in the eye.
"Okay. Okay, right. So that means I could tell them about that time you had a threesome in your room while they were on vacati–"
"That's enough, snitch!"
From there, it all just… escalated.
"Traitor," Liam scoffed.
"Grow up," Luna imitated his tone and that irritated Liam even more.
"Me, grow up? Pfff. You grow up!"
"I'm ten minutes older than you, you grow up, stupid!" Luna snapped as her brother's eyes went wide.
"Stupid?", he replied, eyebrows rising, utterly offended, "I have four PhDs, you've only got two!"
Luna laughed mischievously.
"That's just because I wanted to focus on my writing, and it doesn't prove anything. Yeah, yeah, little brother, you keep rolling your eyes at me, you might find a brain back there!"
Liam narrowed his eyes at her and tried to repay Luna with a taste of her own sarcastic humor.
"Ooh, someone got up on the wrong side of the cage this morning!"
Now, to the pedestrians surrounding them and any oblivious spectator, this interaction could seem like a real heated argument with hurtful interactions. And it was, it really was at a first glance. Under normal circumstances, if the bickering got too far, they would take off to the sky and the siblings would settle their differences with a race to the Fortress of Solitude and back. But in this unexplored Earth, they could not use their powers without the risk of drawing unwanted attention to themselves, undoubtedly jeopardizing their mission. It had been a while since they had argued like this, and though it had started as a joke, and there was, of course, the silent understanding between them that this was just a way to blow the high amount of pressure they were under, it still felt strange between them, to be at odds. As if there was some kind of wickedly charged energy around them. Perhaps it was a sign. A warning, an omen of the Anti-Monitor lurking over this reality…
The twins didn't have time to process those thoughts or even get to that conclusion, as it all faded into the background when they turned a corner and watched in horror as a family of three cried out for help out from a window, flames and smoke coming out of their apartment in the twentieth level of a residence building.
They both immediately tensed, reaching up to their buttoned shirts, ready to change into their super suits and do what they did best, no matter what universe they were in: saving people.
Liam was ready to rip off his shirt and show the proud emblem of the House of El in his chest when his sister had a moment of clarity and reached out for his wrist to stop him.
"Li… we can't," Luna whispered, sorrow in her voice and her eyes conflicted and unsure.
They looked back to the family. A middle-aged man held a little girl to his chest covering her eyes, while a woman clenched to his waist crying out for help. The flames were closing in on them, and the smoke coming out of the window turned darker and thicker by the second.
"We can't just sit here and do nothing!" Liam shook his head, his eyes brimming with tears of helplessness.
"If we fly up there we'll be all over the news tomorrow and our cover will be blown," Luna murmured between clenched teeth, each word a struggle because she knew she was being rational about this, but all her heart wanted to do was save that family and forget the consequences, "if this Earth turns out to be our chance to find a way to bring Ieiu and Mom back…", Luna closed her eyes to gather some strength for what she was about to say, "we'll never… we'll never see them again. And the monster will keep on killing worlds."
Liam grimaced in pain and shook his head.
"I know… I know…" he then locked eyes with his sister, an unbearable sorrow written all over his face, "but we can't let them die," he looked back up to the helpless family, their time running out as the flames approached them inevitably, "Ieiu and Mom would never forgive us," Liam said, finally.
Luna let out a quick burst of pained laughter.
"Fuck it," she whispered, finally giving in.
The Danvers-Luthor twins looked at each other, sad smiles on their faces, as they nodded together and reached out to their respective chests to transform in the blink of an eye. If this world was their chance, they would have to improvise, because whatever happened they could not simply look away. They were Supers, after all, Kara Zor-El and Lena Luthor's children, Kryptonian and human, the best of both worlds, and no matter what it cost them, truth, justice, and compassion for all was the only path they could walk.
If saving a family of three cost them their parents, if it cost them their world… they would have to live with the consequences and fight back. Because they were Zor-Els, they were Danvers, they were Luthors, and no matter what, they always would find a way.
As they were about to sacrifice it all, the wind around them whooshed rapidly.
"Look!," a man standing near them pointed up to the sky, "it's Supergirl!"
The Danvers-Luthor twins watched in awe as a younger version of their Kryptonian mother saved the family in a split second. She was wearing a suit they had only seen in expos and pictures: in their timeline, it was officially the second suit their mother had worn as Supergirl, of the many that would come over the years. Primarily blue, with red accents and a gold belt, her cape coming out of her shoulders and, thank Rao, pants.
She looked magnificent in it, and both Liam and Luna were blown away, luckily blending in with the hundreds of bystanders that watched the scene, amazed by the mighty of National City's resident hero.
Supergirl settled the shocked family gently on the ground but looked back quickly to the burning apartment.
"You'll be safe here, now let me try to save your home," Kara told them in the most perfect combination of compassion and determination.
She rose back in the air quickly and entered the apartment through the window. To minimize damage, she used her freeze breath inside, and within seconds there was no hint of fire or smoke.
The crowd broke into loud applause and cheers as Supergirl touched the ground again, making sure the family was safe and sound. An ambulance arrived and a firefighter tiller-truck followed quickly. Supergirl took a quick second to wave at the crowd before she exchanged some words with the paramedics and shook hands with the chief officer of the firefighters. She had another brief interaction with the rescued family who wouldn't stop hugging her, before waving again at the crowd and floating up above them with a bright smile.
"Be safe, National City!" she shouted at the crowd that roared back at her, her smile turning into adorable laughter, "And remember, I'm always around!"
And with that, putting on a little bit of a show, she took off with a rushing sound, making the air vibrate and leaving everyone behind cheering and applauding and posting quickly to their social media all the snaps of Supergirl in action.
In the middle of it all, Liam and Luna, frozen, almost breathless.
"You tourists, right?" The man that had first spotted Supergirl nodded his head at them, seeing how pale and speechless they stood there. "It's always a shock, the first time you see her," he shook his head and chuckled to himself, pointing to the skies, "we're lucky to have her," he said and then resumed walking, waving goodbye to the speechless twins. "Welcome to National City and enjoy your day!"
The city went back quickly to its brimming, fast-paced chaos. Everyone back to their business.
Except for Liam and Luna.
They just stood there, still looking up to the clear blue sky.
"Loo?"
"Yeah?"
"Wow."
"Yeah."
"She's…"
"Keep your cool, dude."
"It's just…"
"I know. I know."
There was so much to do now. A world of possibilities had opened right in front of them. First, dinner with Nia. From then on, they had to figure out how to contact this world's Supergirl. Convince her to build a resistance with them. Fight back the impossible.
The exhilarating wind of excitement engulfed them both, and they looked at each other, shocked, nervous, and filled with hope.
"I love you, punk," Luna said as she reached out to give her little brother a crushing hug.
Liam's arms were already open.
"I love you too, snob."
Kara landed on the penthouse's balcony with two freshly prepared bags of Big Belly Burger. She entered the house with the retina scan and code-protected mechanism Lena had designed for her to fly in and out the place without trouble.
"Alex?"
She put the bags on the kitchen counter and used her super-speed to change into comfy clothes (rainbow socks, sweatpants, and a blue ocean t-shirt).
"Alex, you ok?", she called again as she grabbed two plates from the cabinet and proceeded to empty the content of the bags on them. "If you don't come quick I just might eat your cheeseburger…"
"Coming!"
Alex's distressed voice resonated from the corridor. Kara used her X-ray vision to discover the cause of her sister's discomfort. She chuckled as she saw Alex struggling with two seven-month-old half-Kryptonian babies hanging like spider monkeys from each of her forearms.
Taking pity on her sister, Kara hurried to meet her halfway and take one of the babies from her. Little Liam and little Luna were giggling non-stop, their heads thrown back and their mouths open, chins and cheeks smearing with bubbly baby drool.
"How is it possible for them to weigh so much?" Alex cried with little relief when Kara took Luna from her so she could focus on supporting Liam with both her arms.
"Eliza says their weight is just the average for human babies their age."
"That's Mom trying to reassure you and Lena."
"Nah, it's just that you're out of shape."
Before Alex could reply and express how offended she was, Kara proceeded to greet her children properly, who had gone ecstatic the moment they saw her, babbling incomprehensible but very enthusiastic things at their Ieiu.
"Hi, my ukiems!" Kara kissed Luna's fat cheek and blew raspberries in her little belly as the baby girl laughed, then she kissed the top of Liam's head and fake-bit his little nose, getting the same reaction. "Did you have fun with Auntie Alex? Did you?"
"We watched the same Pocoyo episode fifteen times, I assure you they had fun," Alex sighed, visibly tired.
"The one where Pato has the hiccups?" Kara asked even though she knew the answer.
"The one where Pato has the hiccups," Alex nodded and couldn't refrain a yawn.
"That's a classic," Kara smiled back to Luna in her best (worst, in Alex's opinion) impression of Pocoyo's original narrator, the one and only Stephen Fry.
The Danvers sisters brought the babies to the living-room and placed them gently in the hexagonal gated playard Kara had installed a few weeks ago, so they could play safely on their own. It had the best foam mat ever (Supergirl's logo in comic style and bright colors), and some of their favorite toys: a big stuffed toy of Martian Manhunter, a teddy bear dressed as Superman and plenty of teethers to chew on safely.
Alex and Kara sat down on the couch, burgers on the coffee table, ready to enjoy their dinner while they watched the babies try to crawl and play and babble at everything.
"So…" Alex began as she finally attacked her prized cheeseburger, "how was the Supergirlin' today?"
"Fine. Stopped a couple of robberies – why do criminals still insist on robbing anything in this city when they know I'm around? I'm officially offended about that by the way – but the best part was saving a family from their burning apartment."
"Oh, wow, they alright?"
"Yeah, yeah, a young couple. They had a little girl, Maya. All safe and sound."
"Congrats, sis."
"Thank you."
There were a few moments of silence as they ate comfortably and chuckled at Liam trying to get rid of his socks while Luna wrestled the teddy bear.
"And you? Did you enjoy your quality time with your niece and nephew?"
Alex nodded.
"They are a handful and I'm exhausted, but they're hilarious too."
"Yeah, they are," Kara agreed as she stared dreamily at her babies, now trying to chew each other's ears. "Thank you for being here on your day off. I know it's a lot to ask, but we gotta give the Colonel a day for herself from time to time and I know Eliza can't say no but that's exactly why I didn't want to ask her this time, she deserves her rest too, no matter how much she enjoys being a grandma."
"You know it's no problem, Kara. Maggie is working and it was either spending time with my homies here or passing out on my couch from Scotch and pizza and reruns of the Property Brothers."
"Uh, sad," Kara joked raising her eyebrows at her.
"I know," Alex rolled her eyes and threw her sister a nearby cushion.
Kara laughed deeply and caught it before it hit her face easily, "thank you, anyway," she said, gently, "it means the world to me, Alex."
"Ok, ok, don't get too mushy, sis," Alex faked being annoyed but Kara's warm declaration. Then, she cleared her throat and got a little more serious, "I'll always be here for you, you know that," Alex declared softly, "I'm more than happy to spend time with them. Even though they drive me insane, much like their Kryptonian mother. I love you and I love them and that's it, period."
"I love you too, Alex," Kara launched herself forward to hug her sister but Alex patted her back as she got up from the couch and headed for the kitchen.
"Yeah, I know, I know," Alex turned around to Kara as she kept walking backward, "I'm gonna open this obscenely expensive bottle of wine I've been gifted for being such a cool aunt," she reached down on the kitchen counter and presented to her sister a bottle of Screaming Eagle Sauvignon Blanc "God bless you, Lena", Alex whispered to the bottle as if it was the most precious thing she'd ever seen and then went back to Kara, as if nothing had happened, with the most annoying patronizing tone, "and you are going to tell me everything about what the hell is going on with princess Luthor. Where is she, why is she not home yet and, is she still being weird? Talk. Now," Alex demanded in her best Agent Danvers tone while she poured herself a glass.
Kara opened and closed her mouth and then blinked, shaking her head, searching for words with no success. Things between her and Lena had been a little awkward for the past two or three months and Kara thought, no, she knew it was her fault, that maybe she had done something wrong. Still, it was hard to explain, because on the surface everything felt the same between them, surface being the keyword.
"She's been anything but sweet," Kara sighed and looked at her hands, suddenly not so eager to finish her burger. "And at the same time… kind of distant?" She looked back to Alex with baffled eyes, "It's... it's complicated."
"You bet it is," Alex nodded as she inhaled the rich tones of her glass of wine, "you guys have two kids together that were forced upon you, which is the epitome of weird, yeah, but then there's the matter of impending doom upon the multiverse…" Alex reaches out to squeeze her sister's knee gently, bringing Kara back from her dark thoughts, "But hey, Kara, you two seemed to be working it out. You were doing amazing, with the babies, with this living together thing we all thought was nuts, but you guys proved us all wrong…" Kara smiled absently and Alex sighed, "it was working," she continued, "and if you hadn't told me, I wouldn't even suspect things have changed. You guys seem fine to me whenever we're all together… so, what happened?"
"I –" Kara couldn't find her voice. She swallowed hard and closed her eyes for a second. She opened them and spoked low, as if each word hurt her vocal cords, "I think it's me, that I – I did something. I think it's my presence, my – I think I remind her," Kara shrugged helplessly, hands up in the air as if she was giving up to some invisible enemy.
"Remind her of what, Kara?" Alex frowned. She even put down her glass and blinked at Kara, concern for her sister sparking in her eyes.
"The pain Lillian put her through," Kara snapped, her tone charged with despair, "of the Anti-Monitor lurking out there… if she hadn't met me, all this wouldn't be happening."
"That's ridiculous, Kara!" Alex blinked at her, shocked at the foolishness in her sister's words, "Lena wanted you here, Kara. She always did. And you have nothing to do with the terrible things Lillian is capable of or with a world-destructor monster created thousands of light-years away!"
Kara rubbed her palms against her temples, her expression tired, her eyes sad, sad like Alex hadn't seen them in a very long time.
"I know. In my mind, I know," Kara breathed in, "it's the way she looks at me. I think she… I think she hates me," she said with finality, her eyes away from Alex and fixated on her children, crawling clumsily around the playard.
Alex took her sister's hands in hers and tried to make her focus on her own eyes.
"The Lena I know," Alex began, softly, "the Lena I helped when she gave birth to these two beautiful creatures, no matter how grim the circumstances, that Lena, Kara, would never hate you." Kara smiled joylessly at her, and Alex sighed, frustrated and confused, "Did anything happen between you two?", she inquired, "did she tell you anything?"
Kara shook her head and blinked back bitter tears.
"A few months ago she found something in Telle's archives. Family pictures of the other… us," Kara breathed in deeply, "even – uh – even wedding pictures."
"Oh."
"Yeah, oh. It was so triggering for her. She panicked… she kind of tried to push me away, you know?"
"That's only human, Kara, anyone in her shoes would –"
"I know!" Kara cut her sister off, surprising them both, "I know," she repeated, softly, "but since then it's like… she's the same, but she's different. She laughs with me and is there for me, as a friend, but something feels odd. Something feels cold between us."
"Perhaps it's only your perception, Kara, have you asked her if something is up?" Alex rested her chin on one of her hands, giving her full attention to her sister.
"No, no. I'm too afraid," Kara confessed in a cracked voice, "because it would be weird. She'd looked at me as if – Rao, perhaps you're right, perhaps it's only me! As I said, she's been nothing but perfect," the Kryptonian hero sighed deeply again and threw her head back, annoyed with herself, "she's awesome with the babies, she reads to them every night, she makes sure to spend all the time she can with them…" Filled up with untamed energy and frustration, Kara stood up from the couch and rested her hands on her hips, then combed her hair with her fingers, then sighed and threw her arms around in the air, gesticulating as she tried to make Alex understand, as she tried to understand it all herself, "and you know, the suit, she didn't have to, but she designed the new suit for me, an early birthday gift, she said," Kara scoffed, a bitter chuckle coming from deep inside her throat, "and she's working on the lab non-stop, trying to improve the accelerator design so she can build it as soon as possible. She's put Telle to good use to protect the babies and gather every bit of crucial information we can, she's devoting L-Corp's resources with Sam to find anything that can help us, anything… and you've seen the sunroom! Rao, the sunroom, it's amazing!"
"It is, yeah," Alex nodded, urging her sister to keep talking and let it all go.
But the mention of the sunroom brought happy memories to Kara's troubled mind, and she paused and breathed deeply for a moment.
The sunroom, Lena's secret project for months that had been revealed to the Kryptonian just a few weeks ago, the same day Lena gave her the new suit. One of the upper floors of their building had been under renovations for months, but Lena wouldn't tell Kara what she was doing with it…
"It's a secret project," she had told her, "and you can't take a peek because the walls are made of lead."
That had sparked Kara's curiosity but, trusting that in time Lena would tell her what was all that about, she had easily forgotten about it. Until the day Lena took her up on their personal elevator, and Kara was greeted with a large open space that looked like a replica of the Fortress of Solitude, only instead of cold, blue tones, the yellow and warm sunlight bathe every corner.
"I call it the sunroom," Lena had told her, "it's not a sunroom per se, you know it, but it was the working title I gave the project and now it's stuck. You can call it whatever you want. This whole floor is yours. It has all information I could gather on Krypton through Telle and you have an equipped office, a lab, a personal gym, various training chambers, a conference room in case you want to bring any of your superhero friends, and, of course, a recharge room that's powered by the newest and most efficient L-Corp solar panels. In case something happens… and I wish more than anything that you don't ever have to use it, but just in case, you have a comfortable bed and your own quarters under 10,000 kilowatts of solar energy so you can recover from anything or just give yourself the ultimate sunbath. That way, you know, you have another option besides the DEO. I've also added a medicalized room with state-of-the-art equipment, which of course Alex and Eliza are invited to use whenever they want, and, again, I hope you don't ever have to use it yourself, as a patient, I mean, but I wanted to be prepared for every eventuality. Then there's another thing, a feature only you can activate through your own personal alphanumeric code, a retina scan, and a safe-switch so it can't be used against you."
Kara was in awe and she had to swallow hard two times to make sure she could find her voice.
"And what is it?"
She would always remember Lena's smile, bright and natural and larger than life.
"You can change the yellow sun lamps into red sun lamps," Lena explained, brimming with pride, "in case you ever want to train with Alex or… whatever you'd like to use it for. I know you had low radiation Kryptonite lamps at the DEO desert facility, but the red sun radiation is safer for you. And of course, with time, you can use this whole place to train Liam and Luna. Or to teach them about Krypton… anything you want."
Kara just stood there, gaping at Lena, wondering how it was possible for someone to be this generous, this thoughtful.
"C'mon, Kara, say something, don't leave me hanging here…"
"I… Lena… this is too much. This is… this is the best thing ever."
"So, you like your complimentary early birthday gift?"
"Like it, Lena? I – I love this place!"
They would never talk about how Kara took Lena in her arms and span her around while kissing her cheeks loudly, laughing, feeling over the moon. They would never say aloud how it had felt to be in each other's arms and laugh together and forget, for a moment, all the things that could not be. All the words that were left unspoken. But they would feel the awkwardness of the moment when Kara put Lena down gently, and they realized their bodies were too close, chest to chest, their noses inches from touching, both breathless, both almost intuitively leaning forward before Lena jerked away and turned around and said something about a meeting with Sam and just let Kara enjoy the space by herself. And Kara was left alone there, wondering why she felt like she'd been struck by lightning. And it felt so very different from being attacked by Livewire.
"Sometimes people cope with trauma in all kinds of weird, unexplainable ways. Perhaps she just needs some time, Kara. She'll come around."
It was Alex's voice. Calm, collected, warm, bringing Kara back to the present with her compassion and her wisdom. Her rock, always.
"I know," Kara sighed, her mind still miles away, "that's what I'm doing, giving her time, and space. Perhaps she's already working on it, she has these meetings she goes to, once a month, she never tells me where but… she's supposed to be in one of those right now. Jon's always with her, and the whole security detail. I worry, but – " Kara shrugged and forced herself to smile. "I've got to respect that. I've got to… be patient, I guess."
"That's what friends are for," Alex nodded empathically.
"Yeah," Kara agreed and threw herself gently into Alex's arms.
Her sister, who knew her better than anyone, hugged her back and placed a gentle kiss to Kara's head, knowing exactly what would cheer her up.
"Hey, Kara. Look," Alex whispered.
Kara lifted her head from the crook of Alex's neck to watch her babies sleeping while seated, their backs touching and their heads resting in each other's shoulder, looking like exhausted little Buddhas, their round, perfect little heads resting side by side. It was a strange position for them to be in, Kara wondered how in the world they had pulled that, but also the sweetest thing on Earth and at the same time, unequivocally comical.
"Wait, wait," Kara murmured while she searched for her phone in her pocket, "gotta capture this, Lena will kill me if I don't."
Kara took a couple of pictures of the babies and immediately sent them to Lena with a bright smile on her face. Alex rolled her eyes and put her arm around her sister's broad shoulders.
"What do you say you and I give a bath to these peanuts and then put them to bed? We still need to open the vanilla ice-cream gallon I brought you."
Kara's eyes went wide with anticipation.
"Sounds like a mission for us!" Kara clapped her hands together silently, careful not to wake the babies, her face shining with a glimpse of joy, "Danvers sisters, yes we can…" Kara sang quietly but filled with excitement.
There, Alex thought, there's my sister.
"If you can't do it, Danvers can…" Alex finished their own personal chant in an equally quiet voice, mimicking Kara's smile, finally at ease seeing she had been able to induce a sincere one this time, "First one to wake them, loses."
Kara laughed out loud. She lost immediately.
The penthouse was silent and peaceful a couple of hours later, with the babies bathed, fed and sound asleep in their room. When they turned six months, Kara had finally convinced Lena to move their cribs out of her room so they could share what they called the witching hours. Lena had been reticent at first, but Kara insisted it was only fair, considering she didn't have her Kryptonian stamina. They had also accommodated the Colonel on a lower floor, giving her the nights off – they were more than thankful for Natasha's babysitting skills, they didn't need to push her.
All in all, Liam and Luna were able to sleep seven to eight hours straight most nights, but still, it was unfair for Lena to be immediately woken up when the nightly fussy performances started. Luna was usually the best behaved out of the two, with Liam being the hardest to calm down most times. Once the babies went back to sleeping in their own bedroom, there were occasions in which Kara couldn't calm them down before Lena was awakened by the inconsolable crying bouts, but Kara did most of the hard work at night, and she did it proudly.
And now Kara watched them sleep peacefully, reflecting how nothing gave away their Kryptonian ancestry or the dreadful circumstances in which they had been brought to this world. They still hadn't shown any signs of powers, though Eliza had stated that really didn't give away anything – Kara had only begun to feel her powers when she had spent a couple of years on Earth, even Kal, who had arrived as a baby, hadn't shown any abilities until he was four years old, and it took him years to learn to control his powers. He hadn't even known he could fly until he was seventeen.
Although the possibility of them ending up having no powers at all was highly unlikely, Kara knew that, no matter what, they would always be different. Even powerless, there was the reality of Liam and Luna having two female parents; if that wasn't reason enough for them to be pointed at, one of said parents was a superhero leading a double-life, and the other was the heiress of a financial empire linked to dark deeds in the past. They were both Luthor and Super. They wouldn't have it easy.
But in here, at home, in their bedroom, bathed by the pale hue of the moonlight, they were just two babies growing up, safe, loved and happy. Kara wished that among her powers there was the ability to freeze time, or at least to keep her babies in a bubble, to be able to prevent them from feeling sadness, or pain, or sorrow. Ever.
She smiled to herself, knowing very well that this wishful thinking was absurd. Life was inevitably intertwined with love as much as it was with pain, happiness as much as loss. She knew that very damn well, and she knew that her children would have to fight most of their battles in life on their own, but she hoped they'd know she'd always be there for them.
She would always run when they called.
Kara sighed then, feeling a little restless since Alex had left. She checked the time on her phone and paced the room, wondering if Lena would be home soon. It's not like it was late, not for a Saturday night but… She didn't like it when she was out there, in the city. There were many threats and not just the extra-normal ones. When Lena had gone back to work at L-Corp (only two days a week, as most operations were handled by Sam now), Kara had to call every single one of her contacts in the fourth estate to prevent paparazzi from stalking her. Of course, the one phone call that changed everything was that she made to Cat Grant, thank Rao for her. It was Cat's intervention (and her many subtle threats and straight-forward, barely legal yet elegant methods of extortion) what had kept the hyenas at bay and away from putting Lena on the spotlight, but even the power and influence of the media queen could be bypassed if Lena put herself out there for far too long.
The babies were still a secret, no details had transcended about the months she'd been kidnapped by Cadmus, and Kara just wanted to protect her. Above everything, she wanted Lena to be alright. To feel safe. And perhaps her overprotectiveness was the cause of Lena's forced smiles and quick, cold hugs. Time, Kara thought, recalling her conversation with Alex, just give her time.
Her super-hearing warned her that their personal elevator had been called from the building hall, and she smiled to herself bashfully, her heart skipping a beat thinking about Lena crossing the entrance and being back on their home. All of them, together, as a family, no matter how unconventional.
But it wasn't Lena who greeted her when the doors opened. Natasha stood there, cursing in Russian, her blonde hair soaking wet, her clothes ruined by the rain, shaking an umbrella that got the floor all slippery.
Kara blinked at her and frowned.
"Uh… Colonel?"
"Oh, hi, moy Kara, it's raining cats and frogs!"
"Dogs."
"What?"
"Cats and dogs."
"That's what I said, da?"
"Yeah."
The Colonel crossed the kitchen and just put her umbrella inside the trash can and her wet coat in the sink. Kara was still blinking, no matter how much time she spent with the Colonel, she always found her fascinating, to say the least.
"Uh… Natasha?"
"Da, miss Kara?"
"What are you doing here? Isn't today your night off?"
The Colonel looked at Kara with thinly veiled amusement.
"Oh, Lena didn't tell you? I'm here to take care of the babies just in case you need to…" Natasha waved her hand in the air awkwardly, "you know… do your thing?"
Kara raised her eyebrows and blinked, confused, once again.
"My thing?"
"Yeah, your thing, you know?" Natasha kept waving her hands in circles, and Kara couldn't quite understand what she meant by that. "Go for a walk or something," the Colonel said rapidly as if she was uncomfortable trying to explain herself.
Kara sighed, patiently watching as the Colonel made her way around the kitchen, searching for Rao knows what.
"Ok, I don't know what you're talking about but really, we don't need you tonight," Kara smiled politely, "Lena will be here soon and I –"
"But she's going to be out a couple more hours, right?" Natasha pursed her lips and it was her time to blink back at Kara, "or at least that was what she told me in the text."
"Text?", Kara swallowed, "she texted you?"
"Da. So, you know, this way you go do your thing," there it was, the incomprehensible waving of hands in the air, "if you want to, of course, and I take care of moy babies. Yes?"
Natasha looked transparent, all good intentions and willingness to help.
And Kara knew she wasn't lying or messing around with her. And Kara also knew, deep down, that she should let this all go, that perhaps Lena was caught up on work, or maybe having a night out with Sam and Jess, or possibly she was at one of those secret meetings that might be a therapy group (Kara wouldn't know because Lena hadn't told her, and she had to respect that because Lena was her friend, Lena was entitled to her privacy and her own secrets and to be out late on a Saturday night in the city and – yes, time, she needed to give her time, as Alex had said, time and space).
Kara knew she should just trust Lena's judgment, and that it was foolish and petty of her to be offended by the fact that her friend had texted the nanny and not her.
Perhaps it was the PTSD from Lena's kidnapping, perhaps it was Kara's savior complex, perhaps it was just an unfounded panic, but Kara ignored all these rationals, mature thoughts.
"Oh, I remember now, yeah," Kara lied, turning around to remove her glasses, "thank you, Natasha, I won't be long, please stay with the babies…" she said over her shoulder as she marched towards her room, where she could use the large window there to fly out, away from the Colonel's baffled eyes, "I'm gonna go do… my thing," Kara murmured to herself as she reached the hallway, using super-speed to change into her suit.
She flew to the night sky through dark clouds and heavy rain.
Wherever Lena was, she needed to find her.
