Chapter 2: Mutual Inspiration
Notes:
Wanted to lay down that chemistry with cannon supercorp scenes, complete with some gratuitous lip bites from Lena and adorkable blushing from Kara. After this chapter things pull away from Season 2 plot.
-Lena-
"Mr. Kent," Lena looked up greeting a familiar tall man with dark hair and broad shoulders. Continuing in a falsely enthusiastic tone, "Senior reporter for the Daily Planet. What brings you away from the Big City?" She rose and smoothed out her black and white dress at the hips before moving to shake his hand.
Glancing to his side the CEO noticed a pretty blonde woman in her early 20s with a ponytail. The girl was avoiding eye-contact under thick-rimmed glasses, and wrapped in nervous energy. "And you are?" Lena asked addressing the woman. The blonde adjusted her glasses then looked up determined.
"I'm Kara, um Kara Danvers." She said enthusiastically striding across the white marble tiles with a bounce in her step. "I'm with CatCo magazine, -sort of. I'm not actually a reporter though, just tagging along." She took the CEO's hand.
Lena commented on the surprising firmness of blonde's handshake. Meaningless corporate small talk, but the girl touched her glasses shooting a nervous glance at Kent.
After than Kara Danvers took a seat and seemed to fold into herself. More similar to the attitude one might expect coming from someone dressed as she was.
The LuthorCorp CEO saw presentation as a statement more than anything and she didn't know very many women interested in saying what this girl's outfit did. Thick yellow cardigan, over a pastel button up, pleated knee-length skirt, sensible flats. A scrunchy held back her blonde curls and the exact shade of her blue eyes was hard to tell muted under the shadow of those thick frames.
She looked ready to sit down with a picture book in front of a gaggle of 5 year olds.
Something about it didn't fit which nagged at Lena's mind. -It was too…something- she thought distracted. -Maybe she's in witness protection or just found Jesus or something.-
-Or maybe I am just looking for a reason to talk with anyone other than this farm boy sniffing for blood.- Previous interactions she'd had with the intrepid reporter from Kansas certainly didn't inspire confidence.
-But games were made to be played,- She shifted her attention from the intriguing girl to the more imposing broad shouldered man.
Well trained Luthor that she was she made sure to preemptively cut off the most obvious attack first.
"I know why you're here Mr. Kent," She started, false smile falling from her face. "There is a perfectly reasonable explanation for why I wasn't aboard the Venture yesterday. I was on my way to the launch site that morning actually, when several armed drones tried to take down the helicopter I was in."
She grimaced remembering the hour she'd spent heavying at the thought of plummeting to her death while Jess politely tapped on the door. "Call it hysterics if you would like, but after that, it didn't seem worth it to go through with the stupid PR stunt Lex had planned to do himself months ago. I'm honestly a touch too busy to be conducting my business from space."
"Lucky Superman was there," Clark baited.
-Waiting for some Luthor outburst no doubt,- Lena thought. The reporter did seem to have a love affair with the man-in-blue. His articles were almost never about Superman, but Lena hadn't seen any Daily Planet piece from Kent that didn't find a way to work him in.
Lena considered the man and had an inkling what might get under his skin.
"Actually, it was Supergirl that saved the day. She's a lot of the reason why I came to National City." Lena lied. "I have a feeling Supergirl is going to be the new beacon of hope for this country," Lena declared in a confident tone. Then added in afterthought, "Despite the name being a little juvenile."
"Right!" Miss Danvers agreed enthusiastically her wound coil of energy springing free.
The girl shifted her chair forward, nodding vigorously and smiling at Lena. To the CEO's amusement Kent now sported a sour expression behind her. The young Danvers continued, "When- when I saw her at first, I totally thought it would be Superwoman, -or something just hers, like -Captain Planet or Blue Commit or- just something, you know?"
"Just hers-" Lena muttered absently while the young woman continued to ramble. "The name was really Ms Grant's idea. I guess the Super brand is kind of a thing. I just think it might have been nice for the public to see a lady hero with her own name."
She continued sounding annoyed, "I mean, she doesn't even work with Superman, well except this week I guess, but they make her sound like a sidekick." The blonde paused coloring lightly and settled back in her chair when she noticing her audience. Kent frowning and Lena with a bemused smile.
"Names are important," Lena agreed with a smile. One part of her mind starting toying with an idea.
The CEO's lips fell back into a neutral expression as she shifted her gaze back again to the Kansas-bred reporter. -Lex was so close with him once, but he still just assumes-. Tone holding an edge, she commented, "You wouldn't be here at all if my name was Smith."
Kent retorted sharply, "Ah, but it's not. It's Luthor."
A broad smile stretched across Lena's face, incredulous at the audacity. The woman affected an exaggeratedly playful tone and quipped back, "Some steel under that Kansas wheat."
False humor fell from her face in an instant as she let go of her irritation and went with honesty, a futile last-ditch effort to persuade him toward neutrality. "It wasn't always. I was adopted when I was four. The person who made me feel the most welcome in the family was Lex. You know how he used to be," the young woman said wistfully then continued with bitter irony, "He made me proud to be a Luthor. Then he went on his reign of terror in Metropolis. Declared war on Superman-."
Clark Kent's expression tightened momentarily. An accusation in his sapphire eyes that continued to hold obvious distrust and hostility toward the Luthor in front of him.
Lena noted with a mental eye-roll that he was leaning forward in his chair at a sharp angle, as if ready to physically shield the blonde woman next to him from an unprovoked attack.
Resigned to the inevitable, the CEO sat back and steeled herself, letting out tightly, "Just ask me what you want to ask me Mr. Kent. Did I have anything to do with the Venture explosion?"
"Did you?" Kent snapped back now openly agitated.
Jumping out of her chair impulsively, Miss Danvers circled around Lena's desk to stand next to the CEO.
Holding eye contact, the young blonde said in a matter-of-fact tone that soothed Lena's flare of temper. "What he means is well- It's public knowledge that the part that exploded on the Venture had ties to a LuthorCorp subsidiary." In a more reassuring tone she continued, "We are just following a lead to find out what happened. We are hoping you can help."
Appreciating her candor, Lena accepted the olive branch muttering softly, "I'd like to." Meeting the young woman's eyes, Lena made a decision. Rising she walked to the far side of the room.
Last night the frustrated engineer had spent hours failing to find any hint of a miscalculation in their work on the Venture. Reaching her bookshelf, she slid open the lid of an obsidian box and took out the flash-drive that housed her evening's work. The compiled information on every point of data she could find related to that part.
Heels clicking against tile, she walked back to the young woman slowly, weighing the drive in her hands. The young woman moved to meet her and Lena offered it up. "This drive contains all that we have on the oscillator."
"Thank you," the young woman said with sincerity, which was echoed in form but not substance by Kent behind her.
Lena reached out to shake the woman's hand and green met blue. She suddenly felt filled with a surge of energy and couldn't look away. Lena commented absently, "I thought you said you weren't a reporter."
"I- I'm not," the blonde agreed repositioning her glasses and glancing guiltily at the man beside her.
"You could have fooled me," Lena said sincerely having enjoyed the interaction despite certain annoyances. Glancing over she saw that Kent was standing stiffly, arms crossed with a carefully schooled expression.
Feeling a touch petty, Lena lead Kara away a few steps, intentionally positioning their bodies to block out Kent. She leaned in close. "Let me know if I can help you get another scoop," the dark-haired CEO whispered conspiratorially and added a wink. Wickedly delighted to see the young girl blush and stammer again, Lena had a feeling their next interaction would have a lot more of that. She might even arrange for it.
Immediately after the pair had made their exit, Lena pushed the button of her intercom to let Jess know to reschedule her meeting with the board of directors for tomorrow.
-Supergirl might not get to choose her own moniker, but LuthorCorp can.- Lena thought excitedly. Her mind rushing through rebranding considerations.
There was so much research she'd done for LutherCorp over the years, she needed something that would tie the company to its own history without dragging it down with the Luthor name. She grimaced remembering the time Lex had been practically gleeful at the thought of naming his first personal subsidiary LexCorp.
-A little gauche she thought.- As amazing as she looked in this dress, she hardly felt the need to have her employees genuflect before clocking in. -Something simple with a little less egomaniacal flare might suit better.- Lena fingered her necklace. Nodding she made a decision and started drafting a proposal.
.
.
.
-Kara-
.
Kara sat nervously fidgeting in a well-furnished LutherCorp waiting area. -White marble floors, white trim, monitors on all the walls, funky futuristic chairs. High-tech, modern, minimalist. Very Apple chic -she thought wondering if she should work it into the article. The girl had been here a week ago with Kal, but she had been too distracted watching sparks fly between her cousin and the young Luthor and didn't think she would ever have a reason to come back until Lena had made the offer.
Tagging along with Kal before was a little embarrassing. But today her new promotion made her feel even more self-conscious. Like she was a kid playing at reporter with her press pass and little tape recorder.
Her normal Kara-Danvers-appropriate outfit wasn't exactly boosting her confidence either.
This place held an army of crisp suits and manicured fingers. She toyed with the necklace under her sweater feeling frumpy. Fervently wishing she had gone with that button up she'd discarded three times getting ready this morning.
-It shouldn't matter.- She consoled herself and tried to focus on the interview questioned she'd prepared for the thousandth time.
There was an odd trilling sound in the air that had Kara adjusting her glasses to scope for a bomb. Following the sound, she saw it came from pen she was tapping a little too rapidly against her leg.
The Kryptonian blushed. That third cup of coffee might have been a mistake.
Kara had come in more than an hour early for her meeting with Lena. Her assistant Jess had taken pity on the overeager girl and showed her into the company break room.
Kara had her first cup while happily chatting with Jess, learning where the girl went to school, about her move from Metropolis, and they commiserated over the roller-coaster experience of being the go-fer, midnight nurse, and occasional muse to powerful women.
The next two she had because she knew bad things would happen if she didn't put something inside of her stomach if she was going be here for more than an hour. She didn't want the beast to start trying to talk to Lena. Kara trusted that Lena was smart, but she didn't think it was likely the CEO had picked up any Kryptonian belly languages.
She rolled her eyes remembering Kal droning on at her in broken Kryptonian after they left this office last week. Her cousin tried to switch to Kryptonian sometimes to get Kara to pay attention to him and keep their conversations private. Kara had conveniently never got around to telling him there wasn't any point since Winn, J'onn and Alex could all speak Kryptonian. The change probably did pay better attention though. She had to remember all the awkward things he said in stumbling robotic Kryptonian so she could have a giggle fest about it with Winn later.
But that day her cousin had been so annoying she could not find the funny.
It went on for hours. At first, he was just ranting about Luthors being evil and a menace to society, describing all the different ways Lex had tried to kill him, or turn the public against him, or explode cities or drown puppies or whatever over the years.
Yes, super evil guy. Obviously. Not arguing there.
His droning was far more irritating than it was informative, as usual. Particularly annoying that day since they had a fire to put out, the coolest kind of rescue mission, and he had talked through the whole thing! Stupid super-hearing not letting her walk away from Kal when he was being a dink.
She understood. -Kind of. It was after all the Lex stuff that Kal seemed to get so jaded. The men had been really good friends for a long time before Lex went off the deep end. She could understand his need to vent.
Kara was absolutely done with it when Kal started telling her that the same thing was going to happen to her if she tried to be friends with Lena.
It didn't even make sense. Kara had never heard of Lex trying to do good things. There was a time when he wasn't actively murdering innocent citizens, but before all that he was still an egomaniac, more interested in money and power than he was in helping anyone.
Jess confirmed to Kara that Lena had just spent every moment of free time she had over the last 6 years trying to cure cancer. For goodness sake, how much more good can you get?
The Kryptonian took off her glasses for a moment to rub her eyes and felt her senses flood.
As always, she automatically caught a string of heartbeats around her. She wasn't sure exactly why her brain always compulsively sorted out heartbeats first. Most of them irritated her, with weird little slurping sounds or rubs like sandpaper against metal. Her mind cycled through one to the next out of habit.
Then she noticed a rhythm that was surprisingly pleasant. The pulsing tone soothed her nerves, like when she put her ear against a seashell.
-Why does that sound so familiar?- She focused and expanded out her senses. Kara didn't realize it was Lena's until she caught a snippet of her conversation.
"No Jacob, this is happening if I have to wear a Kevlar vest."
Wincing at the accidental intrusion she replaced her glasses.
Then actually digested what she had overheard.-Wait, is she going to get shot? Again!-
Kara placated herself. -Hero rules, safety trumps privacy.- She positioned a pen behind her ear to covertly pull the frame's dampening lead away.
"Of course not," Lena said. "I was being facetious. I absolutely will not do that. Just figure out how to secure a small space for me in the park for 15 minutes."
Her calm was impressive, heart rate that same even tempo talking about getting shot after everything that happened last week. "I am quite capable of calculating the statistical risk of my death, thank you. And this is a risk we are taking," Lena said with clear finality.
Then added in a pleasant tone. "Send in my one o'clock Jess."
Kara quickly repositioned her glasses and experienced the world muffle and dull around her. Hurriedly she busied herself by reorganizing her bag.
Jess came over to lead Kara into the office and gave her a reassuring smile before opening the door for her. Entering the room Kara was close enough to pick up the faint tattoo of the rhythm again.
Lena walked in front of her desk leaning back against it, waiting for Kara to approach.
Kara was struck dumb, staring gobsmacked at the immaculately dressed woman. Lena Luthor made her nervous.
The Kryptonian blinked and searched her head for words she could actually say out loud.
A barrage of disjointed thoughts intruded into her mind. -Of course I'm nervous. This is my first real assignment and she is one of the most impressive minds of a generation and looks really nice. Should I tell her I read her white paper last year? No Kara Danvers doesn't know Euclidean geometry. Oh, no what if she recognizes me? I should have brought her something. Don't touch your glasses.- the blonde thought in the space of a couple of seconds. The dark-haired woman looked like she was fighting down a smile.
-Sugar sticks! Words, words. I need words.- Kara broke eye contact looking down and adjusted her glasses nervously.
Finally, the CEO broke the silence. Her tone was teasing. "Are you here to get your parking validated miss?"
Kara responded distractedly, busy mentally kicking herself for looking like a dork standing in the woman's doorway. "What uh, no. I flew here. -o-on a bus,"
-Crap, crap, crap. That didn't happen. New head cannon, just officially. Did. Not. Happen.- Shaking her head clear, Kara crossed the room and held out her hand saying, "I'm Kara Danvers with CatCo. Thank you so much for meeting with me Ms Luthor."
Lena interrupted with a dismissive wave, "Call me Lena, please. I was just teasing. Of course, I remember you Miss Danvers. I usually can't stand reporters."
Lena began dryly, "Now Miss Danvers, -sorry, Kara," Lena corrected herself noticing the girl's reproachful look. "I assume you're here to find some connection between the new Luthor in town and the latest string of alien-related atrocities I have nothing to do with."
Kara winced. -That must happen to her a lot. -
Trying to at least convey some sympathy she said, "No, nothing like that. My cousin K-Clark can be kind of annoying about- well about a lot of things. But he's just, -I'm not." Looking down she felt at a loss. Kara wished for a moment that she could explain the situation to the young Luthor, so she wouldn't feel like everyone just hated her. Unsure what else to say she looked up at Lena with a broad reassuring smile. "I'm just here for CatCo, as a reporter this time. You mentioned being open to talking again and I was really hoping to find out more you, -and -eh about your business of course."
Lena eyed her speculatively, "Congratulations on the career change, I'm sure you'll do well." The girl colored with pleasure remembering Ms Grant's expression when Kara had claimed her status as a reporter. A decision largely inspired by the impressive woman in front of her.
Said woman seemed to enjoy flustering her. She bit her lip before asking, "Did you have any questions?" Then she moved to sit on the edge of her desk very close to Kara's chair.
The blonde crossed her legs tightly, feeling an unfamiliar intensity in the air around the CEO's frame that made her throat tingle when she got too close. Am I allergic to coffee, or to -Lena? No, that didn't make any sense. Wait, wait not important. Focus Kara, focus.
"Right, on the record stuff," The blonde reporter said excitedly hitting a button on her tape recorder and mumbling the date and their location into it. Pulling out her notepad of questions she asked, "So, why move LutherCorp to National City."
"That's complicated," Lena said considering. She clicked a button and a screen on the opposite end of the room displayed a logo Kara was unfamiliar with. "Sometimes the weight of a dynasty only serves to drag you down. In the eyes of the public everything connected to the Luthor name, including me unfortunately, is tainted by my brother's madness." Her eyes looked empty as she spoke, like the young woman had gone to a different place and left the CEO here to hold up the burden of losing her brother along with the responsibility for everything he'd done. Kara knew about feelings like that.
Turning to her side to look out the window, the dark-haired woman continued, "I respect the citizens of Metropolis and their need to mourn. Most of what I tried to give back to the communities there, to help rebuild, was refused. Individuals too angry or organizations too worried to be associated with a Luthor. I'd like to think that intentions matter, but sometimes they just -don't. I feel like the only thing that LuthorCorp could do to help was offer apologies for having any part of what happened."
The CEO surprised Kara with her next statement. "LuthorCorp as it was doesn't deserve to exist, but I see all of the people that made up that company. Bright minds, dedicated workers, passionate young idealists, those people together could make the world better and they deserve to feel proud of what they accomplish. As much as can be done, I want to recreate this company to give them that."
-She's a hero.- Kara thought. -Saving what she can from that mess.-
"So, I moved to National City." She gave a shy smile. "I should thank you for the idea. I'm planning on renaming. I'm hoping that the citizens here might be able to give me and L-Corp a chance."
Kara's heart to thrummed in recognition of her drive and the feelings she described. The empty silence was interrupted by Jess's voice over the comm, "Ms Luthor, your security chief has requested to meet with you urgently."
"I'm sorry Kara. It looks like we'll have to reschedule," Lena said, her eyes looking sincerely regretful.
Remembering what she had overheard earlier Kara's nerves revved, senses wired despite the glasses. "The ceremony-. Didn't someone try to kill you last week?" Kara asked urgently feeling dread at the idea of not making it to her in time. "Won't something like a ceremony be dangerous to do out in the open?" the blonde asked, blue eyes filled with concern under her thick frames.
"Yes," Lena said dismissively, "but I'm a Luthor, my life is constantly in danger. I need my life to mean something, and it won't if I live in fear." Lena met Kara's eyes again and she felt the impulse to stay and be the Kryptonian kevlar vest the woman refused to wear.
"I'll come with you," Kara volunteered quickly thinking that would allow her to stay closer to Lena.
"That's ridiculous, you said yourself how dangerous it could be," Lena said with a lilt in cadence of her words Kara hadn't noticed before. She continued "I don't know if you want to be seen with me."
"Then we'll be in danger together," the blonde said happily, smiling to think she might be able to make the Luther a little less broody for a while. Kara stood feeling that energy again and held her arm out to help Lena down from her desk.
"Thank you," Lena said taking the hand.
Kara felt like half her face had gone numb, down to the fingertips that touched Lena's. She dropped the hand immediately as soon as Lena's heels touched the floor. The weird tingling went away, but the Kryptonian felt distracted by how very close they were.
"Of course," Kara said nervously. She nearly tripped walking backwards as she waved good bye the hand that felt normal. -Yikes. What the heck? -She thought making her way to the elevator.- Is this an Alex fix or a donut fix?- She was relieved to hear her stomach growl. -Rao, I thought I was having a stroke.-