Friends and Favors
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
-Kara-
Visions of waffles and Lena dancing in her head, the blonde superhero woke up thrumming with excitement.
Knowing there was no way to actually eat enough food in front of Lena without outing herself as an alien, she jumped out of bed and downed a sleeve of oreos with some string cheese before brushing her teeth.
Kara was stalwartly set on actually making it on time to one thing this week. Supergirl emergencies had interrupted a disproportionate amount of her friend time lately. That one thing, she decided resolutely, was going to be this thing. She didn't even let herself second guess the outfit she'd picked out last night and made her way out the door in less than 2 minutes with a hand pump of victory.
Memories of the smelly man she'd sat next to on the bus still fresh in her memory, Kara flew to the park where the ceremony had been instead. There were still a few spots of upset turf and a couple of scorch marks that hadn't been painted over yet, but all-in-all the clean-up crew seemed to have successfully turned it back into the a living postcard for National City. Apple trees flowering and neatly manicured gardens in clean rows bursting with new spring life.
Checking her phone, Kara realized she was actually going to be an hour early and worried that might be desperate.
Pursing her lips considering, she decided instead to spend some time working a very serious ongoing investigative project.
Sitting on a bench between a marble statue of a little girl laughing and a blue flowering bush, the Kryptonian sprawled out on the bench and tucked her purse under her head to use as a cushion.
She flipped through the list of notes she'd already compiled and considered the argument Alex might form in response. Kara believed that because Katniss, who was all sad and broody all the time, needed someone who could make her smile and cookies. Alex argued with her after they watched the first movie, calling Peeta a push-over and felt her connection with Gale was deeper. They were both hard because of mutual lived experiences and had similar interests or some other whatever reason.
She can go down with that 'ship if she wants, but I'm a good sister, Kara thought, justly feeling that is was thus her duty to inform Alex of all the reasons she was wrong at feeling.
As she worked on compiling a cross-reference for all the times Peeta made Katniss smile against when he hugged away her nightmares, Kara heard a couple of sirens go off.
The hero smiled brightly and checked her watch. How many saves can I make in 10 minutes? she considered removing her glasses.
Several successful micro-missions under her belt, Kara flew into a cloud to wash the smoke out of her hair and set her self-drier to vibrate for a few seconds before pulling her hair back with a scrunchy and getting changed in time to walk up to Lena's building 5 minutes early, grinning in triumph.
This time she'd made a plan with Lena who'd given her name to the elevator guy. The stone statue man had been replaced with a lovable grandfather with a quiet smile. He was very pleasant to ride with and told her about a puppy he'd just gotten for his kids. He looked at her bemused when she made a serious deal to bring the man a chew toy the next time she came to see Lena if he showed her a picture. Cute! she thought excitedly and tapped his arm to get him to scroll through the rest he'd taken that morning.
Reaching Lena's floor, the man waved at her smiling softly. Seeing her struggle, he stepped forward quickly and was super nice explaining how the weird sliding cage door thing worked.
Apparently not by yanking the metal bars apart. she thought nervously, Hope he doesn't notice where it bent.
Surprised she found herself standing right in Lena's apartment. She'd thought there would be a door or something to knock on, feeling awkward she stood there, like a child in a china shop, holding her hands behind her back to make sure she didn't break anything.
This place was what they were thinking of when they made up the word fancy, Kara thought to herself.
Furniture was mostly stark black, a post-modern industrial look with sleek lines offset artfully with a couple of weathered wood accent tables. Instead of lamps, the walls and ceiling were covered in tiles that gave off light at different intensities near different spaces. The blonde girl thought of a painting she'd just finished that would look awesome in here, then shook her head thinking she didn't want to risk ruining Lena's fancy awesomeness with normal people things.
Too curious to make herself stand still for any longer, Kara peered around the corner and saw a massive professional kitchen with all the cool appliances she'd seen people use on top chef.
Alex had informed her she was a 'menace to society' and disconnected her oven from the gas line claiming it was her duty as a civil servant. So, Kara mostly made due with heat vision, the occasional microwaving and took out her little hotplate from college on special occasions. Lena, on the other hand, had all the whosiwhatsits she'd watched contestants scramble around to put things in and -eh, stir or whatever.
Tilting her head down she caught a quick x-ray of Lena's fridge and her eyes went wide. She thought Lena was kidding about not having food in the house, but there was literally one container full of sad vegetables and a test tube of something in her refrigerator. This place is big, Kara thought desperately, maybe that one's not her food refrigerator. She could have one for sad vegetables and another one for all the good-tasting food that people need to stay alive with. Tilting her glasses down she checked around the apartment then slammed the frames back on her face so hard she was worried she might have cracked a lens again.
She hadn't meant to see Lena, so it wasn't a creepy, pervy, terrible thing that she's just done.
The Kryptonian groaned remembering that she couldn't even apologize. Stupid government and Kal and Alex who all made excellent points about not telling anyone her secret, she thought. What was she supposed to do when she had to apologize for accidentally seeing Lena in her underwear sliding into one of those really nice short pencil skirts that Kara thought made her look like a run-way model.
Kara mollified herself thinking, Maybe I'll ask if she wants to go to the beach. Then she'll see me in not-clothes and it'll be even.
She pointedly ignored the part of her brain that tried to remind her about logical fallacies.
Feeling nerves flare up with a vengeance, she subconsciously tuned her heart dial to Lena, which was playing one of the tunes she liked. Then wondered absently whether or not the CEO knew Kara was here.
"Lena," Kara called out loudly and heard Lena's heartbeat reply with a heavy thud and a little dancing beat.
"I'm really sorry for just coming in but there wasn't, -like, a door or anything and I felt weird making the nice elevator guy wait with me. Should I-" Kara got out before she heard before Lena responding, reassuring Kara she was almost ready.
Kara was surprised to see Lena was wearing a blue cocktail dress instead of the skirt, but closed her mouth abruptly before she commented on the change.
"You look amazing. I mean- really nice." Kara recovered.
Lena responded awkwardly complimenting Kara's much simpler jeans and UNC sweatshirt and nervously fidgeted for a couple of moments before offering to change.
"Don't be silly, I came prepared." Kara said starting to take off her sweatshirt. When the shirt was half over her head she accidentally bumper her glasses with her arm.
That must have crank up her senses because the sound of Lena's heartbeat was distractedly loud before she tuned it out.
Struggling to get her glasses back on her face while the sweatshirt was still over her head, Kara didn't realize that she inadvertently had her sports-bra on full display for several seconds before she got the thing off. Pulling her shirt back down quickly she remembered her plans for amends, wondering if the top half counted enough if Lena's skirt was half zipped up.
The CEO standing a couple of feet in front of the guilty Kryptonian shook her head and cleared her throat not actually saying anything.
Kara gestured down at the blue strappy silk top saying, "See now we match," with a grin. She left her sweatshirt on the counter, not wanting to risk Lena seeing the suit she'd stuffed in the bottom of her bag.
Masterfully changing the subject, Kara gestured around the apartment with both hands making several exclamatory sounds.
"What's the fun in being rich if you can't do ridiculous things to your home?" Lena asked teasingly.
"You haven't seen the best part yet," she said pulling out her phone and tapping a few times before Kara saw one of the walls move into the floor the wall behind it displaying an enormous flat screen and fireplace, after Lena tapped a couple more times Kara looked up seeing a the ceiling recede showing glass paneling. Sun rays dropped down on to them making Kara feel a little giddy from the unexpected boost.
Ready for an adventure, Kara figured Lena must have some secrete room behind a bookcase or a magic wardrobe somewhere in here and took a step in the direction of Lena's bedroom to find out. Lena grabbed her arm. "Kara, normally, I would give you a tour, but uh, I just left some things out. So, um next time when it's cleaned up." She said coloring lightly.
Kara's stomach gave off a loud gurgling sound.
"The beast has spoken," Kara said well aware of her stomach's first warning of impending hostile take-over. Lena looked quizzical in response and Kara explained that she would understand eventually.
This time the elevator felt like it took forever. Standing right next to Lena, Kara could not think of anything to say that wasn't about how Lena's perfume smelled really good. The girl's head was swimming with it.
It also didn't help that Kara's stomach kept talking on its own, unhappy with how long ago those oreos had been. She should have remembered how flying always made her hungry and eaten again after that fire rescue.
By the time the elevator door opened, Kara had started fantasizing about syrup and breakfast meats. Lena laughed brightly when Kara put her arm in hers and tugged insistently, obviously trying to encourage faster movement from the brunette as they moved toward the exit.
"Um, I should tell my security team where we're going," Lena said breathlessly. They'd already made it a few blocks down the street. Kara's, a soft but immovable force, set a pace her arm on the young CEO's. The only other sound on the street that competed with the rapid clicking of her heels on the pavement, were a couple of doves chirping out a dawn greeting above them.
Kara interrupted the silence after scouting their location and referencing details on her knowledge of the area. "There is a café serving a solid French toast buffet four blocks south. Two blocks North and one East there's a little mom and pop shop with the best donuts I have ever had in my life."
"Or," She glanced at Lena blue eyes smoldering as the hungry Kryptonian made sure to keep the drool inside of her mouth. "The penultimate experience. Noonan's maple bacon waffles with marshmallow fluff syrup, three blocks in the direction we are going right now."
Kara's voice had slipped into her commanding Supergirl tone. The part of her mind that was normally contentious about that kind of thing while she wore the glasses, had short-circuited trying to keep moving at the intentionally human pace she had worked out with Alex when they used to walk to get ice-cream after school. At the same time, she was also intentionally pushing away a nagging part of her mind that responded to the smell of Lena's shampoo when the wind shifted against her dark hair, or the feeling of her soft hand clinging tightly to Kara arm as Kryptonian moved like a freight-train down the city block.
Reaching Noonan's, Lena looked at Kara. The girl's face was creased with impatience, standing on tiptoe, head straining to see over the sea of people between them and the reservation desk.
"Noonan's it is," Lena said with a breathless laugh. "This is fine, obviously, -darling. But why did you mention any of the other restaurants if we were just coming here?"
Kara already distracted, felt her belly flip-over momentarily only absorbing one of the words Lena said.
Replaying all the other the sounds back, Kara realized Lena had asked her a question. "For, um, later," she answered absently tempted to hover just a couple of inches to see over some lady with a hat. "Tomorrow or next week or -whenever. Food is supposed to be a regular thing. I mean, it doesn't always have to be something you have with me, but I'm really good at food. Ask anyone," she finished, dropping down on her toes with a disappointed pout.
Mourning the loss of uneaten waffles, she apologized to Lena for not thinking to make a reservation.
Amused, Lena waved her hand imperiously at the man behind the podium making eye contact, and lifting an expectant eyebrow at him. She man's eyes widened in recognition, and he snapped at a couple of passing servers.
As the men parted the crowd for them Lena asked, "How exactly can you be good at food?" and Kara gaped.
Sitting down, Kara stared at Lena like she had just sprouted wings. In a reverent tone she commented, "You didn't even have to talk to the guy, the -eh food bouncer."
Smiling wickedly Lena answered, "I'm kind of a big deal" and laughed when Kara just nodded fervently in agreement.
"I'm kidding. Well, before I was a pariah in Metropolis I probably could have pulled that off. It'll take a couple of years before my face saturates National City's gossip rags." The young Luthor said dryly, then looked at Kara with a smirk, adding "Unless they decide I'm dating a perky young blonde reporter. They'd eat that up."
Kara blushed furiously looking down. Determined not to be a bumbling mess in front of Lena again, the blonde fought against the dryness in her throat to quip back, "Am I your type then?" Wondering for an instant who she would have been matched with on Krypton.
Masking her own blush with a sip of seltzer, Lena ignored the question answering a previous one. "We actually got in because L-Corp picked up contracts with most of the restaurants in the area. If you did want to do this again- I mean get lunch, or something -when you're not busy. We shouldn't have any problem getting in."
Kara was listening intently with a goofy smile on her face, both at Lena's word and at the really pretty pattering sound Lena's heart made when it accelerated.
"Yes! That sounds like six levels of amazing, but then that means that I get to-," Kara paused deciding not to tell Lena yet, "-well surprises will be provided at regular pseudo-random intervals."
"Sounds like an algorithm I'd be highly motivated to crack," Lena responded smiling broadly, leaving Kara feeling regretful again that she couldn't talk science with Lena.
They passed the next hour talking about Lena's board members and Kara's boss. Lena had just started opening-up about her family when her phone chirped an alarm.
"It's time," Lena said smiling at Kara wistfully before standing to head out. Kara not having noticed time pass at all was grateful for Lena's forethought. Snapper's reaction the last time she was late was not an experience she'd like to reenact.
As Kara stood Lena stayed seated at the table with a thoughtful, then calculating expression touching Kara's arm. Her tone more formal than a minute before, Lena asked, "Kara, you mentioned a personal acquaintance with Supergirl. You could, perhaps, get in contact with her directly?" Kara nodded in reply and Lena continued, "If I were to promise a few L-Corp exclusives, would you be willing to set up a meeting with her for me?"
Kara frowned at the idea. "Leeeenaa," she whined. "Friends don't trade for favors," she informed punctuating each word for emphasis, then stealing a sausage off Lena's plate. "I'm sure she'd be happy to meet with you anytime." Remembering a promise she had already made to Winn, Kara corrected super-smoothly, "I mean, she told me she was really busy with, um -saving some people the next few days, would Friday night be soon enough?"
"That would be perfect darling. She could be the answer to a problem I've been worried about for weeks." Lena responded brightly jumping to her feet, and hesitating looking unsure. Kara wrapped a patented Danvers hug around Lena's stiff form reminding her, "That's what friends are for."
Thanking Lena for being awesome, Kara walked her out to her driver. She begged off Lena's offer for a ride, knowing she would be late if she didn't fly and seeing Lena turn out of sight she rocketed up into the sky.
-Lena -
Lena heard a soft rustle of air behind her and the click of boots. Unsure what to expect, Lena steeled herself against the nerves tingling in her chest, schooling her features into a mask of cool indifference, before turning to greet the hero, "Hello Supergirl."
"Good evening Ms Luthor, Kara Danvers told me you had an emergency." Supergirl followed to the balcony rails hands fisted at her hips, watching Lena carefully.
"Thank you for coming on short notice. I haven't been able to find any other way to do this and I was hoping that it's relevance to you would make the endeavor sufficiently interesting," Nerves calming as she slide into a comfortable professionalism the CEO continued, "I'm sure you are intimately familiar with the weapons technology my psychotic brother has developed over the years. More often than not he calibrates his devices with enough power to tear a hole through the moon. Or a Kryptonian as might be more to the point."
"Sure," Supergirl responded, I haven't really seen it up close, but Kal's mentioned a few things, the warsuit, nuclear man. We were always more concerned about the massive stash of Kryptonite he had stashed somewhere."
Not a priority for her, Lena considered the hero's concern regarding kryptonite a perhaps providing the best leverage, "I can't make any promises, but knowing Lex's obsessions, it seems infinitely likely that a considerable amount of kryptonite might be recovered. I suspect that I might have found where Lex housed the production of his independent projects until he was incarcerated. And kryptonite was famously one of his preferred catalysts for kinectic energy conversion in the weapons he designed personally."
The CEO was familiar with the most effective approach for gaining the approval of individuals with -limited mental capacity. She knew her plan had holes she would prefer not to address and was hoping that overloading the hero with minutia might distract her from any objections.
We've been aware of the location's connection to the LuthorCorp and now L-Corp for several weeks, but we only recently started the process of shutting down LuthorCorp's previous munitions projects. This property was one of the few that continued to receive a steady independent revenue stream, sheltered by a suspicious number of shell companies. The disbursement of payroll funds we found currently appears to be consistent with maintaining a ghost crew of minimally skilled personnel, likely security.
The building also pulls a suspicious quantity of power off the grid and is situated in an area with easily controllable access points.
I'm not sure that you've really told me much of anything yet. Why me, why now and how are you so sure that Lex is involved.
Lena's lips turned up in a faint smile feeling caught out in her game. Tackling the easiest to answer first she started "Earlier this week L-Corp was the victim of a targeted hack, looking for files on disbanded LuthorCorp projects. Based on the files they extracted, they seemed particularly interested in the security layout of the building and determining which projects might be housed in the location. So, I'm expecting they may have a plan to move on to investigating the building physically and uncovering technology that would be dangerous in the hands of the public. Particularly with anyone with such apparently sophisticated computing capabilities. I wouldn't typically want someone like Miss Danvers to serve as a go-between in such an operation. But, there is no good that can come of any entity in the world having access to that technology."
The hero stood silently arms folded nodding for her to continue.
"The security blue prints are the reason why I am reasonably sure of Lex's involvement. The blueprints themselves are outdated. It was apparently where my father kept his more sensitive projects not for public consumption some years ago, but moved on to more elaborate high security labs in the future. I can't be positive that it's there, but I know Lex. The keystone of the security plans was a propriety piece of equipment our father built that has a biometric scanner keyed to living Luthor DNA. Lex was much more sentimental about issues of heritage than most people might realize. The records we could recover, show that on the same day, 5 years ago, that our father gave Lex the keys to the castle, Lex's DNA was detected by that scanner. Unfortunately, shortly after that time, data from the scanner was no longer uploaded to the general server, but I am sure that Lex would have kept that for his base of operations. Building his vision for the Luthor legacy in a building built by our father which required a key reminding him everyday of the superiority of his heritage."
Lena could feel Supergirl's stare, knowing this was a weak argument. Honestly it was more justification for an intuitive sense Lena had that barely made sure to her. Everything about the place just felt like her brother.
"That's why I need you to get me in there."
Supergirl looked surprised as that, nervous. "You. That's not a good idea. Rao, L-Miss Luthor, this sounds incredibly dangerous. Normally I work with a team for something on this scale, anything with the potential for kryptonite involvement anyway. Let me make a call, I can have a DEO squad there in an hour and we'll break the door in."
"No," the CEO objected, "I can't let you involve the government in this. Trust me, LuthorCorp has been in bed every government and military organization in the world. If one of them was able to reverse engineer any of Lex's projects, you would see a unit of kryptonite powered suits in the air within the week."
"I would have gone in with a team weeks ago, but I can't trust anyone with this. There is always a mercenary that will follow the money. And" the young Luthor said with a tired sigh, "It has to be me, unless you want to pick up Lex from his cell on the flight over."
"You," Supergirl mouthed then eye's widened with realization. "Wait, I thought you said you were adopted. I mean, in the article- in the article that Kara wrote, you mentioned being adopted."
"I was." Lena gave an ironic smile. "One thing you learn growing up with the Luthors is that half-truths are always wrapped in layers of lies, and that power is only yours if you're the only one who holds it." Lena said gazing out into the city eyes glazed. "With my father's obsession with bloodlines, there was always a piece of me that wondered why I was always his favorite. My mother being an insufferable bitch made a lot more sense when the results came back positive for him and negative for her." Lena looked down at her hands and said, "There's no getting around my being a Luthor and I'd like for that to be a good thing at least once. Please help me at least not be responsible for the devastation from the weapons in that vault."
Supergirl looked into Lena's eyes with concern, then resolve she ripped at the collar of her suit and pulled out a small metal disc, then crushed it in her hands. Lena turned her head, confused and she responded "tracker chip." Then holding herself heroically she met Lena's eyes with confidence and asked "Where are we going?"
"Bludhaven." Lena replied walking toward the helipad before she felt her feet lift of the ground. Panicking momentarily she clung to Supergirl's shoulders desperately and yelled out "Wait, wait! Jet! I have a jet."
Supergirl frowned floating, "but I can fly us there in 20 minutes." She smiled brightly. "You'll really like it I promise. We can fly above the clouds and race some planes. It's really the best feeling in the world." She continued energetically, "We might even fly near a flock of birds. You do not even understand how funny a goose looks all confused when you fly up next to it." Clearing her throat, and began again, "It really would be considerably faster Ms Luthor."
Lena's brow creased, something about the Krytonian's enthusiasm nagged at the back of her mind. "You said yourself, this mission is going to be dangerous. I've learned a couple of things about Kryptonite extraction and neutralization" she said pulling a couple of vials out of her pocket to show Supergirl, "but if you get seriously injured, I can't carry you back here on my own."
Supergirl nodded reluctantly and started walking toward the building. Lena, enjoying herself pulling her tablet out of her bag she silently wondered how long it would take for Supergirl to remember to put her down. She gestured over to the stairs to the helipad and Supergirl floated her over.
"Clever," Supergirl said, dropping Lena to her feet and circling around the aircraft, touching and moving a couple of components. "I'm assuming you reversed the polarity of the metamaterials to bend light at different directions to help improve the cloaking. A human would probably need to be within 100 feet of the ship before they could detect any irregularity in EM emissions that would give away even a silhouette distortion."
Lena gaped. "Finish your PhD in engineering between putting out fires and rescuing kittens?" she asked incredulously.
Supergirl smiled wistfully for a moment before she continued teasing, "I would think you of all people Ms Luthor wouldn't expect just a pretty face. No, on Krypton I was about to join the Science Guild's physics department. I was thirteen when everything- well I would have been the youngest to join in some time."
Clearing her throat against a sudden dryness, Lena strode purposefully toward the jet. Opening the loading hatch, she gestured for Supergirl to enter.
Following her up the ramp Lena said carefully, "I'm just, - well my brother always talked about Superman, in well, -a different light."
"Kal?" The young hero laughed wickedly while taking in her surroundings with a whistle. "He might beat me with English and human-things knowledge since he grew up here, but he can barely figure out enough Kryptonian to operate the fortress. He gets mad at me every time I try to walk him through the basic equations necessary to keep Kelex calibrated to Earth's rotation. Poor thing is turned around every time I go up there. You can call Kal if you need to jump-start your tracker, but if you need someone to calculate the insidious rate of change in a vector's unstable algorithmic progression, then I'm your Kryptonian." the blonde finished grinning wolfishly.
Losing her grip on formality, the CEO's tone filled with sultry innuendo, "Kryptonian physics sound fascinating. I'd love to spend some time bent over a drafting table with you. Find where our knowledge intersects."
Oblivious to the suggestion in her tone, Supergirl went on, "I don't know how much use I would be to you in engineering, I was more into theoretical physics and sometimes its hard to translate. You're missing a quarter of the elements on Earth that we had on Krypton and the yellow sun causes all kinds of distortions to the physical properties of matter."
Shaking her head at herself for trying deliberately to complicate her problem, Lena admitted that she felt a dark need settle inside of her listening to the Kryptonian talk about EM emissions and vectors. Despite that, she reminded herself of the gravity of the situation she was placing them in right now.
Taking another metaphorical box off the shelf, Lena crammed into it her feelings about another blonde woman, this time one she wanted to go to after class for extra credit.
Smoothing her expression into passivity, the CEO settled into the cockpit and tapped several buttons to initiate the launching sequence.
Notes:
I research the science behind the inventions for a bit so it's not just technobabble. If we have any engineers out there who feel like correcting any verbage I'm always down for pointers.
Also appreciate all the Kudos and comments. Thanks guys.