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[hayespeters]

untealyoutellmewhy replied to your post: Blame @bigmammallama5 for this one. I can only...

@hayespeters​ what is this pastry called? I am interested to try, too!

They’re called Apple Rose Tarts. They’re actually super easy and there’s a ton of recipes to find online!

One tip, though, since it wasn’t mentioned in the recipe I followed: Dry the apple slices as much as you can before you place them and roll the actual tart - even just laying them flat between paper towels and pressing is better than nothing.

The less liquid you introduce to the final product, the better; the pastry already has very little room to work with because it’s rolled up and stuffed in a muffin tin, so it’s very easy to end up with a soggy center.

[hayespeters]

Blame @bigmammallama5 for this one. I can only read about these things so many times in one fic before I have to try making them.

[hayespeters]

That drunk

Conversation-snippet after my brother returned from a night out.

Me: So how drunk are you right now? Him: I’m… *look of intense concentration* … drunk enough to not know any better, but also… drunk enough to not know any better. Me: …I think you basically just divided by zero. Him: Yeah, I think you’re right.

[hayespeters]

Teensy little snip from a future chapter of C is for, mostly because it emphasizes something very important from the latest (9th) chapter:

“Alex, she hates me. That night at the Pulitzer’s, she—”

“—told me exactly where to find you,” comes the quiet interruption. “And then made damn sure that I went straight there, because she knew you needed me.” Alex’s fingers gently tip her head up, and then wipe at her eyes. “That doesn’t sound to me like someone who hates you, Kar. That sounds like someone who loves you so much that even when she’s hurt and pissed beyond belief, she’s still looking out for you.”

[hayespeters]

Just added chapter 9, in which the C is for Confrontation.

Y'all get three guesses to figure out what it centers on, and the first two don't count.

[hayespeters]

You chose not to see it.

Lena bites the same spot on her lip as earlier – the one that’s still cut and raw and now bleeding again – because that’s a truth too, and she will not cry in the middle of an airport VIP lounge.

This is basically me getting the gist of the s4 finale, seeing the s5 trailer, and my brain going Oooo - shiny! and running away with me.

(figured that since we’re now up to 5 chapters, maybe sharing this here would be a good idea)

[hayespeters]

Sounds like In Which Supergirl Becomes The Flash?

someone please help me find this supercorp fic, i’m gonna die. i’ve been looking for like the past 6 hours and can’t find it anywhere.

in the fic kara’s trying to tell lena she’s supergirl, and lena misunderstands and thinks she’s coming out, and then kara does the shirt thing to reveal her suit but she forgot she’s not wearing it and flashes lena, so then she really thinks she’s coming out

[hayespeters]

This is at once the most repulsive and hilarious line of dialogue I think I've ever written:

"Darling, take it from me. The moment you set eyes on her, you're going to want to ride her like a stolen bike."

[hayespeters]

Today on Writing Adventures: Spending several minutes messing with your largest drinking glasses because Character A needs to carry 4 full ones and you need to know if that's even possible without using a tray.

And then remembering that hey - bottles are a thing.

[hayespeters]

Fun with infinite loops

I have 10+ years of experience in my field. This is still the most ridiculous (and hilarious) answer I have ever gotten to any question I have ever asked.

Mail sent: Dear [external service desk for large customer]

Regarding your recent order with [ID], could you please provide us with the contact details for [specific end user]?

Best regards [My company, my team]

Paraphrasing, but that’s the gist of it. A simple enough request, at any rate, and one we’ve sent plenty of times - just to a person who actually works for the customer, and not this third party.

Answer received: Dear [My company]

Please contact the end user directly for the missing information.

Best regards [External service desk]

*record scratch* (s2g, I actually heard that sound in my head) Wait, what?

Here’s where I closely re-read not only what I sent, but also the reply we got. Twice, just to be safe.

Nope; still says the same thing. They honest to god responded to a request for contact information with a request for us to contact the user directly and ask the user for their contact information so we can contact them directly.

Did... did this person just discover the communication equivalent of dividing by zero?

[hayespeters]

One & One

Completed as of less than fifteen minutes ago.

AO3 link Wordcount: 21.300

10% smut (chapter 6), and 90% tooth-rotting fluff.

(Seriously, y’may wanna consult your dentist before reading.)

[hayespeters]

Genetic Smartassery

AKA: A Brief Text-Message Conversation That Probably Says A Lot

K: Honorable elder sibling, Yours truly and our mother regrettably forgot the trying of the sneakers. So they're still outside your place. ._. Buuuuut I'd still like to try them on. =D Just so you know. =D

H: Most revered brother, Yours truly offers in recompense to keep in comforting mind the hope that amidst thine steering of the vehicle, thou didst not feel that very forgetfulness or distraction. Should I come to be mistaken, may God Help Us All.

K: Holy shit you win.

(Duh. I’m older and have more practice.)

[hayespeters]

I did a mostly fluffy, not-quite-smutty-but-bordering-on-it thing.

"Why purity?"

Honestly, that was a question Lena had been expecting for a while. There was no way that Kara had only noticed the tattoo just now, considering how much time they'd already spent together naked in one bed or the other.

On the other hand, they were very good at distracting each other, she considered, and curled her arms below the pillow with a private, little smile. Only more so the less clothes they were wearing.

“I had it done... I think it was a month after Lex was arrested.” Her answer was halfway a question of its own, but that entire period was hazy; a blur of stress and sorrow and attempting to keep herself sane when yanked from relative obscurity – at least for a Luthor – to the sudden front of a very bright, very unfriendly limelight. The memory still stung, if she was perfectly honest with herself, and since the light trace of a fingertip along the curlicue lettering became a firmer, soothing stroke, that probably showed somehow.

“As a reminder?” Kara's voice was gentle, and Lena felt the finger against her lower back become a palm, which - after a dip in the mattress that was probably Kara shifting - became two hands that started a slow, undulating trek along the edges of her spine with just enough pressure to pull a groan from her throat.

“Yes.” Her face sank into the pillow from how quick she went from tense to practically boneless, and that only relaxed her further since her next breath was then colored all the brighter with the scent of Kara's shampoo. “You are unreasonably good at that.”

“Practice makes perfect,” was the amused response, though Kara clearly didn't see the need to point out that the majority of her chances to practice tended to be on Lena herself. “You up for me asking for details, or would you prefer if we changed the subject?”

“Darling, as long as you keep that up, I'll answer anything you want.”

That earned her a snicker. “A dangerous promise to make to a reporter,” came the playful reminder.

“You work for me,” Lena muttered into the pillow, but felt her mouth twitch into a smile that matched the one she could hear in Kara's voice. “Technically, any and every conversation we have could fall under the non-disclosure agreement you signed as part of your CatCo employment contract.”

“Mm, probably.” The tone of the answer was thoroughly unconcerned, and fit well with the second dip of the mattress and the brush of lips against the space between her shoulders. “Purity,” Kara repeated succinctly; her lips caressing Lena's skin as they shaped the word. “Why?”

“Because it was what I wanted to remind myself to base everything on from that point forward.” She sounded surprisingly at ease even to her own ears, but had learned by now that more often than not, that was what Kara's presence did to her. “Pure intentions, pure actions, pure thoughts and emotions. I loved--” Her voice cracked, and she cleared her throat when she felt the gentle, sympathetic press of a kiss into her hair. “-- love my brother. But I can't let myself be corrupted the way he was; not by anything.”

“I think you've succeeded so far.” The warmth of Kara's body – let alone that of her voice – was all but a physical, tangible thing; wrapping her up in safety and comfort as gently as her hand curled around Lena's hip. “Did it hurt?”

“Like you wouldn't believe.” She gave the answer around a chuckle, though, and shifted to provide better room when soft lips nipped carefully at the crook of her neck. “Apparently it hurts more the less flesh is below the needle, and I shamefully admit that I betrayed badass girls everywhere by screaming like a banshee.”

“Aww.” The kiss to her shoulder lingered just long enough for her to feel Kara's mouth twitch into a smile. “You stuck it out, though.”

“Mm.” Lena shifted again; this time somewhat impatiently since the cause was a meandering touch tracing up the inside of her thigh. “It helped to know that at least I'd gone with 'purity', and not 'finish what you start'.”

Kara's chuckle washed over her ear; low and fond and definitely satisfied, though the latter probably had more to do with the slow roll of her hips and the way Lena's breath caught in response. “I think you would've powered through the other option, too.”

“The irony would have been a little hard to swallow otherwise,” she conceded; wryly, and also more than a tad breathlessly since the lazy touch had now slipped between her legs. “Speaking of finishing what you start...”

The smirk against her jaw became a grin, and Lena reached back to wind her fingers tightly in mussed, golden hair; tugged until Kara's front was warm and solid along the length of her back, and craned her head enough for their mouths to meet.

Coherency stopped being an option soon after.

Supercorp fic prompt

Kara finds out Lena has a tramp stamp that reads “Purity” (let’s stick to the real tattoo on Katie’s back). Go crazy with that. Emotional explaining, why she got it, Kara sensually stroking over it with her fingers, downright smut, whatever. Feel free to share.

[hayespeters]

The fun part about a corporation with a global presence is that while all the communication usually happens in English, there are numerous people involved whose first language is something other than English.

My first language isn’t English. Part of my duties as 2. level is to create 3. level tickets to a subsidiary whose first language isn’t the same as mine, but also isn’t English. They sometimes need to pass the ticket on to our vendor (4. level), whose first language - guess what? - is different from either of ours and also isn’t English.

Which means that sometimes shit gets lost in translation, and my team gets a ticket resolution like this:

Manually order in (system2) that (system1) need to manual to process jump the order from node to receiver from (system3).

ufckinwotm8.jpg

I still don’t know what the hell the above means, but the problem was solved.

[hayespeters]

H: I consider it my proudest and most vital task to induct you into supercorp HELL

R: Good God. I don't have time for such an induction.

R: See, now I'm home and I want to watch Supergirl.

R: And I blame YOU.

H: 0:-)

[hayespeters]

Soar (excerpt)

A (long) single-scene excerpt from an in-progress oneshot, because these two are ruining me so hard that they broke a writing drought that's lasted over six months.

If anyone has concrit to offer - especially on characterization because I'm really not confident in my handle on that yet - I'll accept it gratefully. Better now than when the story's already written, yeah?

Edit: Title changed to One & One. Currently at 8k words and not showing signs of stopping anytime soon.

Kissing Lena Luthor quickly shoots its way to the very top of Kara's list of favorite things to do. Lying to her about her dual identities, however, only drops lower with every hint breezed over and every understanding look avoided. At this point, she is roughly 99.8% sure that Lena knows exactly why she's often either late to show up or early to rush out, and Kara has toed the line to telling her several times already.

She has also chickened out every single time, of course, but she tries not to think about that because it only makes it harder for her to work up the nerve again.

So Kara is giving herself a very long, very firm mental pep talk as she walks down the crowded street toward L-Corp. She's meeting Lena for lunch, and while Kara can't exactly tell her in the middle of wherever they're going today, she can probably talk her into sitting down with her for bit back at her office.

She isn't exactly surprised to pick up on the sound of Lena's voice from a good two blocks away. Her enhanced senses have had some sort of weird auto-tune function for a while now, so all Kara does is smile to herself and pick up her pace as much as she can get away with. That is, at least, still quite a decent clip to move at, so it doesn't take long before she can see her too; pacing back and forth along the front of L-Corp – early, as always – with a phone held to her ear and a faint frown on her face.

Productive, also as always. Kara's head cants a fraction as she notes the slightly elevated heart rate, and she takes a few seconds to wonder if maybe she could also talk Lena into a post-lunch donut.

Until something else catches her attention.

It's Kara who sees the car tearing down the street, but it's Supergirl who practically rips the air itself apart from sheer speed; who catches Lena's widening eyes before catching her around the waist, pushing off with enough force to crack the sidewalk and launching them both into the air in blur of concrete dust and confusion. It's Supergirl's heat vision that blows the car's tires in calculated bursts; pushing it away from the crowd and across the road between braking, swerving vehicles, into a building site where the bomb it carries explodes in a rush of fire and hot, stinking air while the screams begin.

“Christ,” Lena breathes, and while Kara hears her, she also hears more explosions; her head twisting this way and that to pinpoint their locations, and a hard breath of anger-laden frustration spilling from between her lips as the DEO channel crackles to life.

“Stay here,” she asks when she deposits Lena so, so carefully on her office balcony, and only just keeps herself from touching or kissing her in the ways that Kara can and Supergirl shouldn't. “Please.”

Lena nods, clearly shaken but holding up, and Kara wishes she could stay with her in either form, but still steps back and is already over the balcony railing and several feet away when Lena's voice stops her.

“K--” She spins in mid-air with her heart in her throat, but Lena's face freezes until Kara's entire body aches for the indecision she sees there, which finally softens into resigned acceptance. “Can you ask Kara to come by? If you see her.”

Kara nods and presses her fingers into her palms until they sting from the force of it, and feels Lena's eyes on her until she's out of sight.

The next several hours are little more than a blur. Of moving, fighting, pain and exhaustion until it stops; until Supergirl and the DEO save the day again, and the attackers are rounded up and locked away. Kara, meanwhile, is firmly relocated to the nearest sunbed, and Alex sits just out of reach and mutters at her tablet until she can start fussing properly.

“Lena knows,” Kara offers into the otherwise silent, empty room, and hears her sister stop breathing for a moment.

“You told her?”

That makes her smile; just a little. “Didn't need to.”

“But you want to.”

It's not a question, clearly, but Kara turns her head enough that she can look over anyway. “Yeah,” she admits, and watches Alex set her tablet down and straighten in her seat. “It's pretty much a formality at this point.”

“Confirming it is still another story,” Alex cautions, and Kara gets that – she really does – but she's so tired of needing to make up excuses; tired of lying and of indirectly forcing Lena to keep up her own pretense when it's only becoming increasingly obvious that she already knows the truth.

“I trust her.”

Alex snorts. “I doubt you'd be dating her if you didn't,” she points out wryly, and smirks when Kara first startles bodily, and then flushes all the way up to the tips of her ears. “Sorry, was that a secret?”

“Well... no?” But it isn't something she has actually told Alex – or anyone, for that matter – both because it's new and exhilarating and a little bit frightening in all the best ways, and because as much as she herself trusts and believes in Lena, she's also aware that she's still one of very few. “Not really. But--”

There's a slow, heavy exhale stirring the air. “-- you've never heard me say a kind word about any Luthor.”

“... yeah.” She closes her stinging eyes, and swallows against a tight throat while shame curls hot and heavy in her chest. “That's a pretty common theme.”

“Kara.” There's a low creak when Alex rises, followed by the soft sound of approaching footsteps. “I don't trust Lena Luthor.” The sunbed clicks off and opens. “I'm sorry, but I don't.”

And hearing that hurts more than she was prepared for; enough that there's a rush of pain followed by a hot flash of righteous anger, and Kara tenses – ready to surge up and argue till the end of time if that's what it takes – until a light, familiar touch to her sternum stops her.

“But I do trust your judgment.” Her sister is standing by her side – jaw tense but eyes soft – and when Kara blows out a hard, shaky breath and blinks ten times in two seconds, Alex's fingers wipe gently at the skin below her eyes like they have so many times before. “I'm also willing to believe that you probably know her better than most.”

Kara laughs – half-choked and trembling, but she laughs – and then catches her sister's hand and holds it as tightly as she dares. “She's amazing, Alex,” she promises, and smiles until her cheeks ache from it. “She's just-- she's so amazing.”

“To deserve you, she'd better be.” Alex crouches down until she can settle an arm across the sunbed's edge and rest her chin on it. “So bring her over sometime, yeah?” Kara lets her twine their fingers, and watches her lips twitch into a grin. “I think I’d like to properly meet the woman that my sweet little sister was actually ready to fight me over.”

She doesn't lose the blush from that one until she's almost back to L-Corp, and it probably would have taken longer than that if she wasn't still in costume and her chosen method of transport didn't have the cool evening air whipping at her burning cheeks all the way. It's late enough that almost the entire building is dark when she gets there, but Lena's office is still lit up – lights and screens both - and Kara comes to slow stop a few bodylengths from the balcony to simply watch her.

Lena is pacing again. She has been for a while, going by the actual line that Kara can see in the carpet. Her heels sit abandoned by the side of her desk, and her attention shifts regularly from the tablet in her hands to the screen on her wall to the phone on her desk and back. Her blazer is slung over a chair with uncommon carelessness, her hair down and the sleeves of her shirt pushed up past her elbows, and Kara hates how worried she looks as the news channel keeps looping, but loves the fact that she listened.

She didn't outright need Alex's blessing to tell Lena – not really; not like that – but she's still grateful to have it. It bolsters her enough to let her land on the balcony with her usual, soundless ease, and to tap the window in order to announce herself before she pushes the door open.

And oh, the look on Lena's face when she sees her; the way she softens in an instant and then struggles to compose herself into something resembling surprised neutrality. It is at once the most painful, beautiful thing in the world to watch, and Kara has to bite hard at the inside of her lip to keep from literally flying across the room.

99.8 officially just became 100.

“Supergirl,” Lena greets in an impressively steady voice; pulling her shoulders back and cocking her head in confusion. “Not that I mind the visit, but I'm not sure what I can do for you?”

Kara shrugs, and feels what has to be at least a million butterflies beat their wings against the walls of her stomach. “You asked me to come by,” she says simply; not bothering to pitch her voice that little bit lower, nor to hold herself that fraction more upright as she approaches.

“Did I?” Lena watches her closely while her fingers curl a little tighter around the edges of the tablet, and then – bless her – wets her lips and offers an out. “I think what I requested was that you ask Kara to.”

“Like I said.” Gently, she takes the tablet and sets it aside; captures Lena's hands with her own and listens to her breathing catch while the skin around those eyes tightens and relaxes and tightens again. “You asked me to come by.”

And with that, the Lena Luthor that the world at large sees becomes the Lena Luthor that maybe only Kara really knows. The one that softens at the edges and closes her eyes in relief, that breathes deep and swallows hard and slumps her shoulders, that curls one hand around Kara's so tightly and yet so carefully, and – with the other – cradles her face and draws her in until their foreheads are touching and they're breathing the same air.

“Thank you.” It's a bare whisper on the tail end of a long exhale, and Kara strokes her thumb across the back of the hand she holds and listens as Lena's racing heart starts to settle. “You--” She stops herself there and puffs a laugh; straightening a little and slipping her fingers into Kara's hair with a wry sort of smile. “Well. I was going to say that you have no idea how hard it was to keep that up, but--”

“Please don't remind me,” Kara groans; both in agreement, and because Lena's nails are scratching at her scalp which is totally her weak spot and absolutely not fair. “I wish I'd told you when you first started hinting.”

“So you did notice,” comes the light needling - along with a smirk at Kara's narrow look because honestly, she's not dense – and there's a long, peaceful moment of them simply watching each other until Lena sobers. “Why didn't you?”

“Tell you earlier?”

“Mm.”

Isn't that the $64.000 question? “You're already in danger way too often,” she explains – or tries to – more as a hoarse whisper than anything else. “And that--” A brief pause when she has to clear her throat and Lena's mouth tightens in sympathy. “You wouldn't exactly be any less at risk if you ended up being linked to, well--” She gestures to the symbol on her chest. “-- me. Especially not like that.”

“You can't let fear rule you, Kara.” Lena's voice is gentle, though, and her features soft with understanding. “Not even on behalf of others.”

“I know.” She glances down at their entwined fingers, and takes a moment to suck her lower lip between her teeth. “I just-- kind of forgot for a while. I, um...” When she lifts her gaze again, that look is waiting for her; the one that makes her organs play leapfrog around the inside of her body and her throat grow tight. “I worry a lot, you know? About the people I really care about.”

“Yeah.” Lena blows the word out more than she says it, but manages a tremulous smile. “I think that's something we have in common.”

Kara pulls her in because she has to; all but burrows into those arms because some very deep, very vital part of her needs to feel with every sense – enhanced or not – that Lena is safe. She needs to feel the warmth of Lena's body against her own, the softness of skin against her cheek and hairs between her fingers. She needs to listen to the push-and-pull of her breathing, the slightly staccato beat of her heart and the rush of blood in her veins; needs to press a kiss to the skin behind a nearby ear and inhale until she can pick up and identify all the respective scents that combine to simply mean Lena.

It's a whirling, wonderful, terrifying feeling, and Kara guesses from the way that Lena curls into her in return that maybe she needed this, too.

“I'm sorry,” she murmurs against the spot she kissed. “For not telling you sooner. And for all the times I'm going to make you worry from now on.”

There's a semi-breathless, little laugh against the crook of her shoulder. “You're forgiven,” comes the answer. “Retroactively and in advance. Now.” Kara lets herself be nudged backwards until Lena is holding her at arm's length and surveying her critically. “What I really should have asked the second I saw you: Are you alright?”

“Peachy,” she promises, and smirks at the look her phrasing earns her. “Haven't you heard? I'm the Girl of Steel.”

“You're a dork, is what you are,” is the exasperated reply to that, and Kara just barely manages to laugh before she's sinking into a kiss that makes her thank her lucky stars for the fact that she takes longer than most to run out of air. And... well, also for Lena in general.

But that kind of goes without saying.

[hayespeters]

Well. I’m not entirely sure how I got here, but have some angsty, SQ smut.