Alex slowed her breathing, finally. She was okay. Kara was okay. Her sister was okay. There was a lot for her to think about after the last few days but right now all that mattered was that she was sitting on Kara’s couch holding a beer, just relaxing with her sister and the two cold ones she’d already slammed back.
Alex stretched out her legs and put her feet on the table. Things were going good. This Children of Liberty were getting mopped up, Kara was… Kara seemed okay, she had a date with Jimmy (James! *James!*) Olsen’s hot sister that she had a feeling was going places, and it looked like the next few weeks or months would settle into a run of the mill routine of alien mop-ups and bank robberies, while Kara was in the running for a Pulitzer.
Alex sighed, contentedly, and then Kara popped up from the couch and said “Lena’s in the hallway.”
Alex smiled secretly to herself.
“Go get ‘er,” she said, stifling a burp. “Tiger.”
Kara shot back an odd look, and Alex wondered when she’d figure it out herself.
After all, filling an office with flowers was not a romantic gesture. Nor were the saves and hugs and little forehead touches. Alex and Nia had talked about starting a betting pool. Shit, there were rumors in the press.
It seemed that Lena and Kara were the only two people in the world that didn’t realize that dropping almost a billion dollars on a whim for someone is not what friends are fucking for.
Kara rushed to the door and yanked it open.
Lena stood in the hallway looking shellshocked and shaken, eyes wide and trembling. Kara half-lifted, half ushered her inside and slammed the door.
“Lena?” she said. “Lena what is it, what’s wrong?”
Alex sobered up in an instant -mostly- and was on her feet. She saw the bulge in the pocket of Lena’s hoodie and fixed her eyes on it. Lena seemed to remember that she had something in there and pulled out a gun.
“Lena?!” Kara chirped.
Alex’s hand flew to the nonexistent holster on her hip; she’d locked her gun in a drawer when she started with the beer. She caught herself, scolded herself. Lena was a friend. To Kara she was more than a friend.
Alex rushed forward instead. Lena didn’t resist as Alex took the gun, a brightly polished and valuable classic Colt Python six shot with a chopped barrel and coco bolo wood stocks, a real high end custom job. A rich girl’s gun, if a bit bigger than a girl would normally carry.
“Whoa, you have a permit for this?” Alex said, trying to be cute.
“I shot Lex.”
Kara tensed, rushing from behind Lena, dipping down as she put her hands on the other woman’s shoulders.
Oh fuck.
“You couldn’t have,” said Lena. “I… it was me, when we fought in Sentinel Island.”
“He used this,” said Lena, pulling her hand out of her pocket with a watch in her fingers. “It’s a portal watch. He can teleport with it.”
“He must have had it as a backup,” said Alex. “Teleported out before impact.”
Kara shot her a shocked look.
“What do you mean?” said Kara, “What do you mean you shot him?”
“Two to the chest, one to the head,” Lena repeated, robotically. “We want ‘em alive but we’ll take ‘em dead. Lex taught me when I was twelve.”
“Lena,” Alex said, as she flicked open the cylinder and saw there were three shells left in the gun. “You’re not making sense.”
Lena looked at her.
“I knew where he’d go. I knew what he’d do. So I got there first. I was going to stop him, make sure that he didn’t get away, then call for help. I didn’t want to do it. He made me.”
“Lena,” Kara began.
Lena looked at her and Alex tensed.
Kara wasn’t wearing her glasses.
Oh shit.
“He was going to kill you. You were becoming his latest fixation. He couldn’t get to Superman so he’d get you. I tried to stop him but I was too late.”
“Me? Why would he care about me?” said Kara. “I’m nobody.”
Lena stared at her, looking directly into her eyes.
“You’re Supergirl.”
Alex almost dropped the gun. She gaped at Lena, open-mouthed. Kara’s eyes went wide and panic shocked through her face.
Alex waited for the excuse, the denial, the deflection.
“Yes,” said Kara. “I am. I’m sorry. I was going to tell you, I swear I was,” her voice cracked and began to waver. “I know I lied. I,”
Lena grabbed the collar of Kara’s sweater, and when she pulled, Alex briefly thought that she was lunging in to kiss Kara. Instead she pulled her into a hug and Kara hugged her back, fiercely and protectively. Alex stood there dumbly with the murder weapon hanging from her hand.
“I was too late. I’m sorry. I was too late.”
“Too late for what?” Alex demanded, panic rising hot in her chest. “Too late for what, Lena?”
Still tucked in Kara’s arms, Lena turned her head and looked at Alex.
“He already did it. Turn on the TV.”
Alex swallowed, hard.
She walked over to the coffee table and grabbed the remote, turning off Netflix and switching back to cable.
She didn’t have to flip channels. It was on every station. Every network. Alex and Kara’s phones were buzzing wildly on the table.
I want everybody who’s calling Ken a Trophy Husband to know that he’s actually a Trophy Boyfriend, because when Ruth Handler invented Ken in the 1960s, she was adamant that he would never marry her and instead be her “handsome steady”, so that Barbie remained a figure of independence for the little girls and was never put in the position of housewife.
Her house is hers. She bought it and furnished it with money she made in her own job. In STEM, in politics, in healthcare, in fashion, in academy, in customer service. Her credit card is in her name (women in the US couldn’t have their own regardless of marital status until 1974). And it’s all pink and fashionable because femininity and badassness aren’t mutually exclusive. No matter who you are, you can be anything.
That’s why Barbie’s slogan is “you can be anything”. Teaching these ideals to little girls is why Barbie was created. Empowering women and empowering femininity is the original meaning of the Barbie doll. It’s not that you have to be all this to be a woman, but if you are all or some of this, you too are awesome.
And somehow pop culture deliberately changed that narrative. Sexualised, bimbofied, and villainised her, when she actually isn’t responsible for the impossible beauty standards — people are, she’s just a stylised, not-to-scale toy like most others.
Men are frothing because he’s just Ken and I guess they were expecting her to be just Barbie, but that’s exactly what Ken is. Canonically. A badass woman’s himbo boyfriend.
This movie has the potential to change the way we collectively see Barbie radically into what Ruth Handler’s intended, I’m so very excited
I hope Barbie is so good and successful it makes every executive that’s turned everything bright and fun made for young girls into edgy boring teen dramas for the last ten years spontaneously combust into flames
omg could u do a social media au of harry styles fan gf!y/n x daniel??? her reacting to harry doing a shoey at his perth show, absolutely losing her shit w the rest of the fans from both fandoms and daniel too cause they’re both fans of eachother yk
Daniel Ricciardo x Harrie!Reader - Social Media AU
yourusername
Liked by danielricciardo, f1wagupdates, and 158,472 others
yourusername my boyfriend might leave me for harry styles and i can’t even be mad about it
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danielricciardo don’t be silly, i would never leave you
yourusername awww
danielricciardo you’d just be my side chick
yourusername understandable tbh
dannystyles my two worlds are colliding
ricroll this is too much for me to handle 😭
f1wagupdates if you are daniel’s wag and daniel is harry’s wag, does that make you harry’s wag too by association?
yourusername philosophy 101
yourusername
Liked by danielricciardo, redbullracing, and 184,935 others
yourusername these spot the difference games are getting harder
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danielricciardo we’re basically twins at this point
yourusername yeah but he’s harry styles and you’re … you
danielricciardo hey you love me
yourusername do i love you more than i love harry styles though?
danielricciardo well you have have my number tattooed on your butt and not harry’s
yourusername easy fix
redbullracing next up: danny ric goes on a world tour and harry styles signs with us?
yourusername is there a petition for me to sign to make this happen?
danielricciardo y/n made me memorize the lyrics to every. harry. styles. song. ever. i have this in the bag
yourusername
Liked by danielricciardo, harrystyles, and 582,946 others
yourusername in this world, it's just us (and harry)
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danielricciardo you, me, and our future best man
harrystyles does this mean i’m invited to the wedding?
yourusername you can be the groom! daniel would understand
danielricciardo wait now i’m the side chick?
yourusername oh how the turntables …
maxverstappen1 you guys are going viral
maxverstappen1 and i’m the actual best man obviously
harryberry imagine harry styles helping with your proposal 😭
honeybadgering imagine harry styles helping with your proposal while daniel ricciardo is down on one knee for you 😭