#and i live for brainy and alex's friendship | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

nancywheelxr · 7 years ago

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if I could save time in a bottle

"Alex needs a break.

No, really. She has so many accumulated vacation days, she could take the month off to hole up at her place and only open the door for the delivery guy bringing her takeout.

Because this, this, is above her pay grade.

“What is this?” She asks because someone, someone, in this high-level military facility has got to know. “Well?”

From outside the room, Brainy bangs– no, sorry, knocks– on the glass doors again. “If I may, Director–”

“You may not,” Alex cuts him off, because it’s almost noon and she’s heard at least four version of that particular speech already."

or, Winn manages to shitpost through space and time, Brainy learns an inside joke all on his own, as told by Alex, who mostly just wants to quit on this whole babysitting gig

Alex needs a break.

No, really. She has so many accumulated vacation days, she could take the month off to hole up at her place and only open the door for the delivery guy bringing her takeout.

Because this, this, is above her pay grade.

“What is this?” She asks because someone, someone, in this high-level military facility has got to know. “Well?”

From outside the room, Brainy bangs– no, sorry, knocks– on the glass doors again. “If I may, Director–”

“You may not, ” Alex cuts him off, because it’s almost noon and she’s heard at least four version of that particular speech already. “We talked about this. Indigo could travel through the Internet. We’re not taking any chances.”

“Yes, but–”

She levels him with the kind of glare that used to make Winn spout whatever nonsense he had been told to keep from her, and it works, mostly, as Brainy stops himself with a chagrined face, and Alex ignores the aching on her chest reminding her Winn isn’t here anymore. “You are going to stay away from this thing until we figure out if it’s safe or not, got it?” He rolls his eyes, but nods, fidgeting awkwardly on the doorway. Good enough. She knows how to pick her battles. “Great. Now, anyone wants to start talking?”

One of the scientists, a nervous-looking woman, straightens from where she had been examining the sealed cylinder and adjusts her glasses before speaking up, “I believe this is made from some sort of metallic alloy, possibly ferrite, but we are still identifying its components.”

“It’s a faraday cage,” Brainy calls loudly from the hallway, “possibly made out of dark ferrite– an alloy of ferrite with an alien metal that will not be discovered until the 27th century, but I should not tell anything else, as Mon-El says spoilers . But it’s still considered in the 31st century as the most effective material to protect against electromagnetic fields.” He pauses, head tilting slightly to the side, and Alex sighs. “It would shield whatever is inside from any external interference in any wavelength,” a nod to himself, “therefore, I determine it safe from any technological tampering. I shall take it from here!”

So above her pay grade. The team of scientists handling the cylinder all glance at each other, sharing uncomfortable looks.

Before Brainy could override the door locks and stride in the lab, Alex jabs a finger in his direction. “Whoah, there.” The last thing they need is for Brainiac’s AI plague to infect the past too, or, worse, infect Brainy, after he willingly marooned himself here to escape it. Kara would be upset. Lena, too. And even Alex, she supposes, would miss him. “Are you sure about this?”

“Absolutely,” he says, once the doors slide open, “I calculate a lower than 0,012% chance of this being infected with Brainiac-1’s plague. It is, as you would say, as safe as it gets.”

Alex would most definitely not say that, but you know what? Fine. It’s not like any of their scientists were having any luck in opening the cylinder or figuring out what it was supposed to do. It’s probably not a bomb. She really hopes it’s not a bomb. “Don’t take it out of confinement,” she warns him, just in case, because he’s got the same look on his eyes that Kara and Winn would get before going off to do something stupid. “And be careful, we still don’t know who sent this, or how.”

Brainy waves her off absently, already sitting down at one of the workbenches to take a look at the thing. Since it had been brought to the DEO early this morning, after landing somewhere near Shelly Island, Brainy had been tinkering around with it, but when it became clear it had somehow come from the future, Alex had declared it quarantined.

She had to admit it, though, the baffled look on his face as he recognized the strange object had been deeply satisfying. His subsequent sulking– no, sorry, a twelfth-level intellect being does not sulk– as she banned him from the lab, on the other hand, had nearly driven her up the wall.

Now, Alex only sighs again, there’s so much paperwork she should be doing instead– she understands, now, the tired, long-suffering way J’onn always carried himself. She’d say it comes with the job, but she’s pretty sure it’d looked a lot less fond before Kara and the others. “Brainy–”

Whatever it is she had been about to say, she’s not sure herself, dies before it’s even fully formed, because the cylinder shrieks with the terrible high-pitched cry of metals creaking, startling Brainy into dropping it on the tiled floor with a loud clank. The room holds its breath as it rolls lazily in a circle and one of the ends drops down like a lid.

“What did you do?” Alex narrows her eyes at the alien, ignoring the scientists looking around like spooked gazelles. She swears to god, they should be more used to bizarre things falling down from the sky by now. And, besides, if it were a bomb, it would have already gone off.

Once again, the conversation is cut short by the cylinder acting up. From inside it, what looks like a small pebble rolls out, stopping a few feet away and unfurling and beeping loudly.

Okay, maybe she should reassess the bomb thing–

“Captain's Log, Stardate 43198.7,” Winn’s voice carries before the image can shimmer into life, glimmering as the hologram is projected against the wall. The tiny projector whirrs and it comes sharply into focus, showing Winn sitting on Brainy’s chair at the Legion Cruiser, still wearing the clothes he left on, but a delighted grin is splitting his face, even as he struggles to keep a serious, somber expression. “We have entered Klingon Space, but no signs of enemy ships as of yet. Lieutenant Ardeen, status report?”

“All clear, Captain,” the camera pans out, showing Imra sitting at one of the stations, also fighting off a smile, and saluting Winn with the wrong hand. Then, she gasps in obvious fake surprise, “oh no. It seems we picked up a distress signal!”

“We must answer it!” Winn says, dramatically spinning on his chair, “it is our duty and our mission, to boldly go where–”

The image shakes, going out of focus for a second, and Mon-el walks into view, his cape fluttering behind him. He stands in front of Winn, looking between him and Imra, clearly trying to hide his own amusement, “guys, come on. Star Trek again?”

“It is fun,” Imra shrugs, her laughter echoing like wind chimes in the spaceship, “Winn has shown me this– what it is called? TV shows! And it’s absolutely delightful! And we do have another hour until we reach Earth again.”

“Yeah, man,” Winn leans back on his chair, uselessly trying to grab the smooth sides when it sways, and coughing awkwardly to mask it. “Relax, okay? It’s on autopilot, look.” He waves the blue controls madly around in his usual flailing, “this baby is going straight to Earth, 31st century, no pitstops, not even for snacks– by the way, why is there no food in here? And by that I mean, junk food, not whatever that is on the– I’m assuming it’s the fridge?.”

“There is no autopilot–”

“Whaat? Dude, of course there is, that’s like the first thing people build in any kind of vehicle no matter what century it is, trust me, people are lazy.”

“Yes,” Imra comes to stand beside Mon-el, still smiling, “I think I have seen Brainy use it before as well.”

“But,” and now Mon-el frowns like he’s being told Christmas was canceled, “he said there was no autopilot, that’s why I couldn’t drive it!”

“Well,” Winn drawls, drawing out the vowel in the annoying way he always does and Alex absolutely does not miss, “seems like your bro just doesn’t trust you with his ship. I mean, this is a pretty sweet ride. Like, the Porsche of ships, probably. Although, I haven’t seen that many ships, so, I can’t really judge right now, so, yeah.”

“I think it is because of the time Mon-el crashed the old cruiser into a moon,” Imra nods sagely, patting her– husband? Ex-husband?– comfortingly on the shoulder. “Neither Lyle nor Brainy have quite forgotten about it yet.”

“That was not my fault–”

Then, the camera catches Winn’s attention, causing him to squint at it, “I think this is actually recording, hang on.” He takes it to examine it and Alex leans back as the close up of his face is projected on the wall, followed by the shining white floor of the ship, but, because it’s Winn, he keeps talking, “where is it, where is it, come on. Who had the brilliant idea to delete the tiny red light? How am I supposed to know– it is! It’s recording! Ha, look, we’re vlogging! Hey, you know what we should do? We should send it to–”

It cuts off there, the small projector whirrs again, beeps, and curls back into a ball.

And Alex is left staring at the blank wall, trying to process everything.

She isn’t sure if she wants to laugh or to cry, so her body settles without her permission on chuckling wetly, her chest aching in the familiar way it always does when she lets herself admit that Winn had been Kara’s friend first but he had wormed his way into her heart like an annoying little brother she never got to have, and now she misses him fiercely.

Brainy is the first to move, bending down to pick up the tiny projector, and now that Alex feels less like a balloon is about to burst on her lungs, she notices she and Brainy are the only ones left in the room. He frowns down at it, and Alex remembers, suddenly, of his confession that he too misses his friends. “I do not understand what these Star Treks are, but I assume it is yet another movie reference,” he sets it down on the workbench beside the cylinder and the lid, “or what vlogging is. But I believe we should call Supergirl and the others?”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Alex shakes her head, pulling up her phone to text them, “they will want to see this. I can’t believe Winn sent a message from the future.”

“I have to admit I am surprised as well,” Brainy says, his hands forming the triangle in front of him in his usual way, “although, I suppose there is little reason for us to be. I would not have sent Winslow to take my place in the Legion if I did not believe him to be remarkably qualified for the task.”

That gives her pause. That was a compliment if she’s ever heard one, and coming from Brainy it’s practically high praise. She’s not sure she’s seen him talk about anyone like this, except maybe Kara, and that’s mostly because Mon-el instilled some hero worship for her in all the legionnaires. “Is that so?”

“Indeed,” he nods, the suspicious tone in her voice clearly going way over his head. Alex wonders if she should outright ask him about it, but dismiss the idea. If anyone had asked her about Maggie before she had come out, she would have denied it until she went blue in the face. Maybe waiting it out is the best right now, especially considering, well, their situation.

She’s still mulling over it, when Brainy huffs a laugh, which is a strange sight all in itself, as humor is more often than not completely lost on him. He notices her confused look and laughs again, gesturing the cylinder, “I believe this is what you would call an inside joke, is it not?”

Her lips twitch. “An inside joke?”

“Yes!” He gestures the projector, “it is a message,” then the cylinder, “on a bottle!”

The memory of Kara’s dangerous mission to Fort Rozz, so many months ago, when they were all still learning how to work with each other, is hazy, fogged by her worry over Ruby and the bone-drenching fear her sister had barely escaped with her life. She hadn’t been there at the time, busy looking after Ruby, but she remembers Winn smirking victoriously as he told her the story afterward over the rim of a beer bottle at the bar.

But knowing Winn, and knowing Brainy, Alex thinks he might be right on this. It sounds like the kind of unnecessarily complicated joke he’d enjoy. So, she smiles what she hopes is a supportive smile, “well, look at you, making inside jokes, already!”

Brainy clears his throat, seemingly unfazed, but Alex’s been working with him for the past couple of months, she can see the proud set of his shoulders and the pleased look on his eyes, image inducer and all. “This is fairly new for me, I confess I’m not sure how to proceed.”

These people are going to be the death of her, Alex is sure. She might not have Kara’s bleeding heart, but come on. “Usually, here on Earth,” she tells him, “when we get a message– a letter, an email, anything like that– we answer. So, I’m assuming if Winn can send us a message, we can send him something back?”

“It would be logical, yes,” he agrees, twisting the lid back to close the cylinder, its walls seemingly smooth again. “If one possessed the knowledge of how it worked in the first place, that is.”

Hold on. “You don’t know how to he did it?” Oh man, Winn would never let him live it down if he were here. “But can you figure out a way?”

“Of course,” Brainy scoffs, sending Alex a look that said exactly what he thought of her doubting his ability to know everything that is to know under the sun. Under all the suns. “It will not take long, I need only to run a few tests, trace what kind of radiation it encountered on the way, perhaps– I shall investigate further on my lab!” Alex narrows her eyes, and he backtracks, “in a lab! An entirely arbitrary laboratory in this facility, chosen completely at random out of the fifteen different workrooms presently active on this building, and not, say, on a lab appropriated for personal researches and experiments.”

Alex raises one eyebrow, “of course not,” she fights off a smile, swallowing down her amusement. “That would be something I’d have to report to Colonel Haley, and she would have it shut down.”

“Which would be an unfortunate ordeal, yes,” he clears his throat again, squinting at her in a way that Alex thinks he might not have completely understood what she meant, but maybe gotten a general idea. “I must start now, then.”

The glass doors slide open, and Alex watches as Brainy gathers the cylinder on his arms as if he’s afraid it will shatter at the slightest touch, and winces when he leaves, announcing in a loud voice, “ah, this completely random laboratory is adequate, I shall use this one!”

Alex wonders if she can assign herself a week of license, it doesn’t even have to be paid.

#brainy #querl dox #supergirl #winndox #brainiac 5 #alex danvers #winn schott jr #supergirl fic #look #i have feels #and i live for brainy and alex's friendship

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spaceman-earthgirl · 4 years ago

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Kara’s eyes get caught on the sway of hips, on black fabric that literally hugs every curve of Lena’s body and Kara is powerless to do anything but watch, Lena absolutely vibrant on the dancefloor.

J’onn insists and Kara can’t help but join them, the weight on her shoulders lifting, even if just for a night, because Lena is laughing, her nose is all scrunched up and cute, and Kara just want to live in this moment forever, live in this moment of happiness with her family and friends.

If Kara maybe dances a bit more...enthusiastically than normal, then it has everything to do with having fun with her friends and nothing to do with the fact that Lena’s smile is so bright and beautiful as she laughs at her.

It takes her a while to notice, eyes mostly on Lena as she dances, to realise that everyone has split off into couples.

Alex and Kelly are tangled in each other, sharing slow kisses as they sway on the spot. Which, ew, but it’s also cute, she knows how ridiculously happy her sister is, and she’s ridiculously happy for her sister in turn.

Nia and Brainy are close, swaying too slow to the music playing, foreheads pressed together as they do.

She glances back at Lena, dancing close but not close enough, and she wants that, she wants what Nia and Brainy have, wants what Alex and Kelly have, she wants that with Lena.

Lena’s hand snags hers from mid-air fingers loosely tangled together as they continue to dance, the movement bringing them slightly closer than before.

“You’re good at dancing,” Lena comments, her eyes sparkling, and Kara doesn’t know whether she’s joking or not, but her cheeks heat, the blush spreading warm down her neck anyway.

“It’s from years of practice in my kitchen,” Kara answers, mildly distracted by Lena’s smile and the feel of their fingers still tangled together.

They dance closer, their joined hands keeping her near Lena and Kara hopes she never lets go.

“I like your hair like this,” Lena says, free hand reaching out to brush a few loose strands of Kara’s wavy hair behind her ear. Lena’s fingers brush the shell of her ear and Kara has to fight the urge to lean into the touch.

The move brings them even closer, the smell of Lena’s perfume sweet, her smile pink as Kara tries desperately not to glance down at Lena’s lips.

“Thank you. I like your hair like this too,” Kara replies, feeling emboldened by Lena’s casual touches. She reaches out, her hands threading together behind Lena neck, under her braid, fingers tangling in the soft hair at the back of Lena’s neck.

This touch is less casual.

They’re close now, and if Kara didn’t know any better, if she was just an onlooker observing this moment, she’d think they were a couple too.

“Thank you,” Lena smiles, her own hands falling to Kara’s hips.

Kara feels the touch like fire through the thin material of her dress.

Kara’s not sure that friends usually dance like this. She knows friends don’t usually have to fight the urge to look down, don’t usually have to fight the urge to lean forward and kiss their friend, don’t have to fight the urge to keep their eyes from the low cut of their friend’s dress.

It’s because Kara’s so focused on keeping her eyes in an appropriate location, that she notices the way Lena’s own eyes dip down, the way they get caught as they gaze down.

Kara’s whole body flashes hot when she realises Lena is looking at her mouth as they dance, which is more of just a sway now, barely in time to the music.

Green eyes glance up, both a question and fear in them. Kara knows that fear, knows how long she’s agonised over whether she should tell Lena how she feels and risk their friendship or keep her feelings a secret.

Kara tugs Lena forward, just the slightest bit of pressure behind her neck but Lena gets the message, leaning in to meet Kara halfway.

The first touch of Lena’s mouth against hers is electric, even as nerves course through her body. It feels like her heart might beat out of her chest it’s beating so fast, the rhythm matching Lena’s own, but Lena’s lips are soft and they’re perfect and when Lena sighs, Kara can feel it in her bones, this is going to be the last first kiss of her life.

Lena shifts, slants her lips more over Kara’s as she tugs her forward by hands still on her hips and then Kara’s mind goes blissfully blank when a tongue brushes her lower lip.

Lena tastes like scotch and something sweet and all she wants to do is never stop kissing her.

“Oh my God!”

Kara freezes at the words, still in her position pressed close to Lena. Lena freezes too, lips still pressed together for a long moment before they slowly pull apart, and turn to find four sets of eyes watching them.

Brainy and Alex look surprised, while Kelly and Nia look delighted.

Kara presses her lips together, turns back to Lena, to both check she’s okay and see how they should handle this, because sharing their first kiss in front of their friends was never how she thought this moment would go.

Lena’s cheeks are red, the colour spread down her neck, and suddenly Kara wants to press her lips there instead.

“Are you okay?” Lena asks, ducking slightly to catch Kara’s eyes and oops, she is definitely staring this time.

“I’m great,” Kara says, her grin uncontrollable even as she tries to stay composed.

“Yeah?” Lena asks, a shy smile on her face, said smile growing as Kara’s does.

Kara tangles her fingers with Lena’s again. “Yeah.”

“Oh my God,” Alex repeats, Kara having forgotten they had an audience again. “Was that your first kiss?”

“Leave them alone,” Kelly says, a gentle hand on Alex’s waist as she steers her fiancée away. The look Kara gets from Alex definitely says “we’ll talk later.”

Nia has to be distracted by Brainy too.

“So,” Kara says, once they’re alone.

“So,” Lena repeats, smile no longer shy as she looks at Kara. It’s now full of soft affection, her eyes crinkled in the corners, and Kara thinks this might be her favourite moment ever.

Kara bites her lip. “Can I kiss you again?”

Lena squeezes their joined hands and Kara’s heart melts. “Always.”

#supergirl #supercorp #lena luthor #kara danvers #6x18 #i just want them to kiss okay

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mrs-bartowski · 4 years ago

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Brace for impact y'all cuz my brain is being Extra Rude this fine Sunday. OKAY, so...

What with Lena's new unemployment status, obviously we have all these hcs about her being unable to afford the penthouse and moving in with Kara.

Then of course we have all the accompanying hcs about Lena's time in the apartment between now and when Kara gets back (blanket sniffing, inability to sleep in Kara's bed, ready-to-pack corner of belongings so as to not alter Kara's home, and all those other super fun things that make me wanna cry).

I see all of those (and love them) and I raise you one: the Mxy tapes.

So, we see right after Mxy leaves when Kara picks up "The One Where Lena Decided To Work With Lex" which is what, in combination with her realization that telling Lena the truth always has "huge" consequences, motivates her to make that super OOC decision to absolve herself entirely of her guilt and tell Lena she'll treat her like a villain if she works with Lex, yes?

Now, what if that wasn't the only tape Mxy left behind? What if he left a recording of each of those alternate timelines because, after seeing Kara twist what she learned to fit her frustration over Lena's continued cold shoulder and hearing what she said to Lena, Mxy decided she might want to watch them again at some point to remember the real takeaway: she's fighting for the relationship that saves the world...

Kara found the tapes stacked on the coffee table when she got home, with a note that said "You found the magic. Now don't lose it." She wanted to get angry, but instead she just put the tapes in a box on the shelf under the TV and tried to forget about them.

----------

Lena's hand shakes slightly as she slides the key into the lock, feeling the ghost of Alex’s hand rest gently on her shoulder as it had when she��d pressed the cold metal into her palm a few hours earlier with a silent offer and an encouraging nod. The door swings open slowly, and Lena is hit by a sudden wave of cold. Not temperature, but energy. It’s too quiet - no NSYNC on the speaker or Bachelorette on the TV. It’s too empty - no smell of fresh (slightly burnt) bread or yarn strewn all over the counter from Kara’s various crochet projects. It’s too...Kara-less.

Lena shakes off the feeling and slides her bag off her shoulder in the corner by the bookcase, careful not to knock Kara’s favorite cinnamon candle off the stool beside her, as she tells Alexa to play Nina Simone. She zips open her bag to pull out her favorite copy of Mrs. Dalloway and finds it missing. Realizing she must have left it in her desk drawer at LexCorp, Lena makes a mental note to send Brainy in after it tomorrow with the promise that he can change all of Lex’s passwords one more time before they leave the game for good.

Lena stares at the blank TV screen for a moment, dreading the thought of watching anything in this room without Kara’s head on her shoulder or in her lap. So, she crouches to look at the shelves of the TV stand, hoping to find at least one of the books she’d gotten Kara for her birthday last year wedged between the latest issues of CatCo Magazine and the recipe books Alex had gotten her in the hopes of spending less money on pot stickers every week.

She’s just zeroed in on The Color Purple when she notices a box she doesn’t recognize laying across the tops of the books on the other shelf. She reaches for it on instinct, then hesitates. She hasn’t touched anything of Kara’s since their falling out, and what if Kara’s “what’s mine is yours” rule no longer applies to her now? She considers leaving it alone and waiting for Kara to get back and explain, sliding The Color Purple toward her without taking her eyes off the box, before her curiosity gets the better of her and she caves, tossing the book onto the coffee table.

She opens the lid and starts at the sight of VHS tapes. Hasn't she taught Kara better than this? They'd converted all her old tapes to DVDs months into their friendship ("Kara, these things deteriorate so easily and the picture quality becomes awful, don't you want something that will last?"). She picks up the first tape and reads the label on the side: "The One Where Lena Doesn't Make It Back In Time." Her brows furrow as she stares, unblinking, at the title - demanding answers she knows only one person can give her.

She glances around, but doesn't see a VHS player anywhere, so she sets the tape on the floor beside her and picks up the next one. "The One Where Lena Can't Save Sam Or Herself." Lena shoves down her growing horror and discards the tape, hoping the next one will be less ominous. She picks it up and chokes back a sob as she reads: "The One Where There Are No Survivors."

Lena can't wait for answers anymore, so she gathers the tapes back into the box, grabs her purse and Kara's key, and heads to the closest library. Lena finds the old CRT sitting on a rolling cart in the back corner of the library, tucked between the stacks of kids' books. She pulls the first tape out of the box and slides it carefully into the slot.

30 minutes later, with tears and too-cheap eyeliner streaming down her face, Lena picks up the last tape. "The One Where Lena Was Never Your Friend." And here she'd thought things couldn't get worse. Lena takes a deep breath as she inserts the tape.

At the sight of the ruin that meets Kara and Mxy, Lena stifles the urge to laugh. Of course this is what a world without her best friend looks like. This exactly how it feels now, and she's only been gone a few weeks.

Lena's breath catches as she hears herself ask "who's Kara?," the mere thought of a world where the reporter had never believed in her, never cared enough to love her, almost too much to bear. Her hand drifts absent-mindedly to her chest as she watches herself reveal a kryptonite heart, and for a moment she can hear the sounds of her own screams as her mother's experiments rob her of the last of her humanity.

She presses her hand closer to her heart, sure that it's stopped beating at the sight of Kara on the ground, in pain at her hands but still refusing to fight her. Feels it shatter when her worst self says exactly the same words she'd said to Kara in the Fortress when asked why she had pretended to be Kara's friend for so long.

And she thinks it might kill her, this agony that's filling her body like acid. She wonders for a moment if this is what kryptonite feels like to Kara. Because it sure feels like her skin is getting seared off her bones and there are nails in her blood and it sure seems like she won't survive watching herself kill her best friend as she lies helpless and desperate on the floor.

And when Mxy pulls them out, Lena's breath returns full force until she's hyperventilating because Kara is gone and she doesn't know how long it will be until they get her back; and she was terrified of what she'd become when she lost Jack but she survived because of Kara; and if this is what losing Kara without ever having her in the first place looks like, Lena has never been more afraid than she is as she realizes what will happen to the world if she doesn't get Kara back. What she'll do to the world if it dares to take Kara from her.

So, when she gathers the tapes and goes to return them to the box and finds a note at the bottom that says "You found the magic. Now don't lose it," Lena promises herself that, for as long as she lives, she will do everything in her power to keep the magic that is Kara Danvers in her life.

----------

Alex knocks on the apartment door three days later and finds it unlocked. She pushes the door open and her hand drifts to her gun, but relaxes as she sees Lena's sleeping form curled up on the couch. Alex approaches a box she knows the contents of all too well and finds it open and empty on the table before she notices the VCR player and tapes strewn across the floor. She smiles softly as she recalls the image of Kara in the exact same position months earlier. And, as she carefully plucks the handwritten note from Lena's clutched fist, she smiles at the knowledge that, once Kara returns, no force in the world will be able to keep them apart again.

UPDATE: Ask and ye shall receive

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

#supergirl #supercorp #supercorp headcanon #lena luthor #kara danvers #alex danvers #this got so much more elaborate than I planned #but oh well #have fun suffering with me

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thornedrose44 · 4 years ago

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Prompt: "Do it. Take a chance, I'm begging you. You don't want to spend the rest of your life wondering what could have been."

Read on AO3

“What is it?” Kara huffed out, her frustration finally reaching critical mass.

“What’s what?” Alex replied, playing dumb by pretending to study the DEO’s monitors far too intently considering Kara had literally just dispatched the rogue villain of the week.

Kara crossed her arms, hip cocked forward slightly as she leant against the central console, blue eyes observing her sister's profile closely.

“Whatever you’re not telling me because you think it will upset me.” The superhero clarified bluntly, her social hesitation and uncertainty having dampened over the last few years.

She had learnt the hard way how important it was to never shy away from the truth and avoid speaking around the heart of the matter. It was a lesson she had absorbed completely, and it was one she refused to forget - needing to prove she had evolved, had bettered herself from the version that had required teaching in the first place.

“I’m not…” Alex refuted, shrugging dismissively but keeping her gaze trained forward, “There’s no-“

“Look, I’m asking you out of courtesy,” Kara cut in, “but you and I both know that I could just as easily ask Nia, and she would fold almost instantly.”

Alex grumbled irritably under her breath - Nia still had yet to build an effective resistance to Kara’s puppy dog eyes and this particular weakness had caused no small amount of trouble for Alex over the last five years.

“It is Lena related, right?” Kara checked, though it was completely unnecessary.

For Alex to actively try and keep a secret from her, it couldn’t be about anything else. And it had been more or less confirmed by her sister's reaction to her threatening to go to Nia.

“Just because I’m keeping a secret, doesn’t automatically mean it’s to do with Lena.” Alex tried, though the conviction behind her statement was weaker than wet tissue paper.

The redhead side-eyed her and Kara merely had to arch an unimpressed eyebrow in return for the DEO director to deflate.

“Okay maybe it’s a little to do with Lena.” Alex admitted with a wince, rubbing the back of her neck in defeat.

Kara threw her hands up in exasperation. “It’s been over five years, okay? I’m fine!”

Her bellowed declaration of stability, made the nearby DEO agents look over with a mix of curiosity and concern. Kara grimaced at the reaction and as such didn’t resist when Alex grabbed her arm and dragged her out of the central room and into her private office.

Alex turned to face her fully, lips pressed tight together and hands firm on her own hips (it had always annoyed Kara that Alex managed to make her signature superhero pose far more intimidating than her own attempts).

“Yelling I’m fine, definitely helps your case.” Alex retorted, voice dripping with sarcasm.

Kara had the good grace to look suitably embarrassed for a moment before launching into the same variation of the speech she gave every time there was a morsel of Lena news to be had. “I screwed up, okay? Big time screwed up - ‘regret it for the rest of my life’ screwed up!” Kara declared prompting a beleaguered sigh from her sister who knew the blatant lie that was coming next. “But I’ve made my peace with it. I won’t spiral into another depressive episode when I hear how happy she is.”

Alex shook her head, not even remotely convinced - not that Kara could blame her, the last time Alex had been pestered into telling her a Lena update, Kara had spent a weekend on a drinking binge that had successfully proven that there were limits even for a kryptonian.

“I don’t think-“ Alex began.

“What is it?” Kara demanded. “Is she getting another medal from the president?”

Alex shook her head, jaw clenching and unclenching. “Kara, you don’t want to know this.”

“Her and Kal save the world again?” Kara barrelled on, her lips curling into a jealous snarl. “The greatest Luthor and Super duo continue to make the world a better place?”

That particular news article had been printed and burned by Kara’s heat vision more times than she dared admit to anyone.

“Kara, please-“ Alex begged, expression crumpling as Kara relentlessly pushed.

“Tell me, I can take it.” Kara proclaimed, voice coming out high pitched and strained. “Is she dating someone again? Another famous actress? That Olympic male gymnast? What-“

“She’s getting married.”

A bomb must have gone off, Kara thought to herself.

A kryptonite bomb.

It was the only thing that could explain the ringing in her ears, and the way everything just… hurt.

A shard of kryptonite must have pierced her chest and cut her heart into jagged pieces. That was the only thing that could explain it.

“What?” She questioned, barely above a whisper. She didn��t quite recognise her own voice - it sounded shattered and unfamiliar. She also didn’t know what she was asking.

Didn’t know what ‘what’ was all about.

What just happened?

What did you say?

What post-apocalyptic reality are we living in now?

“Next week, she’s getting married.” Alex explained, giving Kara answers she no longer wanted. “Sam, Ruby, Kal and Lois are invited.”

She knew it should sting. Not being invited even though they hadn’t spoken in nearly five years. That she should feel something about the fact that Lena had omitted Alex, Brainy, Nia and J’onn as well - it further reinforced how Lena believed them to be Kara’s friends and never hers (which was one of the things Kara regretted most - how her poor treatment of Lena had infected and destroyed everyone else’s friendship with the youngest Luthor).

“To who?” Kara asked, tone cold, hollow… empty.

“Kara,” Alex murmured softly, reaching out to comfort her sister, “this clearly isn’t good for you.”

Kara jerked backwards so fast that the papers on Alex’s desk shot into the air, fluttering down around the sisters like snow.

“Just tell me!” Kara ordered, hands turned into white knuckle fists at her sides that would be capable of tearing through the strongest of metals. Her eyes heated but she managed to stave the fire in them as she glowered at her sister.

Alex slumped back, leaning heavily against her desk, running a frantic hand through her short hair. “Does it matter?” Alex muttered defeatedly, brown eyes filled with pity and sympathy as she stared up into Kara’s eyes.

“Of course it fucking matters,” Kara snapped in outrage before she had a chance to stop and think , “because it’s not me!”

The admission hung heavy and rotting between them. It wasn’t a revelation to either of them, though the fact that the intensity of Kara’s feelings hadn’t dampened despite the separation of half a decade was.

“Kara…” Alex breathed, standing back up and moving towards the blonde with the obvious intent of hugging her.

“I should get back to CatCo.” Kara mumbled, cheeks a fiery red with shame. She stepped hurriedly away from her sister and was already halfway out the door before she halted, turning back to call out a sad yet sincere. “Thanks for telling me.”

Xxx

“I genuinely don’t get why you love these films so much.” Lena remarked, hands cupping her just made cup of cocoa, nose adorably scrunched up as she snuggled back down on the sofa beside Kara, who didn’t hesitate to wrap an arm around her best friend’s shoulders.

“They’re sweet and romantic.” Kara replied with a happy sigh, turning to nuzzle into the side of Lena’s head for a fleeting moment as the film’s lead started her joyful march down the aisle. “It makes me hopeful.”

“Hopeful?” Lena repeated curiously, leaning away slightly so she could meet Kara’s blue eyes.

Kara shrugged, ducking her head bashfully, “It’s stupid.”

“Hey,” Lena murmured gently, freeing a hand from her mug so that she could interlace her warmed fingers with Kara’s, “you could never be stupid, especially not about something like this.” Her best friend asserted, before asking seriously, “You want the classic big white wedding?”

“Uh…” Kara blushed, cheeks pinking as her mind struggled to kick into gear.

She didn’t know how to tell Lena that the reason she loved weddings more than any other event is because they so closely resembled Kryptonian Bonding ceremonies. That the exchanging of rings, polished everlasting metal, reminded her of wonderfully crafted bracelets clasped on wrists. That it was an occasion for family to join together across generations, for the rare flashes of art and music on Krypton to take centre stage over cold science.

She didn’t know how to tell Lena that after being alone, abandoned and lost - ripped away from her home in the cruelest of ways - that the idea of belonging to someone else, of having a home in someone else regardless of time or location was what Kara wanted more than anything else.

She didn’t know how to tell Lena because it would require admitting the truth of who she really was, it would require taking accountability for years of lies.

She didn’t know how to tell Lena without losing her forever.

“Yeah.” Kara coughed awkwardly, “I want the whole thing. Beautiful dress, surrounded by family… the love of my life at the end of the aisle. Everything.” She shot Lena a side-long glance, “I’m guessing you don’t?”

“Never really been my thing,” Lena admitted readily and Kara’s heart twisted at how Lena didn’t hesitate to bare herself, how she gave all of herself when it could be argued that Kara - at best - only gave half, “probably because I can’t imagine I have enough people in my life to invite and feel ‘surrounded’.” Lena pursed her lips thoughtfully, “I also don’t get the need for the spectacle. Just the idea that there’s someone out there that would want to…” Kara watched her best friend deflate, expression wistful and pained, “be with me, love me like that… that’s more than enough.”

Kara’s eyes stung with barely suppressed tears at how little Lena thought of herself. Whoever had the privilege of marrying her best friend would be the single luckiest and most fortunate person in the universe and Kara wished Lena knew that, wished she believed it. But when she opened her mouth to say it, to proclaim it, her breath faltered and her courage abandoned her… like it always did with the youngest Luthor.

“So no white dress?” Kara muttered instead, voice meek and lacking the lightheartedness that should have carried the question.

It didn’t matter, though, Lena let out a quick exhale that resembled something on the edge of laughter. Kara’s escalating heart rate settled at that, however, it did little to alleviate the pang of regret that was steadily accompanying all her interactions with the CEO.

“Well, I guess I could be convinced by someone special.” Lena teased, shooting Kara an overtly salacious wink that wouldn’t - on the surface - be considered genuine.

“Anyone that marries you will have to be special.” Kara replied, the statement tumbling out instantly.

It wasn’t the heartfelt confession that Kara wished it to be and it wasn’t quite light enough to be dismissed as a friendly reassurance. Instead, it was yet another thing that fell into the ethereal greyness that lied between them, something to tuck away and think back on late at night when they tried to work out if the other meant it the way they wished they did.

“Yeah?” Lena whispered, piercing green eyes studying Kara’s face closely.

Kara swallowed thickly, “Yeah.”

Xxx

Lena found out less than six weeks after that movie night. They defeated Lex and Kara had been on the edge of breathing easy, of being able to simply relax back into her life when it all came crashing down.

They had been at Games Night and Kara had been antsy, waiting for her best friend to arrive. The thought of pulling Lena into a hug had been what she had been looking forward to most all day.

Kara was at peace, laughing and drinking with her friends - her family - when Lena had arrived. Kara had beamed up at her immediately and for a second Lena’s entrancing green eyes lit up in return before turning dark and distant.

Kara’s smile faltered, crinkle appearing between her brows when-

The wine bottle smashed into the wall behind Kara’s head.

Deathly silence fell over the area.

Kara looked into hollow, emptied out versions of her favourite green. She would have preferred anger, fury, rage… the defeated nothingness staring back at the Kryptonian was far worse.

Lena turned and left, grinding Kara’s heart to dust and taking the sand particles left with her.

She knew.

She knew because Lex had told her.

She knew because she had gone to stop her brother, intent on saving the world like always only to find out that those she was saving the world for didn’t view her as their equal. That the people she treated as family had kept her on the outskirts. That her best friend had lied, had manipulated, had-

xxx

It was Lois that found out everything from Lena.

When the fallout had happened, as Kara and the Superfriends realised what they had lost, the blonde hero sent notice to her cousin that his identity was probably known as well (mostly because she remembered how hurt she had been when Kal shared her secret without her consent). Kal and Lois had arrived almost immediately, frantic and terrified (especially with baby Jon to consider) at the concept of a Luthor knowing their identity.

Kara, joined by all the Superfriends, quickly put their minds to rest, sharing Lena’s actions from before, her dependability, kindness and inherent goodness. Kal and Lois were convinced their secret was safe but they were horrified to hear how Lena had been isolated and kept at arms length after her considerable good deeds. Alex and the others had squirmed uncomfortably and tried to weakly talk around their hesitancy.

Kal and Lois had simply looked at Kara for an explanation but she had none. Yet again the words would not come.

It was Lois, therefore, that had sought out the youngest Luthor and through her incredible tenacity was able to gain access where everyone else was rebuffed and harshly rejected.

It was Lois that comforted Lena, gave her support and sympathy.

It was Lois that relayed Lena’s demand that they give her space.

It was Lois that suggested Lena return to Metropolis - presenting it as a way to celebrate how L-Corp, after Lena’s repeated sacrifices and heroism, was fully rehabilitated and ready to reclaim its once home.

It was Lois that encouraged Lena and Kal to work together becoming an unstoppable force that Kara and Lena had always danced on the precipice of.

A Luthor and a Super. Saving the world.

xxx

Kara did as asked. Gave Lena space. Or at least the semblance of space.

She checked in constantly, hovered nearby throughout the days and nights leading upto L-Corp’s departure and Lena along with it. She followed Lena’s jet to Metropolis, a sentinel ensuring safe passage.

She kept her distance for three months. Three months of stony silence before she broke.

Snapped, more like.

Landing on Lena’s new balcony in Metropolis that had been specially built for Superman this time - not for her, though Kara, at the time, had hoped that she had been considered consciously or unconsciously as well.

Kara couldn’t remember the exact words.

She remembered crying from beginning to end.

Remembered ‘I loved you’ - past tense.

Remembered finally breaking through Lena’s cold, hardened shell to the raw, bleeding wound hidden underneath and regretting it almost immediately.

Remembered how seeing Lena’s agony was worse than kryptonite, worse than watching Krypton burn…

Remembered Lena saying she needed time to heal, for Kara to stop hovering nearby - because she knew, she sensed Kara’s presence even without seeing her once - and to give her time to stop thinking of Kara and feeling only pain when she did so.

Remembered promising to do just that.

Remembered a timer starting to count in her head - the seconds that she would be condemned to purgatory.

Remembered the hope that just refused to go out - the hope that whispered give it time, give it time, give it time with every beat of her heart.

Remembered thinking that given enough time Lena would reach out and they would get the chance that Kara had almost destroyed for them.

Remembered flying zig-zagged and dangerous to Alex where her endless stream of tears returned to full flow as she sobbed into her sister’s shoulder using words and phrases like ‘heartbroken’ and ‘I love her’ and ‘I can’t survive this pain’ and ‘what do I do?’ and ‘I can’t breathe’.

Remembered a hollowed out shell of Kara Danvers moving through the motions for a year, for two, three, four… five...

Remembered taking up drinking to excess whenever she saw Lena’s life flourish and grow - not because she didn’t want Lena to be happy, that was what Kara wanted and wished for more than anything - because she wasn’t there with her for those life-changing events.

Remembered Alex and Kelly’s worries growing with each occurrence, intervening more and more to such a degree that they encouraged Kara to consider AA meetings - she did eventually, and found destroying entire junkyards to be a healthier coping mechanism, external destruction rather than internal.

Remembered Brainy at the behest of Alex, setting up Kara’s phone and computer to prevent searching for any keywords affiliated to Lena and to alert Alex if Kara ever managed to stumble upon a news article.

Remembered listening to Kal and Lois skipping large parts of stories where it was clear that Lena was involved - it was nice in some way to know Lena was getting the credit she deserved, but it hurt when Kal’s stories started to involve gaps at Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year (events that made Kara’s loneliness even more acute and her longing intensify).

Remembered her life without Lena.

Remembered regret and guilt and loss.

Remembered-

“She’s getting married.”

xxx

Kara shouldn’t have been there. Shouldn’t be anywhere in the vaguest vicinity of where she currently was.

The bride was dressed in a simple silky white shift, sipping intermittently from her champagne glass as she stared contemplatively up at the designer white dress hanging off the door in front of her. Raven locks were pinned up, so tight and intricate that it made Kara wince sympathetically at how it must tug and pinch at the bride’s scalp - she’d always preferred it down, loose and curling… soft and inviting. The bride’s make-up was artistic with a dramatic edge that would captivate but made her look… not like herself in Kara’s opinion.

Or maybe after five years it made Lena look more like herself - the version of herself she had become once free of Kara and all the pain she brought into her life.

She was hovering outside the dressing room window, trying to work out how far she was willing to take this. If it would be better to leave without saying anything, to try and leave some part of Lena’s life unspoiled.

It was the fear that she had always given into when she was best friends with Lena that made her decision for her. Like speaking her truth and learning to ask for what she wanted - Kara had also promised herself that she would never allow that bone deep fear to stop her ever again.

The window was open and it was as good an invite as Kara was ever going to get.

“Lena?”

The beautiful bride-to-be jerked in her place, champagne glass nearly tumbling to the floor but saved at the last second.

She didn’t turn around for a beat… then two…

Kara was just about to escape back through the window when Lena exhaled slowly and pivoted round to meet her.

“Kara?” Lena breathed out, green eyes closed off and wary.

The kryptonian studied the love of her life for a moment, taking in every little detail - soaking it all up as if accepting that this would be the last time she might ever get to see it again. That the timer that had counted past five years would stop after this moment, the hope powering it gone forever.

“Don’t marry them, please.” Kara requested, no flowery language, no build up. Just the honest truth.

“What?” Lena’s jaw dropped and the champagne glass didn’t survive the second shock, crashing to the ground - released by trembling fingers.

“Don’t marry them.” Kara repeated, uncaring of how the carpet below them soaked up the amber liquid.

Lena’s expression flitted through an array of emotions before settling on indignant rage, “And why the hell not?!”

Kara didn’t flinch, didn’t retreat, instead she stood taller, the crest of her super suit catching the early afternoon light. “Because it should have been me. It still should be me.”

Lena scoffed in disbelief, “You can’t be serious. Now? You’re doing this now?”

Kara pursed her lips, fighting back the regret that always came with the reminders of countless missed opportunities. “Yes.”

The straightforwardness of Kara’s answers seemed to be throwing Lena, leaving her wrong-footed, clearly expecting the blonde to talk around and hint and imply like she used to.

But Kara had learnt. (The lesson had been too painful not to.)

“You had years, Kara!” Lena argued, “Years where I…. I threw myself at you. Practically begged you to love me… to trust me…”

“I know.” Kara replied sadly, wanting desperately to reach out when Lena’s pretty green eyes began to glisten with unshed tears. “I know. But I’m here now.”

“I don’t want you to be.” Lena muttered, arms crossed over her chest and head ducked downwards to hide her expression.

“I know that too.” Kara assured, fingers twitching with the desire to make contact, to comfort and coax - even after all these years her body remembered, the pathways of hardwired instinct related to her best friend were still there, still active even if temporarily closed for service.

“Then why are you here?” Lena murmured, voice barely above a whisper.

“Because I’m in love with you.”

Lena’s head snapped up at that, green eyes like saucers.

Kara’s single biggest regret was that she had never said those words to Lena before, had alluded and pointed at them during their final interaction but had never outright said them. And Lena had deserved to hear them then and deserved to hear them now to forever vanquish the doubts that had always been with her.

“Because I’m in love with you and we didn’t get our chance.” Kara affirmed, taking a half step closer to the bride, her red heeled boots and Lena’s bare feet meaning the younger woman had to tip her head ever so slightly back to maintain eye contact. “We didn’t get our chance because of me. Because I was afraid, I was so afraid of losing you. Of doing even the slightest thing that could mean you weren’t in my life. And in the end every action I took out of fear of losing you ensured just that. I’ve spent five years without you, Lena, and I can’t bear a single day more.”

“Kara,” Lena whispered, “I’m getting married.”

“I know.” Kara smiled sadly before adding, “Don’t.”

“What are you suggesting? Seriously?” Lena sighed, shaking her head mournfully and Kara knew she was losing her then.

“I’m suggesting that we have our chance now before it's gone forever.”

Gathering the small amount of courage Kara had left, she tentatively let her hands nudge forwards, brushing against Lena’s cool, pale fingers. That small contact was everything. Made it easier to breathe, made the colours of the world more vibrant, made everything just more.

“I let fear hold me back from the person that made me happiest in the entire universe and I won’t let it hold me back again.”

“Kara…” Lena whimpered, glancing back over her shoulder at the closed door that her wedding dress was displayed on, though she didn’t pull her hand away from Kara’s touch, didn’t flinch or retreat.

“Do it.” Kara pleaded, stepping across that final slither of distance between them, her forehead leaning forward to rest gently against the side of Lena’s, “Take a chance, I’m begging you. You don’t want to spend the rest of your life wondering what could have been.”

Lena inhaled shakily, head returning to forward facing - foreheads pressed against one another, breathing in the same air - and then… and then…

Lena’s hands slipped fully into Kara’s, fingers intertwining together.

#supercorp #supercorpfic #i feel no remorse for this #tempted to do a part two

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lena-in-a-red-dress · 4 years ago

Note

Nia throw Lena the best bday party goes all out so she can make good memories

Like, imagine if one day little Lena wakes up super excited, but then when her tugs on peoples hands and pants goes unnoticed due to everyone's busy worklives and continued stress of not knowing what happened to Lena, eventually turns sad and tearful? And when Nia finally notices she's disappeared and tracks her down to a corner of the game room, Nia eventually gets her to reveal that it was her birthday and no one noticed. "It's okay," little Lena says quietly, "my new mommy and daddy don't care either."

Which means that Nia returns to the control room with her heart heavy in her chest, barely able to keep from crying herself.

"Uh, guys? We have seriously messed up."

----

Lena goes home with Nia that night, but doesn't say anything as she gets ready for bed. Nia's heart breaks as she hears the little girl crying softly to herself in the dark.

The next morning, Nia collects Lena from her bedroom and when they step into the living room, Superfriends all shout "surprise!!" The room has been transformed by streamers and balloons and confetti, full of bright color and bright smiles.

Lena gasps, clutching Nia's legs, but unable to hide her smile of delight.

Alex kneels down in front of Lena. "We are all very sorry that we missed your birthday yesterday. But we'd like to make it up to you, if you'll let us."

"How?" Lena asks tentatively.

"However you'd like," Brainy declares boldly. "It has been voted by unanimous decision that today is 100% Lena's day."

"What he means is that we can do anything you want," Nia translates with a reassuring squeeze.

"Anything?"

"Anything."

Which is how they end up at the science museum, then the planetarium, and then the aquarium. Lena forgets all about her disappointment as she babbles excitedly about all the random facts she knows, surrounded by people who genuinely care for her.

They have macaroni and cheese with dino nuggets for dinner, followed by cake and ice cream that she absolutely gorges herself on, smearing frosting and melted ice cream all over her face. The superfriends go overboard with presents too, but Lena falls asleep exhauasted shortly after opening them, too tired to play.

The others all melt onto Nia's couch, and the floor, equally drained. It was all a lot of work, but it's worth to see little Lena smile and hear her bright boisterous laugh.

Only Kara's features soon darken, gazing at Lena deep in thought. Alex notices and gives her a nudge.

"What? We did good today," Alex says quietly.

"Yeah, I know," Kara whispers back, "it's just... I can't help but think that this is the first real birthday that Lena's had in a long time."

After all, this is the first time Lena's ever mentioned her birthday, and it took her being turned into a five year old for it to happen. Kara can't help the guilt that comes with knowing that she'd never thought to ask during their years of friendship.

Alex nods in agreement, her focus resting on the child zonked out against Nia's chest, little cheeks flushed and relaxed.

"Yeah... but it won't be the last."

#nia & lena #little lena au #i dont usually do age regression fics #so i probably wont make a proper fic #but ill play around in this headcanon for a little while #lenas birthday

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sammie-witch · 4 years ago

Text

Fix Fic I’ll probably never write:

- Kara hangs up the phone from speaking with Cat at the wedding. She’s super confused.

- You hear Mon-el’s voice come from off screen with a cute one liner about not joining in on the fun, he drags Kara to the dance floor and a slow song comes on.

- They start dancing, Kara tells him about the conversation with Cat and how she feels stuck and how she doesn’t feel needed anymore.

- He gives her some advice, tells her how he feels in the future living one life, reminds her of how she felt on Argo, how she was just Kara Zor-el.

- But this isn’t Argo, she says. Even if she reveals herself now, people will still never see her as just Kara Zor-el, she’ll be a celebrity. Plus she has a niece now, so she’s only added to the list of loved ones that villains could target. Plus, she tells him that that wasn’t just because of Argo but because of him. She never hid part of herself even from day one.

- They go quiet and look over and see Brainy and Nia dancing. Kara comments how Nia thought she’d never see him again. Mon-el tells her that opting out of the meld is the only reason he himself could come back for the wedding, but once it’s over he has to find a new solution.

- Kara ponders. “What if I joined the fight? I’m not needed here anymore. Nia and Brainy can take care of the city. Kelly and Alex are going to be growing their family. It seems the like future could use a little bit of help, I could just be me, and you know… I could meet Winn’s daughter. I’ve really missed him… and you.”

- Alex and Kara have an emotional goodbye, but Alex understands and they know they can communicate across time.

- Lena and Kara have say their goodbyes and tell each other what their friendship has meant to each other. Lena promises to be the best godmother ever to Esme.

- She says goodbye to J’onn but Mon-el tells them both it’s not really goodbye as she’ll see J’onn sooner than she thinks.

- The Legions and Kara board the Legion ship. Kara is seen watching her family grow smaller as the ship pulls away. She smiles, tearing up, “El mayarah”

The end.

#supergirl #kara danvers #kara zor el #monel #karamel #lena luthor #alex danvers #kelly olsen

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constant-eggs · 4 years ago

Text

It narratively did not make sense to kill William. It was pointless shock value, really.

Meanwhile, Supergirl has this terrible habit of “killing” characters who should die, or are presumed dead, of retconning the deaths, and undoing everything in the process.

Here’s a list of characters who died and were brought back who probably should’ve stayed dead. Oh, and a list of characters who would have made sense to kill in this final season.

1.) Alura and Zor-El. Especially Zor-El. Their deaths fueled Kara’s motivations: being (one of) the last Kryptonians and last daughter of the house of El, reconciling her parents shitty choices (Medusa, PZ etc.). And the fact that Kara could not talk to them was heartbreaking and real. Her scenes speaking to AI Alura still stand up six years later. I don’t even remember her convos with them now that they’re alive. She should have had to finally face these traumas instead of her parents poofing back and then never interacting with her.

2.) Jeremiah. I know he died again but it was weird. I think he should’ve died in season 2 while saving Kara and Alex from Cadmus. Also maybe Alex and Kara could’ve had more than two episodes to grieve.

3.) Fucking Lex. The seven or so episodes he got in season four were great. A few were phenomenal. He was never Kara’s villain, he was Lena’s and he belonged in the ground.

People who should’ve died/or could have for real reasons.

4.) Mon-El. Should’ve died at the end of season 2. Maybe Kara doesn’t find out until season 3. Kara started facing a lot of her alien identity in S3 and what she wanted in her life from it. He didn’t need to live to accomplish that.

5.) Cat Grant. I know. I love her. But killing mentor figures on a Superhero show does serve a purpose. She gave hope speeches that inspired Kara to give hope speeches. She gave Kara her start in journalism. And the actress couldn’t stay so I think a cameo at the end of S4 during the alien hate OR in the series finale would plotwise be fulfilling.

6.) Winn in the finale instead of Brainy. I don’t know how or why, it could be figured out, but here’s what I do know: Winn and Brainy in my mind sort of traded places and lives. Winn will be coming to the present to help with every intention of going back to his family. Winn was the first person Kara shared her secret to. The first person she trusted. He used to be her best friend before they kicked that friendship to the curb. That’s my logic.

7.) Otherwise fine, Brainy. It would hurt a lot but the Superfriends remaining untouched isn’t the most realistic of things. He’s self-sacrificing, he’s close enough to Kara and the characters who matter to devastate, and he’s had tremendous character growth. And it’s hard to really see them killing another current Superfriend (also keeping in mind that every SF aside from Kara and Lena is a POC or is canon LGBT or both.) So I’m talking plot and more specifically, Kara. Killing Alex or Lena would destroy Kara (not to mention ruin their individual hard fought happy endings), killing J’onn, one of the last two green martians would be fucked up. Kelly just got to be Guardian. Nia’s future is wide open, and she hasn’t gotten enough character development, and she has a descendent, and killing her would just be…no. So yeah, Brainy’s death would make sense, but I would prefer it to be Winn if anyone.

William’s death did NOT make sense. It was distasteful. And sad in all of the real life ways and none of the plot ways. He was just tossed in the trash. Ugh.

#supergirl #kara danvers #william dey #supercorp #lena luthor #cat grant #winn schott #lex luthor #brainy

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ao3feed-supercorp · 3 years ago

Text

Would It Be Enough If I Could Never Give You Peace?

by Jeep_Girl

Picking up one year after the ending of Tied Together with A Smile, Lena and Kara have been living together for six months now, just outside National City. Lena took a position with National City University in engineering, still under her alias Dr. Lee Kieran. Kara is still working as editor-in-chief at Catco with Nia as her second-in-command. Alex is still the director of the DEO, with Brainy by her side as Assistant Director. Nia continues to help protect the city at Dreamer, coordinating with the DEO regularly while Kara remains mostly retired as Supergirl. As our two heroines are settling into their life together, they will have to come face-to-face with their pasts and the darker parts of themselves. Will they let this tear them apart or will it pull them closer together? Read on to find out! (Spoiler: They will be fine, I promise).

Words: 5130, Chapters: 1/16, Language: English

Series: Part 2 of What is meant to be, will be.

Fandoms: Supergirl (TV 2015)

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: F/F, F/M

Characters: Kara Danvers, Kara Zor-El, Lena Luthor, Alex Danvers, Kelly Olsen (Supergirl TV 2015), Nia Nal, Querl Dox

Relationships: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor, Alex Danvers/Kelly Olsen, Querl Dox/Nia Nal

Additional Tags: Kara Danvers is Supergirl, Lena Luthor Knows Kara Danvers Is Supergirl, Kara Danvers and Lena Luthor in Love, Established Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor, Endgame Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor, Kara Danvers Loves Lena Luthor, Lena Luthor Loves Kara Danvers, Soft Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Domestic Fluff, Romantic Fluff, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Angst and Feels, Comfort/Angst, Angst and Romance, Bisexual Kara Danvers, Alex Danvers & Lena Luthor Friendship, Protective Lena Luthor, Protective Kara Danvers, Bisexual Lena Luthor

from AO3 works tagged 'Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor' https://ift.tt/jFnldD7 via IFTTT https://ift.tt/jFnldD7

#supercorp #Kara x Lena #Kara Danvers x Lena Luthor #karlena

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black-coffee-and-sugar · 4 years ago

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I Believe In A Thing Called Love

woot! had to watch this one over a horrid wifi connection so i may have missed a few things:

- something something love totem. something something exposition. something something that doesn’t sound logical but we’re going with it because who really cares at this point?

- william is part of the mission briefing why?

- also lena has suddenly graduated from avoiding magic like the plague last week to creating a decoy love totem this week?

- also also. if lena's magic is strong enough to mimic 5th dimensional energy of the totems and if the dream totem alone is enough to make nyxly unstoppable and nia can wield dream energy, why are the super friends getting their asses kicked by a very human lex?

- everyone’s reactions to kara quitting were pretty benign. especially lena and alex

- kelly and lena’s little side hug is such a small thing but i shrieked! show us their friendship dammit!

- i feel robbed of that brainy, nia, kelly, lena scene

- j’onn and kara were privy to alex’s plan to propose which of course makes sense. her sister and her dad. but why the fuck is william getting enlisted? over your other friends who you’ve known for years? a quick call over facetime to your mother or even james? anyone but william

- either al’s bar got a facelift or the lighting used to be so shitty that i can’t recognize it anymore

- esme is too cute for words. “don’t you believe in love?” - only when i see dansen and supercorp on screen

- sigh. fucking lex, i guess we’re really doing this and it’s not that i want a whole lot of backstory but i just have questions. 1) why did lex decide to go to 31st century specifically? 2) how the fuck did he get there? 3) how long has he been gone? last time we saw him, he was stepping through a portal in 6x03. was he just chilling in the future for that whole time? 4) does the portal watch now moonlight as a time travel device because how did he get back? 5) is nyxly still a villain in the future? and if so, what has the legion been doing about it?

- i enjoyed the lex and nyxly scenes more than i thought i would. i don't ship it but they were funny and i am just a human.

- round of applause for otis for reminding lex that he literally thrives in toxic relationships.

- i have never seen the family resemblance between lex and lena until lex said “you can’t just tell a woman how you feel. it'll scare them off” because this is 100% lena with kara

- okay okay lena “magic is unreliable” luthor using magic throughout this episode like a pro just because kara bat her eyelashes, pouted and said please while between her legs last night (joking, joking)

- lena was ready to go fucking feral when kara got hurt and i’m living for this.

- the way lena was hovering over kara. fellas, imagine waking up to that beautiful face in your field of vision. and i felt very robbed of a hug but the convo was nice

- and so the medbay scenes have gone from just alex to alex and lena to just lena. lena continuing to thank a god she doesn't believe in because kara is okay. lena popping that extra button cuz the power of titties can heal

- dansen proposal had me weeping. the inclusion of esme and that little callback to 5x01 when they shared the same fav movie villain, the way the fucking love totem showed up in alex’s pocket!!!! i didn’t think the writers were capable

- but seriously, how reassuring is it for the love totem to seek you out while your love is proposing to you? im fragile right now

- esme: you guys had the same plan! it's fate!

look at esme out here being the biggest dansen shipper! alex and kelly are soulmates and idk how some people can't see it.

- esme shouting supergirl a la alex in S5. can she get a little mickey mouse signal watch too?

- my little brainia crumbs. nia bless your soul for giving our boy what he needs

- okay j’onn’s courage test was actually so tragic. the potential his character had. they really did him dirty too

- listen. lena has officially protected kara now in every possible. with her tech, with her money, with her support and now her magic. who else is checking all the boxes the way lena does?

- but also kara going to lena to have her humanity protected? that level of unwavering faith and trust? it is one of the most consistent things about her character

- i love how kara has been incapable of delivering a hope speech since 5x19, even in the hope totem episode but suddenly has one ready because lena needs it

- it’s not that i don’t like the dialogue between kara and lena. their scenes are lovely but it’s this incessant use of “us” and “we” and "you all" and “this team” when they are clearly talking about each other only. it’s not a group moment, they are alone, they don’t need to include the others. they are a given. kara wants to say “i have you and you have me and i’m your family now” and that fits the scene a lot better. so just have her say that, what are you so afraid of? it can’t possibly get any more romantic at this point.

- love totem reappearing on esme and im stressed. they're really gonna kidnap a child! well, if that doesn't motivate the super friends to finally go all out against lex and nyxly, idk what will

- lex giving a "then i met you" speech. are you fucking kidding me???

- the amount of times my 🤡 brain thought supercorp was gonna kiss/say i love you

- not kara waiting for lena with two glasses of champagne. not kara saying lena always protects her. not kara leaning in AGAIN but not kissing this woman.

- supercorp scenes following canon couple scenes as per the bait. am i supposed to ignore the constant confirmation that lena is kara's person and vice versa. don't touch me

- also does william get kidnapped again? cuz i didn't really care the first few times he was in danger so....

- lord help me with the bachelorette party. everyone is looking like a snack in the stills. im so ready.

- seems like we're finally getting some acrata after a whole damn season. what a waste.

#supercorp #dansen #supergirl #kara danvers #lena luthor #kelly olsen #nia nal #alex danvers #brainy #j'onn j'onzz #cw supergirl

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elsafowl · 4 years ago

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Just had an idea: I know their situations aren't exactly the same, but Kelly, Lena, Brainy and Alex are all jobless now. I mean, we know it for sure for Alex, Kelly and Lena. But I also assume that Brainy lost his job as the DEO director, since he kinda betrayed his boss (Lex Luthor) in season 5 and the all building is destroyed anyway.

So.

Not only being jobless can be the fertile soil for character development for each of them - like, thinking about what they really want to do with their lives and skills. But it's also a great way to push conversations between all of them. I really want a Kelly & Lena brunch, I want them developing a friendship talking about science (or about the Danvers sisters, hehehe). Alex & Kelly should have a talk about their economic future too - especially if they move together, and want to (eventually) get married and have children.

Finally, how cool would that be if Lena decided to start a new company?? Like, it could be named Super Corp (lmao, then it would be canon in a way) and she could very well give jobs to everyone. Brainy would be responsible for the R&D department. Kelly would be in his team - medical technology department. Alex could also work in the medical research field, but I don't know if she would want to (or stay in a more "fighter/agent in the field" area of work). And Lena would be the (symbolic) CEO, but actually Sam (or Jess) would take care of this part, and Lena would spend most of her time developing technology in the labs.

I don't know, I think it would be a nice way to end the show (and to take care of their jobless situation, they're not going to become superheroes 24/7). What do you think?

#supercorp #lena luthor #brainy #alex danvers #kelly olsen #dansen #supergirl season 6 #they're all jobless now #and I'm not even talking about J'onn M'gann #supercorp is endgame #one way or another

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shasta-reese · 4 years ago

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Finale Part 1 (6x19)

I can't believe this is the last time I'll be writing an episode critique for Supergirl, it feels surreal. But nonetheless I have thoughts and I will voice them. For once I am writing this while watching the full episode so I can do this chronologically for once, I already know what happens from watching clips on Youtube but there might've been scenes that weren't available so here ya go, one last ride:

- Lex is a great villain but I still hate that he's stuck around for so long, personally I would've liked his arc to have ended in season 4 as more of character to highlight Lena's character development. Instead of this Lex/Nyxly bullcrap they put on. I also hate that we have Nyxly as the main villain for the season and she's great but somehow they force Lex into her plot. Just wished they left Nyxly as the solo villain of the season

- You know ngl kinda wish they went through with letting Alex kill Lex with her bare hands lol.

- I get Alex and Kelly's mindset of doing whatever it takes to get Esme back obviously but in getting Esme back by giving up the Totems would've been pointless cuz the first thing Nyxly probably would've done with the All Stone would have been to kill them

- I do appreciate that Nyxly really doesn't have any intention to hurt Esme in any way. She just wants the totem and its unfortunately connected to Esme. Like the whole episode she's trying to make Esme as comfortable as possible and preventing Lex from hurting her, it was nice (yes I understand she kidnapped Esme but you know what I mean)

- I really don't understand why they introduced the Lex/Nyxly romance arc since according to what we've seen, everything that Lex stands for is opposite to what Nyxly stands for. It also shows that that Lex doesn't really know Nyxly at all considering he keeps proposing things that Nyxly would never do (eg. hurt an innocent child, trust any man who has hurt women). Also how far in the future is this Lex from?

- Like they say this Lex is from the future but did he live in the future? or is he our present day Lex who went to the future and saw his future self with Nyxly? And if he's from the future then where the fuck is present day Lex? Also they said he had 31st century tech which also doesn't make sense cuz that's 10 centuries from now so it's impossible for Lex to still be alive then. Nyxly might be cuz she's an imp but still, idek did I miss something?

- Seeing Lena and Andrea interact is always so interesting because they are essentially childhood friends. It's such a shame that they never fully utilised their relationship in the plots. It would've been so relevant with Lena finding out she has magic and Andrea also having magic, Andrea being isolated, making terrible decisions is like how Lena was in S5. They could've leaned on each other and rebuilt their friendship like we thought since that scene in 5x19. But all we got were like 2 bland phone calls and 2 pep talks from Lena to Andrea. Truly a waste of talent considering they had Julie and Katie playing the characters.

- I fricking love Lillian (as a character, she's a horrible person). Just her laugh at the prospect of Lex being in love is exactly how everyone else reacted when they revealed the plotline. Ah Lillian, how I love how you tower over your ego-maniac son.

- Hey Nyxly, babes how 'bout we not traumatise Esme further by telling her your dad was a mad man who tried to slit your throat as a child, huh? thank yew

- Man, Chyler in that armoury scene was great, just the pure emotion of it all makes me wish we had more scenes at this level of intensity.

- God, Brainy and Nia really have my fucking heart :')

- Lol the Three Fates just reminds of Charlie from LoT. I miss them

- Alex and Kara arguing just makes me mad cuz like yeah Alex, Kara's plan might not work but handing over the Totems will also likely be the cause of your deaths cuz Lex would kill you all without a second thought. No plan is a guarantee but seeing as how Lena could still use magic at the bridge, ya'll could've thought of a plan eventually. Also Alex telling Kara she would never forgive her if something happen to Esme is a little bit of a low blow

- Lillian and Nyxly meeting was sure... something. Also thank you Lillian again for emphasising that Lex is incapable of love which makes the whole plotline make absolute zero sense. I do love Lillian manipulating Nyxly so effortlessly, just one convo and she was able to mess her up lol. Really shows how good Lillian is at manipulation.

- I'm in by no means an expert here but pretty sure basically knocking out the sun for SIX MONTHS is NOT just a small drawback

- Lena once again seems to be the only person who is speaking reason and yet again is ignored. Do you hear her Kara? Do you? Yes you have to do something but this ain't it

- How much is Lex paying that man to still be his butler? Like, I get it you need a job but surely there are other rich, white men who need a butler who don't want to destroy the universe.

- Honestly I thought after the scene where Nyxly puts herself between Esme and Lex that her arc would end differently. I feel like at that point Nyxly could have returned Esme even without getting the Love Totem, because in that moment we saw that Nyxly is capable of caring for someone else. But who knows...

- Seeing Lex get "dumped" and read for filth was so satisfying

- Another thing, didn't they say that at the bridge all powers and tech wouldn't work but they still used tech and Nia had her powers??? Did I misunderstand something?

- It's honestly hilariously bad writing that they were fully ready to air strike Kara with the military but when Kara stopped using the sun and said sorry, they were just like 'oh okay, all good I guess, bye Supergirl'. Also how are they continuously evading any type of repercussions from the government? Like they've been causing so much chaos and property damage to the city the whole season, how are the Superfriends getting off scot free

- I know its supposed to be serious but I can't help but laugh a little at them basically playing hot potato with the All Stone. This fight was still better than the final fight in 6x20 though

- I really wish Lillian died saving Lena instead of Lex but its still in character for her to save any of her children tbh

- Love how they just never explain why Nyxly and Lex become lizard people after using the All Stone 🙃. Way to waste your money to CGI that, it was just unnecessary they served zero purpose

- But thank you SupergirlCW for Lena witness yet another parents death, let's just add that to the long list of trauma Lena already had. For fucks sake, Lena really had to witness both of her mothers' deaths huh. I know she's not dead yet but still

- Orlando's speech was great :)

Well that's the end of this episode. Personally I feel like this was what 6x18 should've been, a build up to the finale and not part of the 2-hour finale. It's not that bad of an episode if you overlook some obvious plotholes like the whole bridge thing. I initially wanted to write this for the entire 2-hour finale but this way too long already so I'm posting 6x20 separately. So that's all for this ep.

Goodbye, for now.

#supergirl #supercorp #lena luthor #kara danvers #alex danvers #nia nal #andrea rojas #querl dox #brainy #superfriends #lillian luthor #lex luthor #nyxly #nyxlygsptlnz #kelly olsen #esme danvers olsen

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pterodactylschreech · 4 years ago

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Entangled

(One-shot based on this post)

Lena looks beautiful tonight.

She's all Kara can think about, despite being surrounded by everyone she loves. Her eyes track back every few seconds no matter where she treks in the apartment or how much her family and friends vie for her attention. It's their first game night post-Phantom Zone and post-The Break, as Kara thinks of it. The first time everyone is back together, smiling and laughing and happy, in over a year. And they all want Kara's attention, her presence the glue for the family after her absence.

But all she can think about is Lena.

Lena sitting close on the couch while they play games. Lena passing her the last pot sticker on her plate without thought. Lena standing in the kitchen refilling her wine glass and mingling with Kelly and Brainy, at home among their friends. Kara focuses on her, intent to memorize every single detail of the other women as if she may never see her again. The crinkles by her piercing eyes when she squints in laughter at one of Nia's corny puns. The play of light on her features accentuating the sharp angle of her jaw and the soft curve of her lips. The gentle, bright look she shares with Kara when she catches her looking, a hard won relief radiating out from the woman after months of fighting one another. Kara could practically taste the joy on the air, surrounded by her little family.

Kara hopes that look means everything that her matching expression means: I love you. I'm home again, and I missed you. Hopes beyond all reason that Lena understands and is sending the same message back.

It's been a week since she returned to find Lena unemployed and living at the Tower out of a hastily packed suitcase. A week since she refused to let Lena remain in the cold and impersonal lair and convinced Lena to unofficially move in with her. She wouldn't admit it, not even to Alex, but one of the reasons Kara insisted so strongly was because she couldn't bear to sleep alone. The memories of her nightmares from her childhood after landing on Earth were enough to drench her in fear of the coming nights, the darkness and isolation that pulled her under the waves of terror. It turned out to be the best decision for both of the women as they both suffered and only found peace and reprieve when sleeping next to one another.

And it's been two days since Kara bared her soul to Alex, finally admitting the depth of her feelings for Lena after her sister told her about the decision they had been forced to make: Kara or National City. Her feelings that lay dormant for years due to her fear but surfaced to crush her under their weight during the year spent away from Lena, that grew like ivy through her heart until they covered every inch of her life. Kara sobbed into Alex's shoulder, for time lost and hope and comfort from her one constant through everything. Alex, for her part, seemed decidedly less surprised by Kara's outburst than she had expected. She let Kara expend her tears, then quietly told her it was time for Kara to choose her own happiness first. To put herself before the world and her past and her decades of fear. To tell Lena and let them be happy, together.

So now, Kara sits on her couch, surrounded by family and basking in the warmth of their love and closeness, nervous and fidgeting while she anxiously replays her prepared speech over and over in her head. For one terrifying moment, the whole situation felt excruciatingly familiar and terror spikes through her. Alex lays a hand on her bouncing knee, a distraction and reassurance that all would end well if Kara just trusted herself and Lena.

The night wore on in pleasant company until the group thinned out, pair by pair. Only Alex and Kelly remain on their way out of the apartment. Alex lingers in the doorway to give Kara an extended hug and whisper encouragement in her ear. "Good luck, Kar. Love you." She and Kelly say their last goodbye to Lena, and Kara quietly closes the door for the evening.

After taking a deep, steadying breath, Kara turns back to find Lena tossing empty take-out boxes into the recycling bin and setting their empty glasses in the sink. With her hair in a haphazard bun, Kara's NCU sweatshirt, and her cheeks pink tinged, Lena leaves Kara breathless in the entryway. The domesticity and familiarity of Lena in her clothes, in her home and cleaning up; in her glasses, forgotten after a particularly spot on impersonation during charades and still perched on the bridge of her nose, have Kara dreaming of their possible future. Of games nights and family dinners and quiet nights in that begin and end with Lena by her side.

Kara's tongue darts out to wet her lips and her hands twist together as she moves closer to Lena who has rinsed the glasses and is drying her hands on one of Kara's novelty printed dish towels. When she turns and spots Kara, hovering nearby but without fully approaching, she watches the simple movements of Kara's hands with rapt attention and smiles the same gentle grin from throughout the night. The corners of her mouth turn down slightly when she notices the focused crinkle between Kara's eyes, the unfailing sign she was deep in thought or struggling to vocalize something she found important.

Kara hardly registers the soft padding of Lena's socked feet across the floor until she reaches up to smooth the offending crinkle away with her fingertips. Kara's eyes drop closed at the gentle press, and she exhales a long held breath, focusing entirely on the point of contact and warmth to ground herself in the moment and chase any final doubts away. "Lena," Kara's voice puffs out into the quiet of their closeness. Lena's hand drifts to brush a stray curl behind Kara's ear before answering, matching her reverent tone. "What is it, darling?" Kara's eyes slide open to take in the gaze fixed on her: Lena promising safety and trust trust with nothing but the vulnerability in her eyes and the press of her hand to Kara's chest, just over where her crest materializes. It's enough to set Kara's heart beating wildly in anticipation.

"I need to tell you something. We promised each other, no more secrets. And there's one more thing I need you to know before we try this again. Our friendship, or you know, us."

Kara can see Lena's response to her words and hesitated. Lena's shoulders immediately tensing and her mouth drawing into a tight line, fighting trembling lips. She places her hand over Lena's on her chest to keep her from pulling away preemptively and to draw the strength she needs for what may come next. "Kara, what-?" "Wait, please. It's not bad, well, I don't think so, it's just, um-" Kara stops to regroup her frantic thoughts.

"Just, um, let me say what I need to say. And, if you don't, you know, feel the same or want anything to change, then none of this will matter."

Lena relaxes minutely, squinting at Kara's phrasing in suspicion and confusion. She lets Kara hold her hand in place. Once she feels Lena's tension release enough to prove she's listening, Kara plunges into her speech.

"Lena, you are my best friend. One of the two most important people to me. When we were fighting," Kara sucks in a deep breath at the lingering pain of their separation. "that was one of the hardest years of my life. All this terrible stuff was happening, and my person, the one I go to when everything feels like its falling apart, was gone. You were gone. I could still hear you and see you, but I couldn't have you. You were gone, and it was all my fault."

Hot tears spill free from Kara's eyes. When Lena reaches up to wipe them away, Kara leans heavily into her warm palm.

"Kara, darling, it's okay. We've forgiven each other. You don't need to apologize again."

A soft laugh escapes Kara's lips before she turns her head to press a kiss to Lena's palm. She speaks into Lena's hand, too nervous to see what Lena's reaction will be to her next words.

"I'm not. I'm just being honest. I lied to you for years. Willfully. Cruelly. Because I was selfish and stupid and scared. Rao, I was so scared to lose you. So, I rationalized lying day after day because I knew you'd leave when I told you. I knew the moment I said the words, it was over. No matter what I did or said, I would lose you."

The apartment was silent but for Kara's sniffles and her overflowing words.

"I did lose you." The whisper carries a year's worth of pain and longing.

"But, me being Supergirl isn't the biggest thing I haven't told you."

Lena's sharp inhale draws a fresh panicked round of tears from Kara who holds tighter to Lena's hand on her chest and forges onward quickly.

"You have to understand why I haven't said anything. It's not that I haven't wanted to; it's all I can think about sometimes. Most days now. But I couldn't. How could I- it would've been-" Kara stops and looks at Lena again, to read the expectation and shock flaring behind her green eyes. "I had to be honest about who I am before I could be honest about how I feel."

Lena joins Kara now with the first of her own tears breaking free to run down her cheeks. Kara can hear the quickening pace of her heart and focuses on the sound.

"Lena, I met you, and my whole world changed. You didn't know me during my first year as Supergirl, didn't see the rage that I could barely control or the reckless way I threw myself at every enemy. I struggled. A lot. But you showed me that we aren't bound by our family's sins. That I could hope and change and-" Kara feels the weight of the word on the tip of her tongue, rolls it around in her head another second and tastes the letters as they spill out for Lena to catch or watch shatter on the ground. "love. I met you, and I realized how deeply and fully I can love. I've lost so much, so many people, and I tend to be very protective of the love I share. But, I've learned that, despite what I've lost, the pain and the loneliness, I can love with my entire self. With all of who I am. With my heart, my body, and my soul. All that I am; all that I've experienced and will experience, everything. I can love through it and find strength in those who love me."

It was now Kara's turn to gently brush the fallen tears from Lena's cheek, one hand still holding firmly to Lena's hand on her chest.

"I've been drawn to you from the first day we met and every day after. I've never been able to fight it. Never wanted to, even when we were on opposites sides. I could never quite see through my love for you. Alex used to find it extremely frustrating, but I think she's finally come around."

Their watery laughs mingle together.

"You asked me once if I knew anything about quantum entanglement. I may know more about it than I admitted. And since that day, I haven't been able to think of you in any other way. I love you, but it isn't just that I love you. I am tethered to you, pulled across the universe to orbit you. The true source of my strength. I am entwined with you on a molecular level and in my soul. My parents sent me here to save me and to protect Kal, but something more, something bigger, maybe Rao himself, brought me to you."

Kara carefully absorbs Lena's body language, her stillness and continued silence. She seems to barely be breathing in the wake of the confession. The only sign Kara has that Lena is still listening is the furious pounding of her heartbeat reverberating through Kara's ears. Normally, even moments ago, the steady rhythm calms Kara, so much that she would take to flying over L-Corp during the past year just to hear the familiar sound. But now it leaves her uncertain and nervous. She fills the empty charged air with rambling, too anxious to wait for Lena to resume her normal functioning.

"I understand you might not feel the same, and after everything, I don't blame you. I mean, I did lie and then call you a villain and treat you pretty bad, so yeah." Kara trails off, cringing at the less than stellar stream of words her mouth chose. "So, um, if you don't want anything to change, then it doesn't have to. It won't. We can keep being friends and having game nights and movie nights. And you can obviously stay here as long as you need. I just, um, needed you to know how I feel."

The tide was open, and Kara couldn't find the ability to lock the flood gates on her mouth. Tears begin a fresh descent in the wake of her expelled anxiety.

"And I feel that I love you. That I am in love with you. I am in love with you, Lena."

Salt brines her lips, and her tongue tastes the clinging mineral as it slides out to wet them. Lena remains stoically still in her position pressed to Kara and swimming in her own trickle of tears. Kara notes the slowing of them, the crystalline droplets that drip from her jaw to the floor. She watches Lena's lips part and the quick flicker of her green eyes over Kara's face, landing first on her own blue eyes, then her nose, her cheeks, the scar above her eyebrow, before settling lower on her trembling lips.

She can't stand the limbo, the electric deja vu and mixture of fear and hope.

"Lena, please say something."

In reflection, Kara knows the moment, the span of seconds between her plead and Lena's reaction, only lasted the length of a heartbeat. But in the beat between her words and Lena's movement, Kara felt the weight of every loss she's suffered, every end. And every beginning. Every beautiful Earth sunrise and blossoming friendship. Anticipation swelled painfully behind her ribcage, her heart preparing to drop or soar.

In that moment, Lena held more power over Kara than any amount of Kryptonite ever could. With one second she could either crush Kara beneath one more disappointment and loss, or she could fuel Kara more powerfully than the yellow sun.

Kara's throat tenses with choking tears as she opens her mouth to withdraw every word to ever steal its way past her lips, but Lena blocks any hasty retreat half-formed with her own lips pressing firmly against Kara's. She pushes forward, bumping their noses and pressing her body impossibly closer, their hands still trapped between the mingling beats of their hearts.

Locked and entwined. Entangled over an invisible crest.

When her lips meet Kara's, soft but sure and insistent, Kara's mind blissfully silences but for the rapid fire pleasure of feeling and Lena. The burning desire in her chest spreading through her limbs and begging for more. More skin, more lips, more pressure. More Lena. All around her, flooding her senses until there's nothing left but the two of them.

It's everything and more than she imagined. Her nose fills with nothing but the sweet perfume Lena wears daily, and the lavender undertones of her own conditioner in Lena's hair. For once, the world quiets in Kara's hypersensitive ears, condensed to the sighs escaping Lena's mouth as she leans further into their kiss. And it's the taste that leaves Kara dazed and desperate for the next kiss. The fruity wine clinging to Lena's tongue and the underlying taste that is distinctly Lena. Unlike anything Kara has ever tasted and addictive from the first touch of Lena's tongue to her own.

They remain in their embrace, erasing any space that crept between them during their fighting and time apart. Even after breaking for air and resting their foreheads together, reveling in one another, they stay close. Kara can't fight the broad smile stretching across her face, and she hears Lena's matching grin in her words, reverently whispered in their shared breaths.

"And I love you, Kara. All of you. Always."

AO3 link

#supergirl #supercorp #supercorp fic #kara danvers #lena luthor

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cyclone-rachel · 4 years ago

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Gem AU, Supergirl-specific characters edition

(for the “Day 4: Alternate Universe” prompt of Farewell to Supergirl week)

Our heroes/the Super-friends/etc:

Supergirl/Kara Zor-El/Kara Danvers (Facet K4R4 20R-3L, Cut 59): Kyanite, weapon: glaive. This doesn’t change from my original concept of her when I first did the Gem Legion AU, I think I’d have her just be a regular Gem who was stuck in space for a while (something something malfunctioning warp pad, or her ship was knocked off-course and she couldn’t find her way to Earth) before arriving and being found by the Danvers. Because she can’t really hide her non-humanness, secret identity isn’t an issue here, but she does become more human and get used to a human-ish life, learning to love humans and human society, in addition to fighting for them with her Gem powers.

Alex: human, but picks up/learns to fight with Gem technology. I think her and James and Kelly all kind of share the Connie role? like all 3 of them want to help and protect the Earth, and learn to fight alongside their super-powered friends, in addition to having their own skills.

Hank Henshaw/J’onn J’onnz- Oolitic Jasper (weapon- Sword of Mars, because why would you not). I’m thinking he’s probably most like how he was in season 4, and the Tower is basically this AU’s version of the gem temple that Steven and the Crystal Gems live in.

Megan Morse/M’Gann M’orrz- Smoky Quartz (weapon- kite shield) Her backstory is pretty easy to transfer here! I feel like nothing much would change, she’d still be some kind of former prison guard and defect to save someone’s life, then come to Earth and eventually find a friendship with J’onn and the others.

Winn Schott Jr.- okay I did describe him originally as “not-shitty Ronaldo”, like maybe his mom runs a toy store that his dad originally opened and he’s come up with all kinds of conspiracy theories about the Gems? but he never once imagined being friends with them until meeting Kara.

gosh. given that there is also a human in the SU... universe that ends up flying around in a spaceship with Gems, and what Winn’s fate ultimately is, does he become a combination of Ronaldo and Lars? I’m not sure.

Cat, even though she lives in a small town, still has her media thing going, and reports all the time on the goings-on of the Gem Legion, especially Kyanite/Kara, who is pretty much her favorite and so smart and so talented and has such potential. Kara doesn’t work for her here, but she still admires her a whole lot and they inspire each other I think.

Mon-El- Aquamarine, weapon- partizan. The original concept I had for him came about near the end of season 2 and was very mean-spirited, and I apologize. But I think it would still be possible for his story to happen here, like another Gem who’s been isolated for a long time (and coming from a very privileged/looking-down-on-others background) coming to Earth and learning to become a better person, inspired to lead his own little group of Gems somewhere else.

Speaking of which!

Imra- Rhodonite, weapon- chakram. I did originally have her down as a Pink Topaz, but since topazes are depicted differently in SU canon, I decided to change that, and thought rhodonite fit well with her costume/aesthetic in season 3. Anyway I feel like there isn’t much different about her either? she’d probably have a “little sister”/another Gem who was created in the same place she was that she considers family, until that Gem and others start getting corrupted on a large scale because reasons, which prompts her and Mon-El and Brainy to go to Earth (like they’d be on another planet at that time, but Mon-El would know about Earth)

and to round out the Legion that we see, Brainy is a Peridot because of course he is. But he’s also an Off-Color! I’m not exactly sure how I’d do the inhibitors thing in this universe, but he’d definitely look different from other Peridots (although he’d hide that) and after joining Mon-El and his group, he’d act different from them too. I feel like the “family bottling planets” thing would also be very easy to translate to this AU, although maybe another method than actually literally shrinking them and putting them in bottles. But the same kind of vibe for sure. His “weapon” is Gem technology.

I think Nia’s basically our Steven-type character, not literally a child but the one who definitely learns more about who she is and what she can do as time goes on. She’d be half White Sapphire, for reasons. Or maybe just regular Sapphire? Definitely one or the other, that kind of gem. Her and Maeve are probably half-sisters here, same father but different mothers.

Villains/Other

Originally, I had Astra and Alura be Blue and Pink Diamonds respectively, and I don’t know how well that works now? I’ll think more about this later.

The Adventures of Supergirl villains I came up with ideas for-

Facet Jens- Moissanite (loyally served Alura’s equivalent, travels to Earth to make Kara more like one of her court. Bonus points for pretty much coming from a Gem-like species in the comics)

Vril Dox II- Green Jasper (ends up bubbled, I do not remember much about him. probably from the same planet this version of Peridot was created on)

Psi- Dream Quartz (more based on the one we saw in season 3. can speak to people through their dreams/manipulate dreams, has powerful psychic abilities that she uses most prominently to bring out her victim’s darkest fears. A thief, mostly. Although Kara doesn’t beat her at first.)

Rampage- Crackled Fire Agate (helps Alex and others fight corrupted Gems)

The Worldkillers are definitely all Agates as well (because, as the song says, “An Agate terrifies”), I think I originally had Reign as Black Agate, Purity as Turritella Agate, and Pestilence as Blue Agate.

in that post I also had Non as a Blue Pearl, Indigo as a Yellow Spinel, and Rhea and Lar Gand as Platinum and Silver respectively. Although I think I’d maybe want to make Indigo a real evil Lapis Lazuli instead.

OH NO I FORGOT ABOUT MYRIAD BEING THE CLUSTER

anyway Myriad is basically the Cluster in this AU, it’s not a mass mind-control device in how it was used in the season 1 finale but it does involve a bunch of minds being forcibly brought together and a lot of destruction.

also I did fully forget Lena in this AU. anyway I think she’d probably be the mayor’s daughter here? I’m not sure what I’d do with Lex

#papa don't look #rachel talks about stuff #farewellsupergirl #supergirl au #supergirl #this au started in 2016 i think #it's been such a long time #and i am very rusty #but i did want to contribute something #this will probably get updated too as i think of more things

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thornedrose44 · 4 years ago

Text

Ends of the Earth (Part 2)

Part One or read on AO3

“Lena?”

That was her first word, unsurprisingly, when she woke up after fending off the Children of the Earth. It was the only word she would ever speak as she drifted in and out of consciousness following her exposure to kryptonite over the course of three weeks. That in-and-out existence consisted of little more than fragmented memories of disjointed conversations and dodged questions overshadowed by the ever-present pain of her body healing itself after being pushed past its limits.

“Hey, hey, there… how are you feeling?” Alex soothed coming slowly into view as Kara’s eyes adjusted to the bright lights of the sunlamps for maybe the second or was it third… or maybe even fifth time...

“Thirsty…” Kara croaked out through dry lips. “And… pain…” Kara admitted, everything aching in a way it never had before.

“Here.” A straw was gently pressed against her lips, and she felt blissful water coat her mouth and throat. Kara was pretty sure it was the greatest drink of water she had ever had.

“Lena? Where’s Lena?” Kara repeated, her voice stronger now.

“Just rest for now, okay?” Alex requested, plumping the pillows behind Kara before ducking her head and fiddling with the machine at the side of the bed to increase Kara’s dose of analgesic which was effective at rapidly lulling the kryptonian back to dreamless, painless sleep.

The day eventually came where Kara was awake longer than a couple of minutes, where the ache was more of a residual hum than anything else and Kara’s mind was sharp enough to push for answers instead of being deterred by Alex and Eliza’s methods of dodging.

When the day came and Kara was given the truth, she would reflect back fleetingly on those three weeks of constant pain and recovery where she had little grasp of her own reality and wish, wish with everything she had, to go back to that state of being. Because this… the pain Kara felt on that day when she was presented with her new reality obliterated every other pain she had ever experienced, rendering them little more than stubbed toes in comparison.

“The portal wasn’t stable… you know that the power stabilisers weren’t in place yet; it required active management to prevent it going critical.”

“She stayed behind… she kept the portal open so that we… Kara, I’m so sorry...”

“It was unstable, it's… it’s very likely the portal exploded and… It would have been quick...”

“She said… she said… to tell you to be happy… Kara, she also… she also said something about looking forward to a sunset... Kara?”

“Kara? Say something, please…”

“Kara?”

She stopped then. It was as if she ceased to exist.

How could she exist when she no longer had a heart in her chest?

Here she was on a whole new planet, and Kara couldn’t find the strength to get up and go see it.

She lived in her mind, going relentlessly over her memories of Lena, lost to a past she would do anything to change with absolutely no interest in building a future.

She would do things differently if she could. (So many things.)

Kara sometimes wondered if she counted - her regrets versus the choices she would make again - which way the scales would tip…

There was a reason she never counted.

Kara knew that she was rather young to have so many regrets, so much weight on her shoulders and experiences that would scar her for the rest of her life.

But, if she had to pick… if someone came to her and said there was one thing in her life she could change… it would be Lena.

The problem, however, was that she didn’t know what specific choice or moment to change… there were too many options. So many of her snap decisions and cowardly actions had inflicted wounds on the youngest Luthor that would haunt Kara far worse than any of her own trauma could ever hope to.

She’d seen the story play out differently thanks to Mxyzptlk - but she doubted those versions, especially now after seeing how the future was more liquid than solid, able to change, fluctuate and bend around your fingers with only the smallest shift. Mxyzptlk had shown her some potential outcomes of different choices but that didn’t make them the only outcomes.

The obvious history rewrite would be to have told Lena her true identity far earlier but if Kara was honest with herself as she tried to be in all matters related to Lena - because Kara refused to sully a single memory or thought she had of Lena with falsehoods - telling Lena about Supergirl wasn’t what Kara thought about most whilst she laid there in bed rejecting her new reality.

Her daydreams and fantasies didn’t centre around Supergirl.

Kara refused to boil everything between her and Lena down to Lena’s relationship with only a single strand of her identity. It was Kara Zor-El and Lena that mattered, everything else was just decoration atop that foundation.

The change Kara would enact, if given the chance, could have taken place at any time, during any one of her interactions with Lena.

If Kara could do everything again… she would make sure that this time around she told Lena that she loved her. (Explicitly stated it rather than hint around it with pretty words.)

Truly and deeply loved her.

That Kara’s heart hadn’t been beating correctly in her chest, didn’t know what its actual purpose was other than to pump blood through her veins, until she met Lena. That there were parts of herself that only Lena could access, parts of herself that only Lena would ever see.

She knew that declaring her love for Lena during their very first meeting would be too soon, too intense but she should have at least realised what the fluttering of her heart really meant, instead of presuming it was anxiety about meeting a Luthor. She should have known what was really happening and acted on it as her friendship with Lena blossomed, instead of assuming the butterflies in her stomach were nerves about lying. She should have seen Lena’s early romantic gestures (flowers and galas with potstickers) for what they really were, rather than running towards a man, that whilst good and kind, didn’t make her heart swell as it struggled to comprehend everything Lena made her feel.

By the time Kara actually realised what her heart had been screaming and begging for her to understand, she was trapped and tied up around a web of lies so thick and all consuming that she didn’t know how to get out from under them.

But then, inevitably, came the truth, (far, far, far too late) and the subsequent loss of Lena.

That hurt.

It wounded Kara in a way she’d never been wounded before. And with any injury you’d never experienced, Kara - likewise - didn't know how to treat it. Didn’t realise how she poked and prodded at it merely made it bleed even more fervently. She then tried to erase it, rid herself of the organ (her heart) in its entirety - the ‘villain’ serving as a scalpel designed to free herself of the wound that refused to heal.

When her heart returned to her, it was beaten, withdrawn, and Kara didn’t know how to accept it back, how to fit it back inside of her chest.

It was awkward between her and Lena now. In a way it had never been before.

It was Kelly that put it all into perspective, helped Kara see the damage wrought on her heart, helped slot it back into place, though it now had jagged edges that kept catching and digging with every movement. It was Kelly that explained abuse victims, how they sadly returned to their abusers, how Lena had done just that after finding out that her attempt at escape had merely led her back to the same pain the Luthors had inflicted over and over again. Lena’s second escape, second show of strength was incredible and should be admired, not punished.

Kara and the Superfriends had hung their heads in shame.

Brainy was the first to bridge the gap, him and Lena having always shared an understanding that no one else could touch. Two souls, told to fear themselves but constantly striving to prove themselves worthy.

Kara would hover nearby, struggling with the desire to reach out but the guilt of harm already inflicted keeping her away and then… then…

It was the end of the world and Kara told herself that everything else could wait.

That they could wait.

It never should have been soon, or later, or almost…

It should have been now…

This moment, right now!

Why did they keep fucking waiting?

All it did was result in missed opportunity after missed opportunity until there were no more ‘soon’s to come, and there would be no more ‘now’s to seize… all that was left was too late.

Too fucking late.

There were some memories that stood out more than others, the ones where they planned their future, the ones where Lena had bared herself to Kara in a way that made Kara feel so privileged, the ones where they had been so, so, so close to crossing that final gap between them and formally gifting each other their hearts wrapped lovingly and addressed solely to one another. It was those memories that Kara played on endless repeat as Alex shook her, screamed for her to come back, to snap out of her catatonic shell…

“On the coast.” Lena had replied when Kara had asked where she wanted to live when they arrived at their new home.

“I didn’t think you liked the beach?” Kara murmured, shuffling closer and closer until Lena’s back was pressed right against Kara’s front, Kara’s arms moving to wrap around Lena’s middle, just wanting to hold her close as she continued to work tirelessly.

“I didn’t say beach…” Lena hummed, glancing back over her shoulder with a teasing twinkle in her green eyes that had Kara bending her head down to bury her nose in long black hair that smelled of citrus - the generic shampoo that had been given out to everyone in the bunker. “I lived on the coast in Ireland…” Lena revealed, after a beat, her voice turning soft and sombre as it always did when she spoke of her mother and her life before the Luthors, causing Kara’s arms to gently squeeze Lena closer. “There were shingle beaches and cliffs… I just liked being able to hear the sound of the ocean. The waves hitting the shore… it was comforting.”

“Then a house on the coast you shall have.” Kara promised sincerely.

Lena laughed at that, “Oh, really? Are you going to build one for me?”

“No...” Kara replied, placing a quick kiss to the side of Lena’s head, “I’m going to build one for the both of us.” Lena stilled in her arms, her fingers moving away from the keyboard she had been typing on so that she could lay them over the top of Kara’s hands.

“Do you really want that?” Lena asked, quiet and disbelieving.

“Look at us, at this moment.” Kara requested, fingers flexing so that they interlaced with Lena’s easily. “I just want to be wherever you are.”

“Me too.” Lena replied, turning her head so that she could rest her forehead against Kara’s jaw, both of their eyes fluttering closed as they relished those rare few minutes that they could actually give solely to each other.

“It’s too much, sometimes…” Lena muttered, her hands shaking, after another long day, as she tried and failed to undo the buttons of her shirt so that she could finally slip into bed and sleep for a mere handful of hours before duty required her blood, sweat and tears all over again.

“I know.” Kara soothed, moving to kneel in front of Lena so that her own hands could reach out and gently take over the task. Kara’s fingers moved slowly, undoing each button with as much care as possible, her blue eyes politely averted as pale skin steadily became more and more visible.

“It shouldn’t be me.” Lena whispered into the stillness, green eyes boring into blue as Kara tucked her fingers underneath the shoulders of Lena’s crisp white shirt to push it off and down her arms. “I get that they need my mind and my intelligence, I get that, I do… but they are looking at me to…” Lena trailed off, gaze going distant.

“To?” Kara prompted, folding the shirt with precise movements before retrieving her soft Midvale High School shirt that Lena had taken to sleeping in, holding it up for Lena to push her arms tiredly through.

“Inspire…” Lena huffed as she pushed her head through the neck-hole. “Me. The most cynical person alive.”

“That’s not true.” Kara asserted earning her a disbelieving eyebrow raise that had her shaking her head ruefully. “Okay, it’s somewhat true.” Kara admitted earning her a giggle of amusement that warmed Kara’s heart as she shifted to lay down on her side of the cot, opening her arms for Lena to fall into.

“But it's not a bad thing. Not by a long shot.” Kara insisted seriously. “If it wasn’t for you, we would still be trying to fix the sun and billions of lives would have been lost whilst we accepted that we had to find another way. You’re not a cynic, though. I’ve watched you encounter stumbling block after stumbling block and you still…” Kara’s eyes roved over Lena’s fatigued, yet ever beautiful face, with wonder in her eyes. “Keep going… keep searching for a solution. A cynic wouldn’t do that. Couldn’t do that. You keep yourself grounded but you keep your eyes skywards. You inspire but you don’t lie. That’s what they did on Krypton, they liked sweet lies more than the harsh truth. You’re a balance of both.”

“Such tender words.” Lena remarked as a solitary index finger moved to tap affectionately against Kara’s lips.

“True words.” Kara corrected, puckering her lips to press something resembling a kiss to Lena’s finger, “If I was still leading... we would still be on the surface, my blind hope damning us all…”

Lena shook her head at that, harsh and firm, her hand moving to fully cup Kara’s face, “You’re wrong. So wrong.”

“How so?”

“Firstly, that’s not what it is…” Lena explained, her legs tangling with Kara’s as Kara pulled the blanket over the both of them, “blind hope...”

“What is it, then?”

Lena pursed her lips thoughtfully as the hand on Kara’s cheek moved to comb through blonde hair, “Faith.”

“Faith?” Kara repeated, signature crease appearing between her brows at the term.

“Yes and it's a beautiful thing.” Lena breathed reverently, “It's probably the best thing about you.”

“I thought that was my blue eyes and handsome good looks.” Kara smirked, knowing if she leant into the moment they had created (sincere and loving), she wouldn’t be able to wait anymore… that soon wasn’t going to cut it.

“That’s second and third place, respectively.” Lena shot back immediately, fingers stilling for only a second before continuing their endless movement through Kara’s hair.

“It’s still blind.” Kara said, returning to the topic, now more confident that she could rein in her desire for the time being. “Just as likely to lead to a miracle as it would off a cliff.”

“Maybe.” Lena agreed, “But faith, in the face of insurmountable odds, is when the impossible happens.” Lena countered as she settled further into Kara’s warm embrace, cold nose pressed against a spot just underneath Kara’s jaw. “I would have given up if it wasn’t for you, a long time ago.”

“I’m glad my ability to make the perfect coffee has paid off in some way.” Kara joked.

“Don’t do that. Don’t minimise yourself.” Lena said, tone hard and serious, making Kara tense for a fleeting moment. “The only reason I keep going after each stumbling block is because of you. Because you believe that I can do it.” Lena revealed, her voice rising an octave to keep back the sting of tears. “Your unshakeable faith in me, gives me the strength to make the impossible happen. Don’t you dare ridicule it. Because I need it, Kara.” Lena declared, lifting her head so that Kara could see the watery sheen magnifying vibrant green eyes. “I need you to have faith in me because most days it's the only thing keeping me going.”

Kara sat up for the first time then, head ringing with the memory of Lena’s words.

Lena is alive and she is waiting.

Kara just had to have faith. And if there was one thing that Kara had more faith in than anything else in the universe, it was Lena.

Lena is alive and she is waiting.

Kara whispered the mantra to herself over and over again as she staggered to her feet. Repeated it endlessly until it tattooed itself onto the walls of the empty chasm where her heart should be.

Lena is alive and she is waiting.

The words fuelled her faith and her faith fuelled the words like an endless repeating cycle as she walked out of her room and got to work.

“Lena is alive and she’s waiting.” Kara declared to Brainy, who blinked at her rapidly in surprise at the statement and her unexpected appearance after being unresponsive for over a month.

“How can you be sure?” Brainy questioned, choosing to ignore the multitude of questions related to Kara’s sudden revival.

“I can’t, but I am.” Kara replied, falling into the chair opposite humanity’s new chief scientist. “How do we save her?”

Brainy pursed his lips and remained silent for a long time, clearly trying to decide if he should push back against Kara’s assertion before nodding once in acceptance. “Short answer, I don’t know.” Brainy answered honestly. “Long answer, another transmat portal.”

“Okay, then let’s build one.” Kara demanded, banging a clenched fist against an open palm.

“If only it was that easy.” Brainy laughed drily, shaking his head in resignation.

Kara’s jaw clenched in determination, “Tell me what the problems are.”

“Kara, I don’t think-” Brainy started softly, beginning the gentle deterrence and refusal that Kara was now intimately familiar with, having come straight from meeting the leaders of humanity (which had now formed an official government - The Terran Coalition).

“Now, Brainy.” Kara ordered coldly, her expression darkening.

Brainy flinched in shock at the tone and command, but recovered quickly, getting to his feet to write on a nearby whiteboard. The first word he wrote in big block capitals was ‘MATERIALS’.

“Firstly, we don’t have the materials to construct another transmat portal. We depleted our supply of a number of rare elements and compounds that were present on Earth but we don’t know if they are here on Terra Nova. If they’re not, we would need to fully re-design the portal from the ground up to take into consideration the impact of substitutions.”

“Which brings us onto the next issue.” Brainy continued, adding another word just below the first one, ‘KNOWLEDGE’. “Lena knew the portals better than anyone, the rest of us understood the particular portal design that we used and different parts of the underlying theory but it was only Lena that truly understood the full picture. I, and the scientists that worked closely with Lena, have now been allocated to separate projects.” Brainy explained, gesturing around the lab they were currently sat in that had only one or two familiar faces that Kara recognised from all the time she spent at Lena’s side. “Projects to ensure we can safely make Terra Nova our home, projects that serve the whole of humanity.” Brainy grimaced as he stated a truth Kara was acutely aware of from her lengthy discussion with the Coalition that had resulted in neither her nor them walking away happy. “The leaders won’t allow time and resources to be pulled away to work on this. They just won’t. But let’s say you can create an entirely new portal from scratch with only a shoe-string budget and support… you then reach the biggest issue… One that even Lena never got around to solving.”

“What?” Kara prompted, blue eyes narrowing at this.

“Precision.” Brainy wrote it out in big, block letters adding it to the list. “For the portals we used, we were just aiming for a planet, even just the general vicinity of space around the planet. We didn’t have to ensure the portals adjusted to remain in a fixed location on the other side, we just had to make them not overlap. We shot the transports through and then let them finish off the journey. To get back to Lena and save her… you would need absolute precision. You would need to open it up within the bunker. You would need it to adjust to remain in that location, which would massively increase the amount of energy required to open it. Opening it anywhere else could put you and anyone that goes through in massive danger and there would be no way to get to Lena without putting her in danger either.” Brainy hung his head, capping his marker pen and moved forward to squeeze Kara’s shoulder comfortingly, “I’m sorry, Kara. But even if-”

“Materials. Knowledge. Precision.” Kara repeated firmly, gaze fixed with steely determination on the words scrawled across the board. Three words stopping her from getting Lena back. Three herculean tasks that Kara was ready to dedicate herself to mind, body and soul.

Lena had told her once that she could make Kara an expert in ten years.

Kara intended to prove that wrong - she would do it quicker than that, she had to.

Whilst she might not have Lena to teach her, she did have one hell of an incentive.

Terra Nova was without a doubt a beautiful planet. Lush forests, snow peaked mountains, tropical jungles and enticing black-sand beaches. It lacked a desert but the majority of people weren't too disappointed to find that particular biome missing.

The first city of Terra Nova was named after humanity's saviour, as it should be. The Coalition had approached Kara about it, wise enough to know that any slight, accidental or otherwise, against the (presumed deceased) youngest Luthor would provoke the retired hero. They were originally planning something like Luthorton but Kara had shot that down, point blank telling them that if they wanted to honour Lena it should be Lena's name that was remembered and not the family that had betrayed her.

Lenacity (pronounced like tenacity) would forever be known as the first city of Terra Nova, to forever serve as a beacon of hope to humanity. There was even a statue in Lena's honour erected in the very centre of the city.

Not that Kara had ever seen it, nor did she attend the dedication ceremony; she barely even read the announcement proclaiming the city's name.

Humanity built itself a new home, creating infrastructure and cities. Rebuilding themselves anew and making this planet truly theirs in a far more sustainable manner than on Earth - they now knew the pitfalls of industrialization and the Coalition made sure to avoid them this time around with scientists like Briany serving as their guide.

Kara, though, only had a vague awareness of the world being built up around her. She moved from her bed in the makeshift hospital to a back-room in Brainy’s lab to, eventually, her own lab inside Lenacity University - the Coalition arranging her a workspace and position as a thank you for her service during the end of the Earth.

Kara had a purpose, a purpose driven by seven words that Kara would mutter under her breath whenever her head began to ache as she struggled her way through textbooks and theorems…

Lena is alive and she is waiting.

Kara's life revolved around this one goal to the exclusion of all else. She barely ate and she only slept when her mind simply could not go on.

She was weaker here, on Terra Nova. And not just in the figurative sense (her soul and mind torn asunder at the loss of her heart). She still had her powers but they weren’t the same as they were on Earth. The atmosphere and Sun on Terra Nova was different to Earth so it wasn’t completely unexpected.

She was still stronger than a human being, could still lift a car but not a bus.

She was faster than a human being, but not faster than a bullet.

Her hearing was still enhanced; she could hear the heartbeats of people in the room but it took considerable concentration now, and anything more than a street away was near impossible.

Heat vision was still there but attenuated; she could still heat up a coffee after it had gone cold but she wasn’t going to be destroying a space-ship anytime soon.

Flight was the biggest loss. It was still there but it was tiring now. It used to be easy, seamless but flying a considerable distance was like running a half-marathon after only minimal prep.

There were other effects of her powers being diminished, her golden complexion and hair lost their sun-kissed experience - hair turning a darker blonde and skin slightly paler.

Whilst Kara never did anything physically demanding, nothing of interest on this planet to prompt her to move, at least in those early years (later years spent seeking the exact right materials for her plans exposed her to a number of wondrous sights that had little impact on the hero focused on her singular task), she was not taking care of herself.

She now understood what Lena went through during those two years, why it was so hard to get her to stop and just take care of herself.

Stopping to eat, sleep or relax in anyway required justification. Justifying time that could be spent helping someone else - saving someone else - on an activity that felt selfish.

It was probably something Kara should have experienced more of during her time as Supergirl, but she had never struggled to put distance between herself and that role. Had never really hesitated to accept invitations to karaoke and sister nights. It was different now, though, now Kara was no longer justifying the time delay to some unknown randomer who may or may not need saving… now she was justifying it to Lena.

Lena, who was trapped in a bleak bunker all alone.

Lena, who probably thought no one was coming to save her.

The weight fell off Kara, her muscles steadily eaten away, dark bags under her eyes becoming a permanent feature and her hair hastily cut short and jagged to minimise the care she had to give it.

The only thing that saved Kara from the damage she was slowly inflicting on herself was Alex.

That first year, Alex kept her distance - accepting Kara’s casual dismissals without push-back and her usual assertiveness. It wasn’t just Kara that had been changed by their permanent departure from Earth. The fire in Alex’s eyes had dimmed, her assertiveness tempered and her overall demeanour more quiet and withdrawn. Kara sympathised (distantly), knowing what it was like to leave her home behind but feeling that Kelly, Eliza and the other Superfriends would be a much more effective support system compared to anything Kara could offer at that time.

Alex would stop by every now and again, hands clasped behind her back, hovering timidly in the doorway, making her various pleas, “Kara, you need to eat.”

“I can’t right now, why don’t you go have lunch with Kelly?” That was Kara’s go to rejection, figuring it would at least encourage Alex to live her life, she deserved to. No point dragging Alex down with her.

Alex would nod once and hesitantly walk away, popping back up a week later with a plate of food in her hands that she would place in a rare empty space on Kara’s desk

“Hey-”, Alex would begin, seeking to break through Kara’s focus.

“Not now.” Kara would reply simply, no sharpness or venom to it, just a simple refusal.

Kara couldn’t be what Alex needed. She had no heart in her chest and she didn’t want to expose Alex to the coldness that now resided in the space it once occupied.

Kara had to get Lena back. Once she got Lena back, she could be herself again. Could feel and support like she always did before.

“Alex, just… leave me alone.” Kara requested before Alex even had a chance to say a word.

It was a year of this. Kara retreating further and further into herself and her work; Alex on the outside, uncertain of how to reach her. Tentative and nervous when her relationship with Kara had been the one she was most certain of.

“I’m sorry.”

The apology was new and managed to get Kara to cast a curious glance over her shoulder to see Alex, head dropped, red hair forming a barrier to her expression and hands curled into painful fists at her sides as she trembled in the doorway.

“Alex, I don’t really have time for this-” Kara began, already turning away when...

“I know you blame me…” Alex whispered, her voice cracking in a way that Kara had never heard before.

That jerked Kara back, brought her momentarily back to her own body, out of her half-life existence as she turned back round to actually look at her sister for the first time in… months. She looked distraught. Brown eyes broken and crying, lips bitten and raw, her complexion pale and her entire being exuding exhaustion.

“Blame you? Blame you for what?” Kara questioned in total confusion, moving towards her sister without conscious thought.

“For Lena.” Alex gasped, wrapping her arms tightly around own body protectively, “I… I failed her and I failed you.”

Kara’s jaw dropped, her stomach sinking like lead through the floor as the realisation punched her squarely in the gut. Alex hadn’t been grieving for Earth, she had been punishing herself. Punishing herself for Lena and by extension what Kara had turned into.

“Alex… no… I don’t…” Kara stammered, reaching out with shy fingers that had forgotten what it was like to make contact with another being. “Is that what you think?”

“You can barely look at me.” Alex cried, cringing in shame and guilt… and that…

It’s awful to admit, but it was the first time Kara felt something other than hollow. After a year of deadened emotion, Kara remembered how to feel. Felt the barrier she had unknowingly crafted around herself cracking open just a slither. Just enough for her to remember her sister. Her solid ground and most trusted ally. The person who she could always depend on.

“I can barely look at myself.” Alex continued, unaware how her own breakdown was reviving her sister back from her empty shell. “You love her so much and I... I couldn’t save her for you. You’ve lost so much and I now understand a fraction of that, just a tiny fraction and… I should have saved her. She was my friend, too. And she… she didn’t even… she gave so much and I couldn’t…”

“Alex, oh Rao, no… no… no…” Kara murmured, finally stepping forward to wrap her arms around her sister that she had been hurting without realising. Everytime she had pushed Alex away in a bid to shield her from her emptiness, she had merely been reinforcing to Alex the misconception that she was to blame. “Come here. It wasn’t your fault, okay? It was mine. I left her side…”

“No! Kara!” Alex rejected loudly, even as her arms wrapped tightly around Kara in return. “No. You left her side because of me. Because I asked for Supergirl-”

“How long have you been carrying this?” Kara asked sadly, “How long?”

“Since we went through the portal.” Alex admitted, burying her face into Kara’s shoulder.

“Is that why… you thought I hated you?” Kara whispered as the sheer awfulness of it all threatened to overwhelm her.

“I would, if I was you…” Alex murmured.

“No, Alex never…” Kara refuted, not believing Alex’s statement in the slightest. She pulled back from the hug (the first hug Kara had since landing on Terra Nova), and wiped the tears off her sister’s cheeks with a brush of her thumb. “I love you, I just I… didn’t think… I didn’t think I could help you… I didn’t think I could give you what you needed…” Kara revealed, shaking her head dismally at her continued failures.

“I didn’t want you to give me anything… I just wanted my sister…” Alex confessed, causing the walls where Kara’s heart should be to clench reliving the phantom pain of being broken. “I’m sorry, too. You needed me as well.” Alex said softly, her gaze taking in Kara’s appearance.

“I’ve been busy,” Kara muttered, shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot under the scrutiny.

“Kara, you’re not doing well.” Alex stated bluntly.

Kara knew that she had let certain things slide about herself but they were meaningless in the grand scheme of things. “I need to do this. Lena is alive and she’s waiting.”

“Kara-” Alex began gently.

“Don’t! Don’t tell me I’m wrong!” Kara demanded, stepping back and lifting her chin in defiance. “If you’re not going to help me, fine. But don’t say she’s dead. At least not to my face.”

“I wasn’t.” Alex replied, jaw dropping in shock at Kara’s sudden emotional shift which instead of scaring Alex away only made her brown eyes sharpen with even deeper concern. “I wasn’t, Kara. But you need to look after yourself.”

Kara’s gaze dropped to the floor, frowning harshly but holding her tongue, not wanting to inflict any further hurt on her sister.

“Listen… okay, listen to me.” Alex pleaded. It was her turn now to reach out to Kara, hands rubbing up and down Kara’s biceps to provide comfort, to bridge the gap between them. “You want to save Lena, right? How do you expect to do that if you’re not looking after yourself? You need to eat and sleep. You need to be at your best because that’s what she deserves.” Kara’s head tilted to the side at that, listening attentively. “You need to take time for yourself because… because when you save Lena… you should give her something strong and stable to lean onto, because she’ll need that. You need to look after yourself and your life so that when it's time... you can look after Lena.” Alex bent down catching clouded over blue eyes, deep in thought. “Okay?”

Kara didn’t reply for a long time, her mind whirring with this new perspective. She glanced at her hands that were trembling, remembered how Lena’s hands had shook under the insurmountable pressure and strain thrown on her. Lena deserved steady hands. Someone who didn’t swing from one emotional extreme to another. Someone who was ready for their heart to be returned.

“Okay… for Lena.” Kara breathed out.

Alex smiled at her, warm and tremulous, “Okay… Let’s get you something to eat.”

Kara became an oddity, something people whispered about with those pitiful gazes, like there was something wrong with her that could never be made right. She was a mascot, a joke, a piece of gossip shared and exaggerated, a tall tale told to children to warn them of the dangers of not letting go.

The students at the university would creep to the edge of her lab to get a glimpse of her like it was a rite of passage. Every citizen knew her story. Knew Kara Danvers and Supergirl were one and the same, Kara Zor-El. Knew of the love she held for their Saviour, Lena Luthor. Knew that her sacrifice had destroyed Supergirl and left behind a changed woman that spent her days chasing fairytales.

The kind ones called her eccentric, felt she had more than earned her time away from the spotlight and didn’t judge her for not donning her cape again - Terra Nova didn’t need superheroes anyway.

The cruel ones, who had never suffered hardship or had suffered far too much of it (it was always one extreme or the other) called her delusional and callous for leaving humanity to rebuild on their own without their red-blue hero.

She was no longer Supergirl. No longer Kara Danvers either. To everyone else, she was merely known as a woman trying to get back to Earth to save a ghost. A cautionary tale of a woman who had lost herself believing in something that was impossible.

The Tinman brought to life, seeking his heart that Dorothy had taken back to Kansas with her.

She left her lab now, after that first year of sheer self-destruction, understanding that in her pursuit of a ghost she couldn’t allow herself to become one either, because if Lena was there, waiting and Kara did manage to bring her home, then Kara wanted to have a home ready for her. She wanted to be ready for her.

So Kara leant into the support of her friends, ensured she was there for them, listened to them and gave them time and consideration. In turn, they didn’t pull her away from her work, planned around her experiments and happily came and sat in her lab, filling the air with conversation whilst Kara’s hands worked on pieces of equipment.

Kara’s years went by divided into three sectors, each uneven fraction dedicated to the tasks identified by Brainy at the very start. It took Kara two and a half years to get her knowledge to a decent enough level to truly comprehend the underpinning science and workings of the transmat portal technology. The largest chunk was next, five years on materials.

Whilst Kara’s knowledge had reached a basic level that meant she could stand shoulder to shoulder with Lena’s previous team; re-designing the portal to account for materials no longer accessible required Kara to become an expert and pioneer. No longer memorising the work of others but forging her own path.

Thankfully, her life wasn’t solely anchored by her scientific pursuits, in no small part due to Alex and the Superfriends.

The years were also hallmarked by Kara’s loved ones own lives and their achievements.

Alex and Kelly were married during that second year post arrival on Terra Nova. Alex had been delaying the event until her and Kara were back on the same page. Kara stood as Alex’s maid of honour, the couple were wed on a black sand beach that was as close to Midvale-esque as they were ever going to get.

Following the wedding, Alex, after spending a couple of years providing tactical support to the Coalition, decided to return to medicine in a research-based capacity. The change provided a simpler routine that was more conducive to building a family and Alex (after the loss of her home planet) wanted to feel like she was putting something positive into the world and not just removing the negatives.

The third year saw Brainy and Nia’s engagement. Yet again, Kara stood as maid of honour, for Nia this time - Brainy chose to stand alone, everyone knowing that it would have been Lena standing by his side in that moment and that any substitution would not have measured up to his best friend.

The fourth year was when Alex finally approached Kara about her living situation. There were plenty of houses now, people having settled into their own communities, having staked their claim on their own piece of land. Kara was rich, Lena having left her considerable wealth to Kara that had been translated into the Terra Novan Currency (TNC) - no one was going to deny the saviour their fortune. The Coalition had repeatedly made it clear that Kara would be granted approval for a residence more or less anywhere she pleased. She had yet to take them up on the offer.

She was happy with the small, barely used apartment near the university that she only visited whenever Alex came to inform her she was well overdue a shower.

“You need a home, Kara.” Alex had insisted, putting her foot down when Kara had yet again hosted sister’s night in her lab, having still not furnished her flat with anything resembling a couch. Kara had grumbled and groaned until Alex had pulled out her trump card. “Lena needs a home. When you bring her back, are you really going to make her crash in your lab?”

Kara applied for a piece of land near the coast, an hour’s journey from the city (only a twenty-five minute flight). Building a house there on the cliff where you could hear the water crashing against the rocks became a bonding activity amongst the Superfriends, an activity to bring them all together and away from their demanding jobs. It was the only time Kara felt something close to happiness… contentment. Sitting there on a bench, listening to the waves around a bonfire, sipping a beer with Alex, Kelly, Brainy and Nia (they were occasionally joined by Barry and Iris) talking about everything and nothing.

Lena was a topic that could only be approached when they could tell Kara was settled and hopeful, it was never something to talk about when Kara started to grow morose and restless. They all spoke about the sights they wanted to show Lena, all the stories they would tell her.

They would talk about what Lena might be upto in the bunker, how with all this time she had probably become fluent in nearly every language, mastered the violin, built herself a robot dog, finally got around to watching crappy reality television (that she had promised she would never watch). The suggestions were only ever light and happy. They were all aware that if Lena was alive down there, shut off from the light without hope of being saved, the psychological damage would be severe.

That was the other thing… if…

Kara knew it was only her that truly believed Lena was still alive. Alex was the next most convinced purely because Kara needed her to believe. Brainy and Nia were doubtful but too kind to openly declare their doubts. Kelly played her cards close to her chest, it was hard to tell what she actually believed when it came to Lena’s fate. Her main concern, without a doubt, was Kara’s mental health.

Kara had put all of herself into saving Lena. The only thing keeping her going was saving the youngest Luthor, the only thing that could make Kara look after herself was by linking it to Lena in some way.

Kara knew it wasn’t healthy, knew that if Lena wasn’t alive… she would most likely return to that catatonic state. It was just… she had lost so much… so, so, so much… and losing Lena was just the straw (entire barn of hay) that broke the camel’s back.

It was Kelly that picked Kara up once a week and frog-marched her to see a psychiatrist who was attempting to get Kara to steadily start living for herself and not just for Lena. It was in vain but Kara took onboard the lessons as much as she could.

By the end of the fifth year, Kara’s house (built for her and Lena) was complete. Kara forced herself to fly back there every night, wanting the place to feel warm and lived in and a home.

By the sixth year, Kelly was pregnant and Kara was set to be an aunt any day now.

“I’ll be there, I promise.” Kara reassured her sister for the fourth time. Alex was on speakerphone providing company from afar as Kara ran an experiment with some of the new materials she had recently collected to assess their suitability. They were having a distanced sister’s night, what with Alex wanting to stay at home to look after Kelly, who was set to go into labour any day now. Alex’s nervousness was manifesting itself in her over-preparedness, regularly checking that the route to the hospital was free of traffic every fifteen minutes, that their to-go bag was prepped and that Kara wasn’t running off anywhere on another materials expedition anytime soon.

“Thanks, Kara.” Alex breathed in relief.

“Have you decided on a name yet?” Kara questioned.

“No,” Alex sighed defeatedly, “we keep going back and forth. I think we'll know when we meet her, you know? At least I hope so.”

“I’m sure you will.” Kara reassured, peering through a microscope, nimble fingers adjusting the magnification.

“Hey…” Alex said slowly, her tone shy and awkward enough that it earned Kara’s full attention.

“What?”

“Did you and Lena ever…” Alex began softly, her voice trailing off as if the rest of the sentence wasn’t necessary. Kara stayed quiet, eyeing the phone warily, waiting her sister out. She heard the inhale of breath her sister took as if to suck in courage as well as air for what she was about to say next, “Did you and Lena ever talk about kids?”

Kara pursed her lips, and crossed her arms, gaze dropping to the floor, “Lena and I weren’t together.”

“I know…” Alex murmured back, there was a beat, before a whisper, “but did you?”

Kara swallowed thickly, blinking rapidly to dispel the tears and ease the phantom pain in her chest, “Yeah… yeah, we did.”

“Ugh… another five minutes.” Kara grumbled, pulling Lena, who was attempting to get up out of their small cot, closer into her body.

“See, I knew your chirpy morning personality was a lie.” Lena chuckled, and Kara’s slumbering heart ached at how exhausted she sounded before the day had even begun.

“You caught me.” Kara whispered, smiling as she nuzzled into Lena’s back. “Sleep is glorious and there is nothing that should interrupt it.”

Kara didn’t need to look at the youngest Luthor’s face to know she was rolling her eyes. “And here I thought you wanted children at some point in the future...”

“Children that respect the sanctity of a good night’s sleep.” Kara replied, letting out a sleepy huff that caused Lena to shiver.

“Good luck with that.” Lena teased, her hands moving to cover Kara’s that were wrapped around her waist. “Your children will be blue-eyed devils.”

“Luke and Lori.” Kara yawned without thinking.

“Hmm?”

“The blue-eyed devils.” Kara explained.

“You’ve already picked out the names?” Lena asked quietly, mildly surprised.

“Not hard, limited options.”

“How so?” Lena laughed, twisting round so that they were nose to nose.

Kara’s closed eyes fluttered upon feeling Lena’s warm breath against her face, she hid her reaction to it with a helpless shrug, “Had to both start with L.”

“L?” Lena scoffed, “Why would they-”

Lena’s voice cut out, realising the answer without needing to ask the question.

Kara opened one eye, catching sight of the shocked, awestruck expression on Lena’s face. “It’s tradition, isn’t it?” Kara murmured shyly.

“Yeah… yeah, it is.” Lena breathed, a tentative smile lighting up her face as she reached out to tuck a lock of golden hair behind Kara’s ear. “I like the names Lori and Luke.”

“You do?” Kara beamed, blue eyes opening fully and twinkling.

“Yeah, they’re the perfect names for our little blue-eyed devils.”

“I can do it.” Kara announced, landing hard and panting heavily causing her group of friends who were gathered around the bonfire outside Kara’s home to jump to their feet.

“Kara, what-” Alex began, holding little Amelia closer to her chest as the toddler reached out with grabby hands for her favourite aunt.

Kara ignored everyone and marched right up to Brainy, declaring wide-eyed and frantic, “I solved all three problems. I can save her.”

Brainy’s expression went slack, his eyes darting around the group which had fallen conspicuously silent. “Kara, I…” He began nervously.

“I know none of you believe me.” Kara said bluntly, finally pointing out the large elephant that was always in attendance whenever Kara interacted with them. “I know that.” Kara sighed, looking around her loved ones with a sad, understanding smile. “I especially know you’re afraid of what happens when that portal opens and I find out that Lena-” Kara shook her head - she had held onto her faith for over nine years now, she was not going to forsake it when she was in the final stretch. “I’m going, regardless. I can have the portal built in a month…” Kara revealed before looking back at Brainy pleadingly, “two weeks if you help me. I know you don’t believe me and I’m not going to ask you to. But I am going to ask you to help me.” Kara’s shoulders caved forwards, as she wrung her hands together on the precipice of actually begging. “Please, please help me…”

Brainy blinked once, let out a shuddering breath and then, “Okay…”

“We’ll all help…” Alex announced stepping forward to squeeze Kara’s shoulder.

“Is that-” Kara started to ask as Brainy stepped forward holding out a familiar red and blue outfit Kara hadn’t laid eyes on for years, hadn’t worn for even longer.

The portal was ready, they were just waiting for the Coalition to divert the required power supply they needed. The Coalition had originally refused to give Kara the increased power she required since they, and the rest of humanity, fully believed Lena to be dead and that Kara’s obsession could only result in disaster - Brainy and Eliza had been the ones to convince them, leveraging their positions as Chief Scientist and Chief Medical Officer to gain their agreement.

“I figured… it was a special occasion.” Brainy murmured, smiling wanely at her.

He and the rest of the Superfriends, including Eliza, had taken two weeks of holiday from their respective jobs so that they could help in whatever they could to get the portal active.

“Thanks, Brainy.” Kara replied sincerely, accepting the familiar outfit and going to get changed.

It didn’t fit as well as it used to.

She was thinner so it hung off in places, and the dark shadows to her face made the colours just that little bit less vibrant than Kara remembered them being. She was glad to be wearing it though. It was what she had worn the last day she had seen Lena over nine years ago. It felt right that she should be wearing it nine years later when they finally reunited.

“You have to promise me something.” Alex said as she stepped up to stand by Kara’s side as Brainy checked over the final calibrations Kara had made, before they turned the portal on. “If she’s… gone… you still need to come back, okay?” Alex demanded; Kara stared at her sister’s profile to see that her expression had hardened in an attempt to hold back a wave of emotion but the tremble to her bottom lip belied how futile the fight was. “I need my sister. I need you. So… no matter what you find… you come back and we’ll figure out the next step together.” Alex glanced over at Kara revealing watery brown eyes. “Promise me. I need you to say it.”

Kara hesitated for a long moment but the thought of inflicting the pain she had experienced after losing Lena on Alex… on little Amelia, gave her the strength to nod once, firm and sure. “I promise, no matter what I’ll come back through.”

“Okay,” Alex breathed out a shuddering breath before pulling Kara into a tight hug and muttering, “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” Kara replied, wrapping her arms tightly around her sister and knowing that in an hour or so, she would be different.

She would either have her heart back or know, without a doubt, that it had been lost forever.

When she stepped through the portal, a metal wire connecting her to her lab in Terra Nova, she waved once at her family and friends. None of them waved back, all just nodded mournfully.

They were all convinced that Kara would find nothing good on the other side. Convinced that they would lose this tinman version of Kara to something far worse.

They didn’t wave because... who waves at a funeral?

Kara, though, gripped tighter onto her faith.

Lena is alive and she is waiting.

And now… now… she was literally mere steps away.

Absence supposedly makes the heart grow fonder, but that wasn’t true in Kara’s case. Her heart had been in stasis, countless lightyears away. Her love was paused. Ready to unfurl and grow the second her heart was returned to her.

“Okay, I got the angle slightly wrong…” Kara admitted with a wince, nowhere near as invincible as she used to be - kryptonite no longer required to inflict damage that a particularly powerful gun or explosion could do.

“You fell face first, didn’t you?” Alex’s voice sassed over the comms line as Kara let out a pained groan.

“Yep, face planted…” Kara lifted her head, disappointed to find herself staring down a dim corridor. She had forgotten how cold the concrete walls of the bunker were after all this time (the bunker had always been warm to Kara, mostly because of how close she always stood to Lena). It was then that Kara noticed the tiny marks carved into the concrete wall; they filled nearly all of the available wall space and ran down the length of the corridor.

“You know you can fly, right?” Alex reminded her, trying far too hard to keep their conversation light, to keep Kara light...

“I know I can fly but I wasn’t thinking about flying and didn’t react in time…” Kara huffed struggling to her knees; turning her head to see if the marks continued down the other side of the corridor, “and-”

The rest of her sentence died right there, turning to ash as she saw a figure at the other end of the corridor watching her.

“Kara, is everything okay? What’s happening?”

Kara knew the scenes in medical dramas where they shocked someone back to life were unrealistic and played for drama more than for accuracy, but… it was the closest description Kara could think of to explain what she went through in that moment.

Her heart was thrown back into her chest and shocked to life.

Lena was standing in front of her.

Lena was alive and she had been waiting.

She looked… looked like a miracle to Kara.

She was even paler now, no regular exposure to sunlight to keep a healthy complexion but other than that… she looked good. She was thinner but not in the same way as Kara. Her curves had receded to be replaced by muscles, her dark hair was still long but tied back in a practical ponytail, white hairs dotted here and there like stylish highlights rather than markers of growing old.

Her green eyes, however, were dimmed and her fingers kept tapping away awkwardly and uncoordinated in a blatant display of a nervous tic. She was wearing a heavily faded Midvale High School shirt, doc martens, worn-out jeans with a heavy duty belt from which various random tools and pieces of machinery were clipped to.

“You’re here… You’re really here…” Kara breathed out, her blue eyes drinking in the sight of Lena shifting shyly from foot to foot as she stroked the smooth metal surface of a piece of machinery standing as sentinel by her side for comfort.

“Lena?! She’s alive!”

Kara barely even registered the exclamation from her ear piece, her full focus entirely on the woman before her.

“Kara.” Lena murmured and oh, Rao… if hearing her name fall from Lena’s lips wasn’t the single greatest sound in the universe.

“Lena, you’re here…” Kara whispered totally awestruck, getting to her feet and taking slow, careful steps towards Lena, her fingers instinctively reaching out for the raven-haired woman.

“I don’t under-... this isn’t real… you’re not real… you can’t be real…” Lena stammered, shuffling backwards and away from Kara.

Kara couldn’t help the gasp of pain, her heart so close to being fully returned only to back away from her. It wasn’t even Lena putting space between them after so, so, so long apart… it was the fear and confusion in those green eyes that Kara had dreamt about every night that inflicted the true hurt.

The gasp of pain also came with the realisation that Lena wasn’t quite the same, that being alone and isolated had left its indelible mark… That Kara hadn’t saved all of her and that Lena hadn’t believed Kara would save her… and that… that broke Kara.

“Did I answer the knock? Is this a dream? Milo analyse the surroundings and conditions.” Lena ordered, dropping her gaze to her tablet as she tapped frantically against the screen, mumbling her every thought out loud. “Hallucination, most likely… potential causes… sleep deprivation? Unlikely, I have a set sleep schedule. Radioactivity has finally penetrated the bunker and has caused a multitude of health problems. Possible, though I take regular readings of-”

“Lena! Please, stop…” Kara cried, collapsing to her knees in front of Lena. “I’m here, okay? I’m really here!”

“No! No!” Lena shouted in return, “This isn’t real! Because… because… You’re meant to be married! You’re meant to be happy! You’re not meant to be here…” Lena’s breaths came out sharp and panicky, so obviously overwhelmed and Kara just wanted to soothe her.

If it was nine years ago Kara would know exactly how to do that. Back then Lena needed a grounding touch, needed to feel like she wasn’t alone, that someone was there to hold her and support her through it…

But would this Lena want that?

Would Lena jerk away from her touch?

Barbed wire had curled around Kara’s heart making her wary of getting too close until she had tenderly uncoiled every piece of twisted metal that had been threaded through it.

Here’s the thing though… The barbed wire hurt Kara to touch but Lena, her heart, was living with it, had endured the wire being inserted and had learnt to survive its constant barbs, now here Kara was disturbing it all. Anything Kara did would inevitably hurt Lena in some small way - confusion, panic and uncertainty - the very least she could do is hold Lena closer, if that's what she wanted, and share the pain.

Kara’s fingers reached out, and made gentle contact. It was the softest that Kara had ever touched anything, because this… Lena… deserved everything to be soft and tender and beautiful….

She wanted to pull Lena’s hands away from her face but she didn’t want to force Lena in any way, she just wanted her to know that Kara was really there and was not going anywhere.

Thankfully, miraculously… Lena leaned into her rather than away and Kara was gifted the scent of citrus with a hint of oil as Lena rested her forehead on Kara’s shoulder, accepting Kara’s support.

Her Lena was definitely still there and the barbed wire was not as copious as Kara had initially feared.

“Lena, how could I be happy without you?” Kara whispered, her fingers moving ever so carefully from Lena’s biceps, round to her back… so tenderly wrapping Lena up in her arms, finally, finally able to breathe after years of holding her breath. “Let me take you home, please, please Lena… let me take you away from here, please…” Kara begged, pressing featherlight lips against Lena’s forehead. “Let’s go see that sunset, yeah?”

Lena pulled away and before Kara had a chance to feel hurt about the distance, the kryptonian felt calloused, wonderful palms cupping her face and wiping away the tears that Kara hadn’t even realised she was shedding until Lena’s thumbs wiped them away. “You still want to? Even after all this time?”

Kara barely resisted the urge to laugh at the sheer preposterousness of the question.

“It’s all I’ve thought about.” Kara confessed and she felt her face ache with the size of the smile trying to take over her face.

And if Kara thought that seeing Lena, being reunited with her heart, couldn’t get any better she was about to be proven totally wrong because green eyes dipped down and honed in with intent. For the first time in nearly a decade Kara’s stomach swooped with that heady mixture of arousal and nerves that only Lena could evoke.

Kara breathed in sharply and leaned forward when-

“Sha-la-la-la-la-la, music play, do what the music say, you wanna kiss the girl.” Kara’s head whipped around to see a… a… robot dog singing????

Kara’s eyebrows shot up as the greyhound-shaped piece of metal with glowing green LED eyes, banged its tail excitedly on the floor as it moved its shiny head from Lena to Kara and back again.

“Thanks, Milo.” Lena chuckled wetly; Kara had forgotten what Lena’s throaty laugh sounded like and she could feel her whole body lighten up after hearing it that she had to will herself not to start hovering off the floor. “I have a robot dog, now.” Lena explained needlessly, cheeks turning an embarrassed pink that made Kara truly have faith that everything would be okay between them regardless of whatever came next.

“I can see that.” Kara replied with a laugh, her hand reaching out to brush through Lena’s dark hair, as she asked her voice brimming with hope, “Are you ready to go?”

“Yeah, yeah, I am…” Lena admitted with a fervent nod of her head before pressing a delicate kiss to Kara’s cheek. “I want to see that sunset.”

#supercorp #supercorp fanfic #ends of the earth #end of the world AU #posting this now because i've nearly finished the other parts of this story #yes i said other parts #i may have got carried away

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