#and lena would definitely buy it from musk and fix everything

[formsofcontinuity]

chapters 1, 2, and 3 (or, all earlier chaps on AO3)

chapter 4: calling birds

Lena wakes up the morning of Wednesday, December 28th with two hundred and twenty-seven new Twitter followers and over three thousand mentions. There’s also a 2am text from Kara, just Good night, Lena <3, which does nothing to explain Lena’s sudden surge in social media popularity but does serve to warm her cheeks for a minute or two. She's a fool. A simple good night, and it has her blushing like a schoolgirl.

It takes a little digging, Lena still propped in bed in soft pajamas under an even softer duvet, but eventually she finds the source, a tweet from Kara's official publicity account, timestamped 2:17am:

@therealsupergirl: Always happy to serve the people of NC ofc, but have you checked out what @lenaluthor is doing lately @LLFoundation #lenaluthorfoundation? Low-cost water purifiers? High efficiency solar power generators? Safe plastics recycling? She's the real MVP--show her some love! 💙♻️❤️

What follows is a collection of some of the kindest tweets she's ever had directed towards her, most from complete strangers. Sure, there's a wayward screed or two, but of the few dozen she reads before she looks at the time and realizes she has to get up so she can be ready for an 8am Zoom call with a coalition of East Coast investors, eager to donate prior to the New Year for the tax write-off, the vast majority are complementary.

@piratelifeforme: Wow! I spent all morning reading about what @LLFoundation is up to and I had NO IDEA. Do yourself a favor and check it out, then get on board this train. Superheroes are one thing, but humans have the power to help fix this mess we made, too.

@greenplanetnow: yes @therealsupergirl, you're right! The #lenaluthorfoundation cleaned up a massive water contamination issue in my town after months of unanswered calls to the gov. They did it without asking for a cent, but almost no one reported on it. Not all heroes wear capes. 🙏🏾

@drclimatewatch: As one of the scientists following @lenaluthor 's work, I can verify: her Foundation's charter and her team's innovations truly can revolutionize environmental science. We've wasted too much time on petty rumors when we should be supporting her as a brilliant engineer.

Even Sam has retweeted Kara's message, absent her usual snark.

@samarias: Damn straight, @therealsupergirl! @lenaluthor is not only the smartest woman on the planet, but also a great boss and a true friend who will go to hell and back to do the right thing no matter what people think of her.

The investors on the 8am call are more generous than Lena expected, having thoroughly read her Foundation's report and expressing genuine excitement over the work she's doing. They don't mention Supergirl's tweet, but Lena knows it influenced their level of enthusiasm.

Daniel, her Foundation's head of publicity, calls at 9:30, barreling past Lena’s apologies to assure her that he's thrilled to trade in a couple of his vacation days to help navigate this sudden windfall.  After that, she migrates from her home office to the Foundation office and spends the next few hours on the phone with department heads and her research team strategizing ways to capitalize on the good press wrought by Kara's tweet. By noon, Daniel has fielded calls from twenty-six news outlets, local, national and international, and issued a press release thanking Supergirl for her generous endorsement and directing interested parties to the Foundation's robust website, white papers, and quarterly reports. 

"Want me to help craft your personal response?" Lena's social media manager, Rochelle, is on the phone now. Lena's name is trending, for a good reason for the first time in forever, and she's long since stopped trying to keep track of her mentions. 

"Pardon?"

Rochelle had been typing in the background of their call, but now the clacking pauses. "I had your Foundation account respond several hours ago, but I imagine you want to respond personally, too. Right?"

Oh. Of course, Lena wants to respond personally, but none of the things she's thinking are fit for public consumption. She's pretty sure a declaration of love would shift the conversation in counterproductive ways, for example. Same with asking Kara via tweet about last night's kiss. And then there are the things she wants to say but can't put into words. A wellspring of gratitude. Overwhelming affection. Anxiety about living up to Kara's public declaration of support. Confusion over Kara's decision to tweet that support to the world and to call on her followers to do the same.

"Thanks, Rochelle. Everything you're doing is great. I've been swamped, but I absolutely plan to respond. I think I can manage to come up with something on my own. Is there anything else? I have another call."

"All good, Ms. Luthor. Let me know if you change your mind."

It's a lie. There's no other call, but she needs a moment to think. She needs to talk to Kara. Not tweet at her, just talk. 

Almost immediately, she loses her nerve, the possibilities of all the directions their conversation could go swirling in her mind. Texting seems like a safe compromise, although she bungles it pretty much out of the gate.

Sorry I didn’t message before now. I’m being besieged with tweets for some reason.... 

The reply is immediate. Oh no. Are you mad? 🥺 I just wanted everyone to know how awesome you are. And I wanted you to hear it from them, too, since you never believe me when I say it. 

Lena is not very good at this–gratitude or friendship or whatever social minefield this is that Kara is clearly so much better at navigating. The idea that Kara could possibly think she’d be mad for something so sweet hurts her heart. 

Not mad at all! Sorry. That text was supposed to be – What? Coy? Flirtatious? Funny? It was clearly none of those things; she lands on – thankful. I was just so surprised.

A good surprise?

A lovely surprise, yes.

<3

Lena allows herself a few minutes, then, just to sit and text her best friend, without worrying too much about everything else. She tells her about waking up to the Twitter mentions, about the new investments, about how Daniel and Rochelle were so excited they both offered independently to defer part of their vacation time to help her wrangle media requests and publicity. She doesn't tell her how warm the messages from thousands of people made her feel, that those completely unknown to her might be affected by what she’s done, for good this time, that other people might actually have cause to like and respect her. 

In the end, she settles for a Streetcar Named Desire joke.

I have never depended on the kindness of strangers, Kara.

Kara doesn’t miss a beat. You don’t strike me as a Blanche anyway. Did it feel good, this one time?

Leave it to Kara to cut to the chase. 

It did. Thank you.

My pleasure. 

Lena’s phone beeps. Daniel needs her to talk to some new potential investors in a half hour and has sent along their portfolio. 

I have to go. I’m so sorry.

It's ok. I know you're busy.

Thanks to you, even more so than usual. 😂

Haha. I didn’t think that one through, did I? 

I don’t mind, Kara. I’m thrilled the Foundation is making a difference. 

I mind! When are you going to find time for me if you’re mobbed by all your other adoring fans? 

Lena looks hard at her phone. All your other adoring fans. She could go for teasing deflection or affectionate sincerity in her response, and vacillates for a moment between the two. 

You know you're my favorite. I should have time after tomorrow’s press conference? Coffee? 

I’d love that. 

Before Lena turns to the files Daniel sent, she pulls up Twitter on her computer, and quickly fires off a response before she can talk herself out of it, posting it, with only a hint of trepidation, for all the world to see. 

@lenaluthor:  Thank you all. I want nothing more than to work together to save our planet. It's ours, aliens and humans alike. And Supergirl? I couldn't ask for a better ally or partner, one who challenges and encourages me. Not a day goes by I'm not grateful for you, @therealsupergirl