#They just honestly force Lena to do it and I hate that so much | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

yelenasdiary · 6 months

Note

For flufftober: Middle sibling reader x older sister natasha and younger sister yelena. Reader was recently released from the subjugation of the red room and so theyre throwing a little welcome home party for reader. With cake and streamers and a polaroid camera. Some terrible music playing that they all jam too as they down too many bottles of vodka?

New Memories

Pairing: Older Siblings! Natasha & Yelena x Younger Sibling! GN! Reader

Summary: After a little over a year of therapy, your older sisters throw you a welcome home party.

Warnings: Fluff/Comfort, Mentions of Red Room, Subjugation, Drinking, Language Warning | 1.3K

Translations: Sestra (Sister),

AC: Thank you for requesting this, as I mentioned, I have combined with request with another, I hope you enjoy! x

October Special Masterlist

"Sestra, it'll be fun" Yelena argued with her Russian accent coming in thick. It was Halloween and your sisters, Natasha and Yelena planned a little party for you with the help of the other Avengers, Alexei and Melina. It's been a few short months since your year of therapy had gone from three sessions a week to weekly appointments, your therapist was proud of how far you'd come since your sisters saved you from the subjugation of Red Room and freed you from the control of General Dreykov. You hated that they wanted to throw a party in your honor, you never liked the fuss being about you.

"Lena, I know you and Nat are happy for me and trust me, I am proud of myself as well but I just don't think I want to have a party thrown to celebrate" you replied before letting your eyes fall back down to the book in your hands.

"It is not just to celebrate how far you have come" Yelena spoke as she took a seat at the end of your bed, forcing you to put your book down once more. "It's about making new memories, ones that are real, ones we get to keep and talk about in years to come. Natasha won't admit it but I know she would love to fill the photo album she has on her bookcase and I would like an updated photo of the three of us" your older sister by 2 years went on.

She had a point and that made it hard for you to turn her down. Looking back on the memories you had with your sisters, it was hard to remember. You were only 4 when the mission in Ohio was completed and you were ripped from Natasha's arms. After that, it was blurred moments of fake Christmases, thanksgivings and other holidays just to give you three a moment of something that felt somewhat normal.

"Fine" you playfully rolled your eyes at the blonde, "will Kate and Wanda be there?" you asked with hope. Yelena nodded, "who do you think were the first to jump at the idea of baking a cake" she replied.

"A cake? Really?" you asked with a slight frown, of course your family were going to make this a big deal and honestly, for Yelena to say this would be fun was a comment you never thought she would say about a party.

----

Music mixed with laughter and chatter filled the room, Kate wandered around taking polaroid photos of everybody and placed them in a small box for you to look back on at a later date. Eventually the room became quiet, around midnight people called it a night and headed to bed leaving you, Yelena and Natasha still up.

"Now we can really party" Natasha smiled as she placed a bottle of vodka on the table along with three shot glasses. "Amen to that!" you replied in a sigh of relief, too much socializing and now you were finally going to have the party you truly wanted with your sisters.

Yelena poured three shots as you and Natasha threw streamers at one another, you started it of course. "Stop acting like children, lets drink!" Yelena announced as she carefully yet skilfully sliding the shot glasses down the table to you and Nat without spilling a drop. You downed your shot the moment it hit your hand, the burn of the alcohol in the back of your throat reminding you why you loved vodka so much.

It was long before the bottle of vodka was finished, and another was placed on the table. Crumbs of cake slices littered the wooden table while the three of you made new memories, jokes and brought up old, good memories.

"SO BYE BYE MISS AMERICAN PIE, DROVE MY CHEVY TO THE LEVEE, BUT THE LEVEE WAS DRY" the three of you sung in sync, now each holding a bottle of vodka. Wanda and Kate had come down from upstairs and watched the drunk mess unfold. You were laughing, when Yelena pushed you to the floor for standing on her foot for the 5th time. Natasha had the polaroid camera in her hand taking very drunken and blurry photos of you and Yelena before turning the camera on herself to snap a selfie.

"Do you think Tony would get made if we stole one of his suits? I mean come on! those things look so fucking sick!" You looked between your sisters. Yelena turned to Nat, "I'm with Y/n, let's do it!" she said before taking another mouthful of vodka from the bottle.

"Should we stop them?" Kate whispered to Wanda who shook her head, "no, let them have their fun" the Sokovian replied before gesturing her head towards the stairs as a way to say let's go back to bed. "I kind of want to be awake early to see Tony's reaction" Kate whispered once more as she followed Wanda up the stairs.

"Alright but you gotta be quiet!" Natasha said, bringing her index finger to her lips in a shush motion.

Cheeky smiles tugged at the lips of you and your sister as Natasha led you both down the hall to the elevator, pressing the basement button.

----

"Can somebody tell me why the fuck I found 3 of my suits scattered around the damn compound?!" Tony asked with pure anger in his voice. Your head was pounding, it had clearly been a while since you got drunk as much as you did last night.

"Tony, shhhh!" you looked up at him before taking a sip of your coffee.

"Nothing is broken, nothing to stress about" Natasha tuned in, taking her hang over a lot better than you were. She looked as though she didn't even drink last night.

"That's not the point Romanoff and you know it!" Tony snapped, "the three of you are suspended until further notice so I suggest you start thinking about cleaning up the mess you made!" he added before storming out of the room.

"What mess?" you asked with a frown as Natasha sat down across from you at the dining table, peanut butter toast in her hand. "Oh, that is on you and Yelena to clean" she replied with a light chuckle as you rested your head on the table to catch a few extra minutes of shut eye.

Yelena came into the kitchen just how Natasha did, as if a hangover was non-existent. "HA! Looks like somebody needs a little more practice on how keep their vodka down" she spoke, her loud voice making your head pound harder than before. Slowly, you lifted your head to look up at your sister, giving her a look of death has she stole Natasha's mug of coffee, "please shut up" you replied before letting your head drop to the table once again.

"You and Y/n have to go clean up the yard today" Natasha said after swallowing a mouthful of her toast. "Yeah, I figured" Yelena chuckled, bringing the mug to her lips, "you better go take a shower sestra" she encouraged you only to earn a mumble and grumble in return as you took yourself to the showers.

"Another round tonight and they will be fine" Yelena looked at Natasha before taking another sip of Nat's coffee, Nat just chuckled, "I don't think they could handle another round" she replied as Wanda walked into the kitchen.

"You three had fun last night" she smiled softly as she placed a rather large handful of polaroid on the table in front of the two Russian sisters. Natasha reached for the small photos and flicked through them while Yelena watched, a smile tugging at both sisters lips as they saw how happy they looked, how much fun they had and how finally they had photos with real moments, real emotions and real love.

"Yeah, one of the best nights" Natasha spoke softly.

#yelenasdiary asks #scarletwidowblackwitch #fanfiction #yelena belova #marvel #natasha romanoff #natasha romanoff x reader #yelena belova x reader #flufftober

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goldenempyrean · 1 year

Note

“Why didn’t you tell me?” + “I do not have a cold!” for Lena working late when sick so reader goes to get her to come home?

Workaholic

〚 Notes - First Supergirl fic, hopefully yall enjoy :D 〛

〚 Pairing - Lena Luthor x Reader 〛

〚 Summary - Lena's been pushing herself too hard and ends up sick. You're there to take her home. 〛

〚 Wordcount - 1550 〛

〘 Check Out My Masterlist! 〙

╚════════ ⋇⋆✦⋆⋇⋆✦⋆⋇ ════════╝

Your wife was stubborn at the best of times. Maybe it was because her of her family or even her job but honestly, sometimes it made your life just that much more difficult. Right now for example, you’d told her to take it easy, to stop pushing herself so hard. But did she stop? Oh no she didn’t.

You saw the signs, her husky voice, eyes looking more tired than usual and her small periodic sniffles were all pointing to one fact. She was getting sick. You knew it was bound to happen sooner or later but still you couldn’t help but be annoyed by your wife’s ability to not look after herself.

This was the third time this week she’d called ahead to say that she’d be working late. Something about a major project at L-Corp that needed her undivided attention and you couldn't say you were surprised when you got a call from her worried assistant only half an hour into her overtime.

“Hello?” You answered, already knowing who it was.

“Hi, it’s Jess from L-Corp. I’m sorry to bother you, but Lena’s here still and I think you need to come convince her to go home. She won’t listen to me.”

You sighed, knowing that this wasn’t going to be an easy task. “Alright, hang tight. I’ll come get her,” you said, already grabbing your keys and coat before hurrying out to your car.

When you arrived at her work, you made your way to Lena’s office and found her sitting at her desk, surrounded by a mountain of paperwork. She looked up as you entered, her eyes bloodshot, skin a sickly white and her nose was visibly red. For somebody usually so put together, she looked awful.

“Hi, honey,” you spoke softly, trying to keep your voice gentle. “Jess called me and said you’re still here. What’s going on? You’re not looking too good.”

Lena sighed and leaned back in her chair, wincing as she did. “Im sorry I thought I already told you I was working late,” she muttered. “I just can’t leave this work unfinished. It’s too important.” She finished her sentence with a chesty cough that she muffled against her elbow and groaned.

You handed her a tissue as Lena let out a harsh sneeze, her body shaking with the force of it. You couldn't help but feel a twinge of sympathy as you watched her struggle to catch her breath.

“Come on, darling, you need to go home and rest,” you said firmly, trying to ignore the slight tremble in your own voice, “This cold looks like it’s doing a number on you.”

“I do not have a cold!”

You raised an eyebrow at her denial, knowing full well that it was a lie. Lena had always been stubborn when it came to admitting that she was sick. But you weren't going to let her push herself any further.

"Alright, then what is it?" you asked, crossing your arms and standing your ground.

Lena hesitated, her eyes darting away from yours. You could see the struggle on her face as she tried to fight off another sneeze.

"It's just allergies," she finally admitted, sniffling again.

You couldn't help but roll your eyes. "Allergies, huh? You sound pretty congested for allergies."

Lena glared at you, but before she could retort, she let out a loud sneeze, her body lurching forward. You rushed over to her, holding out a tissue for her to use.

"Bless you," you said, rubbing her back as she sniffled again, “You sure you do have even the tinest of colds?”

“I'm not sick.” She paused to sniffle again as she shot you an annoyed look, “I’m not! Luthors don’t get sickhh - Hh’tshoo!”

She broke off from her sentence with another sneeze poorly covered by her hand. You hated to think just how many potential colleagues your irresponsible wife could potentially infect.

“And apparently Luthors don’t use tissues either.” You chided but your teasing tone was unmissable as you pulled a few tissues from the box on her desk and held them out to her.

Lena glared at you through watery eyes, but eventually relented and took the tissues from your outstretched hand. She blew her nose loudly and then tossed the used tissue into the trash can beside her desk.

You watched her for a moment, concern etched on your face. Lena was usually so put together; it was strange to see her like this. You knew she hated showing any sort of vulnerability, but you couldn't help but worry.

"Are you sure you don't want to go home and rest?" you asked, hoping she would take the hint.

"I can't," Lena replied, her voice scratchy. "I have too much work to do."

You sighed, knowing that arguing with her would be pointless. Lena was stubborn when it came to her work, and you had learned long ago not to try and change her mind.

"Fine," you said, finally having enough of the back and forth arguing. You grabbed a chair and pulling it up next to her desk. "But I'm staying here to make sure you don't overwork yourself."

Lena rolled her eyes but didn't argue. You could tell she appreciated your concern, even if she would never admit it.

For the next hour, you watched as Lena tried to power through her work, despite her obvious illness. She sneezed and sniffled every few minutes, pausing occasionally to blow her nose or take a sip of water. You couldn't help but feel guilty - you knew that if you maybe had been a little sterner about her resting then she wouldn't be in this predicament.

You stood up to stretch your legs and grab a cup of coffee from the break room, hoping it would help you stay alert during your long night of babysitting. When you returned, Lena had finally succumbed to her illness and had fallen asleep at her desk.

You hesitated for a moment, not wanting to wake her, but you knew she needed rest if she was going to get better. You gently placed your hand on her shoulder and shook her awake.

"Lena, darling, you need to go home and get some rest," you said softly. "You're not going to get any better if you stay here."

Lena groaned and rubbed her eyes, looking up at you with a defeated expression. "I know," she sighed. "I just have so much to do."

"I'll take care of everything," you reassured her. "You just need to focus on getting better."

Lena nodded; her eyes drifting shut again. You stood up and gathered her things, making sure to turn off her computer and lock up her office before escorting her out of the building.

The ride home was quiet, with your wife sleepily dozing off in the passenger seat. When you arrived at your apartment, you helped her inside and tucked her into bed, making sure she had everything she needed before retreating to the living room to start on the pile of work she had left behind.

As you worked, you couldn't help but glance at the clock every few minutes, counting down the hours until Lena would wake up. You knew she needed rest, but you also knew she wouldn't be happy if she woke up to find you still working.

Hours passed and before you knew it, the sun was starting to rise. You had made significant progress on Lena's work and were just about to call it a night when you heard a soft groan coming from the bedroom.

You quickly made your way to Lena's side, finding her looking up at you with tired eyes. "How are you feeling?" you asked, brushing a strand of hair away from her forehead.

Lena yawned and stretched, looking a bit more refreshed than she had earlier. "Better," she said, her voice still scratchy. "Thanks for taking care of me."

"Of course," you replied, leaning down to place a gentle kiss on her forehead. "Can I ask something though, why didn’t you tell me earlier?”

Lena let out a sigh, looking a bit guilty. "I didn't want to be a burden," she admitted. "And I thought I could tough it out and get my work done."

You shook your head, a small smile playing on your lips. "You're never a burden to me, Lena," you said. "And it's okay to take a break when you're not feeling well. I'm just glad I was able to help."

Lena smiled weakly, reaching out to take your hand. "I know," she said softly. "I just get so caught up in my work sometimes that I forget to take care of myself."

You squeezed her hand gently. "That's why I'm here," you said. "To remind you to take care of yourself and to help you when you need it. Now, how about I go make you some breakfast, hm?”

Lena smiled at you, and you could tell she really was grateful for your help. As you made your way to the kitchen, you couldn't help but feel a sense of satisfaction. Despite the long night, you had been able to take care of your stubborn wife. It was a small victory, but one that you would cherish.

〖 Join My Taglist! 〗@natashamyl0ve

(still unsure wether to tag everyone in supergirl fics for the ones who said 'all' so just lmk!)

#lena luthor x reader #lena luthor x you #lena luthor x y/n #lena luthor fanfic #lena luthor #lena luthor sickfic #sickfic #fluff #supergirl sickfic #supergirl fluff

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chaotic-super · 11 months

Text

Live With Me - Chapter 13

Read it on AO3 here!

Upon Lucy’s guidance, Lena is taking Kara home. She doesn’t think it’s going to help anyone if she stays at CatCo because honestly, there’s nothing Kara can do there. She can’t work on any new articles until her name has been cleared, a task that Cat is currently working on.

Kara is sitting silently in the passenger seat while Lena drives, her face obscured from her so she can’t see the forlorn look she’s got going on because she’s all too aware of how much Lena hates seeing her sad. Lena can sense it though, she knows she can because whenever it’s safe to do so, she reaches over and rests her hand on her thigh, just above her knee as though to remind Kara she’s doing it to comfort her, not to hint to anything else, not that Kara would have thought that anyway but it’s little things like this that make her realize just how lucky she is to have Lena fighting in her corner each and every day.

“I know we’ll probably figure it all out and I know we have a really good team but this one scares me," Kara admits, her voice so quiet Lena has to strain to hear it.

There’s only one appropriate and truthful response. “It scares me too. Terrifies me actually.”

Kara finally turns her head towards Lena and lets her see her tear-stained cheeks. “Before, they took my home, my privacy, my safety, a lot of things. Now they’ve taken my reputation and my name. There’s not much more for them to take and I can’t have them take you, Lena. I would die.”

“Nobody is taking either of us from each other. I would fight every last one of them to the death before I let that happen, darling. I love you too much.”

“Promise?”

“I promise.” Lena holds Kara’s hand tightly in her own pulling it to rest on her own thigh so Kara can keep a grip on her even when she has to let go of it to drive safely. “I will always be with you and I will always protect you, no matter what.”

“I love you.” Kara’s words come out wet, broken almost, yet decisive.

“I love you,” Lena says, the truest words ever spoken.

Lena bundles Kara up on the couch with some random documentary set on the TV for them to use as background noise. Both of their phones are on the coffee table in front of them, both facing up with their ringers on so they can hear them when they inevitably get calls to update them on their situation. For now though, they just have to wait. At least cuddling on a couch in a mess of blankets isn’t the worst way to wait for news that could hit them like a bullet to the brain.

Kara is clinging to Lena like she might disappear at any moment and periodically sniffles. Lena can’t help but think that it’s about time she gave in and let herself be something other than brave. Even when she was in the hospital, she was too busy being brave to admit to her true feelings, the fear she must have felt, is still feeling. It’s all toppled her over the edge now though, she’s there.

She’s tucked into Lena’s side, her cheek pressed to her shirt and her chest heaving as she tries to control her sobs that just won’t stop no matter how hard she tries.

Lena’s heart is breaking. She can feel the rhythmic movement in Kara’s shoulders as she cries silently and the way she’s pressing herself into her side with such force. There’s nothing she can do at this exact moment that could make her feel better because what’s out there is out there now, they can’t go back in time and stop Snapper from doing what he did, no matter how much they wish that were possible.

One phone lights up and plays a cheery little tune that is far too happy for the situation followed by the other phone and both of them launch themselves forward so they can grab their respective phone. They almost fall off the couch completely since their legs are tucked beneath them but luckily, Kara manages to slip one foot free that stabilizes the entwined pair.

Their brief panic about falling flat on their faces is pushed aside quickly in favour of reading the new message that’s sitting on both of their phones from Alex.

Cat is calling an emergency press conference in two hours. You’re welcome to come or to stay home, no pressure. She’s telling the whole story and then releasing the original article on the CatCo website for all to see.

Lena peers over at Kara’s screen to see if she got the same message too. “What do you think?”

Kara sighs, pushing her phone back onto the coffee table. “I think that if we go we’ll be a zoo exhibit for everyone to stare at.”

Lena doesn’t follow Kara’s lead with the phone, she keeps hers firmly in her hand so she can respond to Alex’s message. “We can just watch it from here, it will be on pretty much every news channel there is anyway.”

Kara nods. “Yeah, I don’t think it would serve us well to go, besides, I don’t want to be in a crowded area out where anyone could try and kill me again. Do you?”

At the very thought, Lena’s eyes grow wide. “I hadn’t even thought about that. You’re not leaving the house, in fact, I think I’m going to wrap you up in bubble wrap and keep you tucked here where nothing can ever hurt you.”

“As lovely as that sounds, that’s also kind of creepy.”

Lena’s nose scrunches up adorably. “Yeah, I guess it is. We’ll settle for blankets then.” Lena tucks the blanket around them a little better from where it slipped from them moving to get their phones. “I’ll let Alex know we’re staying here.”

“Thank you.”

Lena kisses her forehead in lieu of a response, glad to see that the tears have slowed to nothing and her cheeks are finally drying.

Kara makes a point of focusing on the TV screen, watching as they are shown a pyramid in a shot that was obviously taken by a drone by the high angles and swooping shot. It’s impressive. Two hours is a long time when you’re waiting for something so she’s set to keep her ass parked here and just mindlessly watch this documentary that actually looks kind of interesting.

As for Lena, she doesn’t care where she is as long as she gets to stay by Kara’s side. It seems as though every time it seems as though the whole mess of a situation can’t get worse, it somehow finds a way, the goalposts moving every time they are almost at the end. It’s impossible for them to come up with a reasonable way to end this.

They wander back to the couch, a cup of hot tea each in hand. Kara was going to go and make it alone but Lena refused to leave her side, not that she was admitting that, she just offered to help and refused to take no for an answer. Kara could see right through it but she certainly wasn’t going to complain, nothing makes her feel safer than when she’s with Lena. She’s always been her home, the place she’s most comfortable, now, she’s just spending as much time at home as she can, letting the warmth calm her.

The TV is switched to the news so they can be ready to see the press conference live. They still have a few minutes so Kara sends a quick message to Cat to wish her good luck and apologize for not being there in person.

Cat totally ignores the apology but does respond to the message.

Only talentless people require luck.

“I don’t think we need to worry too much, Cat’s in fine form.” Kara tilts her phone screen towards Lena so she can see the message.

Lena snickers. “Good, let’s see if she can use her Cat Grant charm to win a few people over.”

“Normally, I’d say that she’s going to ace this but she’s going up against the government, that’s a huge undertaking that might be too much for even her.”

“I think that if there’s anyone that can go up against the government, it’s her.”

Kara hums. “Probably. It’s still a massive undertaking though.”

Lena sips her tea this is still way too hot and burns the tip of her tongue. She grunts at the searing pain. “Ow, that’s hot, don’t drink it yet.” She places her cup down. “You’re right though, it is a massive undertaking.”

Their attention is grabbed by the news anchor on the TV as they start talking about the article and the press conference.

“A shocking article was released by CatCo magazine, specifically written by the CEO Cat Grant, and it was one shocking story of a reporter abusing their power in the press to get their partner, a very prominent CEO, the head of L-Corp, ahead. We’re going to be diving into the full story so stay tuned.”

“Well, that’s not a good start.”

“They’ll change their minds once Cat has spoken. They can’t hold her to words she never wrote and she’s going to publish the actual article too so they will see the truth.”

Kara frowns, her lips pulled down and her eyebrows furrowed low. “As long as they don’t see the truth and assume it’s not just some elaborate cover-up and they assume that Cat is in on it, effectively ruining her reputation and her career too, oh god, I can’t let her do this.”

Lena grabs Kara’s hands as soon as she starts frantically searching through the mess of blankets to try and find her phone so she can call Cat and try and talk her out of speaking, not that it would do any good because Cat would probably tell her to shut up and leave her alone but because Kara is getting herself panicked and it’s not going to help.

“Stop, she won’t change her mind. She knows the risks, Kara and you know that she’s not just doing it for you. She’s doing it because above all else, Cat values journalistic integrity and the pursuit of the truth. She’s not going to let someone publish lies under her name so we just have to sit back and let her do her thing. It’s all we can do.” Lena finds her phone first and moves it aside so she can’t grab at it.

“But—”

“No, no buts. We have to let Cat handle this one.”

Kara’s lips pull down so low that Lena has to stop herself from laughing at how much she looks like Grumpy Cat, it’s adorable.

“I’m nervous,” Kara admits. “I’m so scared of what’s going to come from this press conference and I know that I shouldn’t care what people think of me but the thought of so many people hating me and thinking I set this whole thing up just to help you get ahead with L-Corp makes me really uncomfortable.”

Lena leans her head against Kara’s. “That’s normal, darling. It upsets me to think about all the people that hate me just because of my family name and I know that I shouldn’t care what people think but it still hurts. It’s perfectly normal to want people to like you and it’s perfectly ok to be feeling what you’re feeling.”

Kara’s face is scrunched as she’s deep in thought, only smoothed out when her attention is grabbed by the press conference starting.

Together, they track Cat’s movements across the stage, barely blinking all the while. She stands up behind the podium looking ten feet tall, just radiating pure confidence, her face a show of rage and frustration, something a lot of the press they can see are clearly taking note of, some of them even looking afraid.

Cat doesn’t answer a single question that is being thrown her way, instead, she starts off with a speech explaining exactly what happened starting with the article that was published, the way it was changed and then released, and then the true story. She doesn’t pay attention to the people calling her a liar or even the people cheering for her, she just announces that the true article will be published in due course and then leaves the stage, letting everyone left there sit in the aftermath of the bombshell she just dropped on them.

“Well, I have to give it to her, that woman certainly knows how to give a speech.” Lena mumbles.

“Damn. I’ve seen her give a great number of speeches and talk at an ungodly number of conferences but that was one of her best.” Kara mumbles.

The screen changed from showing the podium to flickering back to the news anchors sitting behind a desk. They look dumbfounded and one is fidgeting with a stack of papers in front of them, smoothing them out and making sure they are all lined up.

“Well, that was quite the story, let’s discuss the two sides of the story.” One announces and Lena shuts off the TV.

“I don’t think we need to watch this now. Drink your tea and let’s wait for any word from our people over at CatCo.”

Kara leans over to get her phone from the other side of Lena. “Or we could just call—”

“Nope.” Lena moves it further away. “They have a lot on their plates. We either wait for them to call us or we go back to the office so you can see what happens first-hand.”

Kara grabs her cup, downs the contents in one go and stands up. “Get that booty moving then, I want to see how it all plays out so let’s head back to CatCo.”

“I was afraid you’d say that,” Lena replies, her face the epitome of unamused.

Kara drags her up, pressing her cup into her hand to drink. It’s still slightly too hot but at least this time it doesn’t burn her mouth.

Before Lena can stop her, Kara is rushing upstairs to the bathroom to freshen up, probably so she can fix her eyeliner which is smudged from where she was crying earlier. It’s pretty obvious that she’s skipping back to the Kara that is burying herself back into her work rather than letting herself get caught in the riptide of despair.

Lena trudges after her, walking in as Kara is reapplying her makeup, her hands steady and her breathing even. If Lena didn’t know better, she’d think that Kara is the most put-together person on the planet. “Hey, we don’t have to, you know? We can just stay in and not think about any of it for the rest of the day.”

“No,” Kara says firmly. “I need to do this. I need to be there and fighting for myself and for the truth. I can’t leave this unfinished.”

“Have I ever told you how brave, kind and admirable I think you are?” Lena’s eyes are soft as they bore into Kara’s through the mirror as she looks over her shoulder and sweeps her pretty blonde hair to one side. She presses a single kiss to the space between her neck and her shoulder.

“I wouldn’t mind hearing it again.” Kara smiles, tilting her head to one side as Lena’s chin comes to rest on her shoulder.

“Well, I think you’re the bravest, kindest, most admirable and loving person I’ve ever met and I love you.” Lena presses chaste kisses to her cheek.

Kara turns her head enough to look her in the eye without using the mirror. “I’m afraid you’re mistaken; I believe you’re the person on the planet with the best of those attributes. I love you too though.”

Lena giggles. “I’ll agree to disagree. Now, come on, shift your butt, let’s get going.”

Kara rolls her eyes and finishes up, letting Lena pull her by her hand all the way to the car and huffing when she has to let go so they can get inside. Once they are on their way, Kara calls ahead to Alex so they can come into the building through the back since the whole front side of CatCo is littered with reporters, a sight that is kind of strange given that it’s literally a media company, how they think they’ll get a comment from them knowing that they are professionals in the business is crazy.

Nia is waiting for them just inside and snaps the door closed behind them as soon as they are through it so nobody can sneak inside or follow them. “Are you guys ok?”

“We will be,” Kara answers. “Is everyone upstairs?”

“Yeah, they have sort of made basecamp in your office since it’s the most private. Sorry about that.” Nia looks kind of awkward telling them that.

Kara starts up the stairs. They have to get up a couple of flights before they can get to the elevators. “That doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. Come on.”

It might only be a couple of flights of stairs but all three of them are breathing heavily by the time they are up them and unfortunately for them, they don’t get the elevator to themselves, a few of their co-workers also heading up to the bullpen too.

They side-eye them, not saying a word, and it makes them a little awkward but Kara gets it, she’d probably be doing the same thing if this happened to someone else in the office. It’s a very strange thing to happen and there are no set rules for how someone should respond to it, it does sting a little anyway though.

Once they shuffle out of the elevator and through the bullpen, they see looks of confusion and pity being thrown their way from every direction but nobody says a word to them, there are a few whispers between desks but that’s it. They head up to Kara’s office, letting themselves in to be greeted by Cat glaring at them for entering without permission before realizing who it is.

“Oh, so you have returned. I wasn’t sure you would.”

“I felt like I should be here. This is my fight as much as it is yours, Ms Grant.”

Cat hums thoughtfully. “I guess it is.”

Kara nods firmly and looks around at the three other people she has yet to greet, Winn, Alex and Lucy. “Hey, guys.”

“Hey,” Alex calls out, patting the empty seat beside her since she can’t sit in her own office chair because Cat is there and is obviously not about to move for her. “Come sit.”

Kara does as she’s told, nodding to the chair opposite her and beside Lucy for Lena to sit down too, which she does, daintily crossing her legs and placing her purse down beside her in a manner totally different from the way she so carelessly snuggled up to her on the couch earlier, her badass CEO façade in place to show that she means business.

“So, where are we at?” Kara asks.

“Well, we’ve hit another brick wall,” Alex replies carefully. “We’re trying to gather as much proof as we can because while we’ve persuaded a lot of people that we’re telling the truth, just as many people are calling for more information because of who we’re fighting. Not a lot of people want to believe that you’re being targeted and given your family, Lena, people really want to believe that you’re doing some shady shit on the side.”

“That’s not surprising.” Lena sighs. “I better make a couple of calls to L-Corp and make sure I’ve got my bases covered there.”

“You can use the office I’ve been using in the legal department, come on, I’ll show you where it is.” Lucy offers, standing to direct Lena there.

Lena looks over her shoulder at Kara, asking her a silent question.

“I’ll be fine. Go.” Kara sends her what she hopes to be a reassuring smile.

Lena smiles at her, nodding. “Ok, I won’t be long.”

Cat groans the second the door shuts behind them. “The pair of you are disgusting.”

“Thank you,” Kara says, understanding the statement for what it is, a comment on how openly they love each other and the levels of love there are between them.

“Mmhmm. Now onto business. We no longer have the footage of Snapper breaking into your office.” Cat’s eyes go cold. “Witt’s computer thingy was wiped clean remotely.”

Winn pipes up. “It’s Winn and it was my hard drive. Do you still have the USB drive?”

“Yeah, I hid it.” Kara shrugs. “It’s best it stays hidden until we actually need it because if they can wipe data remotely, we don’t want to plug it into a computer that can get hacked at any second.”

“Good point.” Winn mumbles. “I can probably secure a computer but it will take me a long time to do. My laptop at home is pretty secure but would still need more protections, this is the government we’re talking about, not just some newbie hacker.”

“I actually might know someone that can help.” Nia pipes up.

All eyes turn to Nia, the woman standing beside the door looking skittish, her fingers laced together in front of her.

Kara tilts her head curiously. “Who?”

Nia shrugs. “My boyfriend.”

Cat tuts, leaning back in her chair. “I don’t think your boyfriend is going to be of any help, Bambi. Your pretty brown eyes might get him to help you download Netflix onto your laptop for you but I doubt he can prevent the government from hacking into our data.”

Nia clears her throat and looks down at her shoes. “Actually, he works in IT…for the government. His entire job is protecting computers from hackers.”

Cat jumps to her feet. “Why didn’t you say so? Get him here now.”

Nia startles and for a second, Kara thinks she’s about to jump two metres in the air from the shock of Cat’s sudden movements but she just fumbles with her phone and skedaddles out of the room just as Lucy returns.

“Some people sit on their resources for far too long.” Cat mutters, sitting back down. “Lucy, what is our current status with the public?”

Lucy looks down at the tablet in her lap that she’s been using to track the outcome of the press conference. “Well, it looks like people are slowly being swayed, especially by the fact that the article was in your name and you were the one to renounce it but there are still sceptics. There’s a lot of people crying out for proof though so we need to get Nia’s boyfriend on the case as soon as we can because the longer we take, the more people will get sceptical of our story.”

Alex breathes out heavily, drawing everyone’s attention, at which point she looks around confused. “What?”

“You’re being all huffy,” Kara answers.

“Well sorry being worried about my sister being framed for something she didn’t do.” Alex snaps before letting her shoulders sink. “Sorry, I just don’t know how to help you.”

“I know.” Kara leans into her side, wrapping an arm around Alex’s shoulders. “Why don’t you take a break? Maybe call Kelly?”

“Don’t try and use my girlfriend against me.”

Kara holds her hands up. “I’m not, I just thought it might put you in a better mood.” Alex frowns and her grumpiness is evident to everyone. “Just go. Maybe stop by a vending machine and get me a snack on your way back too.”

“Fine.” Alex leaves, her feet being extra stompy.

“Your sister is a piece of work.” Cat comments.

“I know. She’s great.”

Cat lets out a non-committal grunt and Lucy hides her snickers behind her hand. Kara is oblivious to their reactions, her focus shifting to some random puzzle game she has on her desk. She picks it up and plays with it for a few minutes while Cat types away at her laptop doing god knows what and while Lucy scrolls through comment after comment about everything that’s going on, screenshotting certain ones every now and again.

The soft melody of Cat’s fingers across her keyboard helps Kara to relax, the sound on the verge of prompting her to close her eyes and take a nap where she’s sitting, something she’d never be allowed to live down if she did. “Is there anything I can do?” She questions after a while. “Maybe I can help Lucy with tracking the public’s reactions?”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea. “Lucy clutches the tablet to her chest; somehow afraid Kara will be able to see the screen even when she’s halfway across the room. “Not all of the comments are nice, Kara.”

“Oh.”

Cat sighs. “If you want to be helpful then go and get the articles to be approved for tomorrow’s issue, I have only got so much time to keep this damn company going and we can’t falter on our publishing schedule, even with a missing, traitorous editor-in-chief. You’ve seen me do them thousands of times, you can help me complete them so tomorrow’s issue comes out as normal.”

Kara’s eyes light up. This isn’t just a job that will allow her to keep herself busy, this is the kind of job she’s watched Cat do countless times when she was her assistant, the kind of job Cat did herself most of the time because she scarcely trusts anyone else to do. Even with Snapper as her editor-in-chief, she would still often go over everything that had been approved and even some that were rejected so she can make her own decisions. Sure, she’s going to do it under Cat’s watchful eye but all the same, it’s a privilege.

She can’t help but think it’s born out of pity but honestly, she’s just so happy to be able to play a part that she can’t even find it in her to care so she rushes off to go and get the markups.

“Lucy, go with her.” Cat demands, not looking up from her screen.

Lucy would argue because she’s a lawyer, not an assistant but she’s being paid really quite well and well, she does care about Kara a tiny bit. That and Lois would kill her if she ever found out she wasn’t treating her husband’s little cousin right, so she stands up, drops her tablet on the chair she just vacated and speed-walks after her.

Kara flits between offices, gathering the articles that had been left on Snapper’s old desk. It seems that nobody knows where to put them so they have just been piling them there. There are a lot of them but that just means she gets to stay busy for longer so she cracks a tiny smile as she takes them.

As she’s coming out of the office, she sees a few people side-eyeing her, probably because she’s holding their articles when at the minute, a lot of people don’t even trust her with her own, but she ignores them, even jauntily waving at a couple of people that aren’t giving her the stink eye.

She gets a couple of waves in return, even winning a couple of people over with her kind eyes and natural charm. It’s as though people were expecting her to have gone full evil supervillain or something.

Lucy stays a few steps away from Kara, just watching as everyone on the floor eyes Kara up curiously, all of them trying to figure her out and being unable to. She does find it amusing to see Kara make them go from suspicious to subdued in just a fraction of a second though, it’s unlike anything she’s seen in a while. If she ever had to defend her in court, Kara is the kind of person that could win over a jury easily, not that she wants to see Kara having to defend herself in court, she’s too pure for that.

Kara heads right back to her office where Cat has moved her laptop to one side of the desk so Kara can perch on the other side of it with enough space to put the articles down, which she does and grabs a pen, getting right to work reading each one and separating them into piles of which are good to go, which are good if they have a few edits, which aren’t good enough to print and which are maybes.

The task works wonders in taking Kara’s mind off of everything well because she’s so focused on trying to make sure she does a good job. It works so well, in fact, that she barely registers Lena returning and sitting down just behind her until her hands are on her shoulders, just a light weight to announce her presence.

Kara recognises the gesture, it’s the same one she uses when she’s making breakfast in the morning with her earphones in so she doesn’t wake Lena up with her daily pump-up playlist that consists of a lot of Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys.

“Hey, everything ok at work?”

Lena opens her mouth to speak but then snaps it closed when she sees Cat tuck her hair behind her ears and peer at her. “I’ll tell you later.”

Cat rolls her eyes. “Whatever you say is off the record.” She waves her hand at them, unhooking her hair from her ears and setting her sights back on her work.

Kara looks between them, squinting at Cat for a moment before nodding to Lena to say that it’s safe for her to talk.

“L-Corp is in the shit,” Lena says bluntly. “It’s not looking good for us with everything that has happened, a lot of investors believe the fake article but luckily, I have a good legal team of my own which means that we can go for Lucas Carr ourselves and because CatCo isn’t at fault, he is, we can go after him directly without dragging CatCo through a horrendous legal battle, one that will go over better if a certain CEO would back us in our defamation lawsuit.”

“Whatever you need, it will help clear CatCo of any wrongdoing too. CatCo can’t sue any employees, it’s part of the contract, but there’s nothing saying I can’t be called as a witness, right Lucy?”

“Yep.” Lucy pops the ‘p’, barely listening, registering the words only after she’s responded, “I mean, I’ll have to look into it, get the whole legal team involved, but most likely, yes.”

Kara and Lena share a look and Kara cracks a smile. “A lawsuit proving that what he did was nothing more than defamation would be a great way to clear both of our names.”

“Sounds like a win-win to me.” Lena smiles, bumping her shoulder into Kara’s. “Anyway, what are you doing?”

“I’m going through articles for tomorrow’s issue.”

“Isn’t this usually done a couple of days in advance?”

“Well, as you can imagine, Ms Luthor, when one of your star reporters is framed as being corrupt, it can mess up a schedule.” Cat snipes, her tone sharp.

Lena clears her throat uncomfortably. “Right, ok.”

Winn sneezes loudly from the corner where he’s been huddled up on his computer and it makes all of them jump, his presence forgotten because of how quiet he’s been. He pulls his earphones out and looks up apologetically. “Sorry.”

Cat waves him off and he meekly sinks back into his chair, trying to go back to when he was practically invisible just as he was before. He’s working on trying to figure out how his computer was wiped. He’s pretty good at hacking but whoever it was that got into his data must be some god-level robot of a person. It’s kind of scary actually.

“So, what are we doing about the problem at hand?” Lena asks, a little confused by how quickly everyone goes back to what they are doing.

“Waiting for Nia to come back with her boyfriend. He’s a government hacker person, he’s going to protect a computer so we can plug in the USB with the proof of Snapper being an asshole into it without it being wiped like Winn’s computer was.”

Lena feels like she’s five steps behind them but nods, just accepting that she doesn’t really have a clue what’s going on. “Ok, I guess I’ll just work on some emails then.”

Kara encourages her to do that with a smile and a gentle rest of her head against Lena’s shoulder before she gets back to what she’s doing again.

Nia walks in with a smallish-looking guy with thick brown hair strolling in right behind her. “This is my boyfriend, Brainy.”

He waves at them; his movements are stilted and odd. “Querl Dox, my friends call me Brainy.”

“You’re an odd little man.” Cat states. “You can protect a computer?”

“I can.”

Lena looks between him and Nia. “Are you sure we can trust him? He works for the government, right?”

Nia doesn’t get a chance to stick up for Brainy because the man is speaking up for himself. “I can assure you that while I work for the government, I have no part in any schemes, I offer my services to you because I have a great deal of care for Nia Nal.”

“You…right. Ok?” Lena doesn’t have a clue what to make of that but while he is kind of weird, Nia is looking at him the same way she looks at Kara so whatever, he can give it a go.

“Which computer would you like me to protect?”

“Winn?” Kara calls out, rolling her eyes when his eyes remain fixed on his screen. “Winn?”

Brainy points to Winn’s computer. “This one?”

“Uh, yeah, that one, I think,” Kara confirms and flinches when without another word, Brainy walks over to Winn and snatches the computer right out of his hands.

He jumps up, ready to chase after Brainy. “Woah! What are you doing?”

“I am protecting your computer.” Brainy states bluntly. “May I have a desk to sit at?”

Kara looks around. They really need more desks to work with. They can easily fit three in here. It’ll be a squeeze but they can manage it. “Yeah, hey, Lena, want to come and find some desks to move in here with me?”

Lena looks up from her phone. “Yep, just let me finish this email.” Her thumbs work frantically, tip-tapping against the screen for a few long moments before she sends off the email. “Ok, I’m all yours.”

Together, Kara and Lena go off in search of more desks. There are plenty of chairs so they just need two desks, which shouldn’t be too difficult, there’s one in Kara’s old office that’s still empty so they can just go and grab that one to start with.

As they reach her old office and squeeze inside, taking the few boxes of old files and things that are apparently being stored in here now off of the top of the desk, Lena asks, “I’m not sure about that Brainy guy, what do you think?”

“I’m not sure I’m the best person to judge anyone given that I was friends with James and worked closely with Snapper on multiple occasions and had no idea about anything they were doing.”

“You shouldn’t hold that against yourself, you’re not the only one that didn’t see it coming. I didn’t see it, Winn didn’t, even Cat didn’t and she’s Cat motherfucking Grant.”

Kara snorts. “Don’t let her hear you calling her that.”

Lena shrugs, “It’s fifty-fifty on whether or not she’d love it or hate it.”

“Probably…I think Brainy seems alright.”

“Me too.” Lena smiles. “I’m hopeful.”

“I’m trying to be hopeful too.”

Read the next chapter early on my Patreon here!

#cw supergirl #supercorp #supercorp endgame #supergirl #supercorp fanfic #fanfiction #fanfic #fluff #kara leaned in #kara danvers #lena luthor #kara x lena #live with me #kara zor el #wlw #chaoticsuper

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themattress · 9 months

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Character Perception Evolution

Sometimes, believe it or not, I change my views on fictional characters.

This post will be updated with any example of such characters I can think of.

Ahsoka Tano (Star Wars) - While most people cite her being considered an annoying, pointless, and all-around hated kid sidekick character and evolving into one of the most beloved characters in the franchise, I actually have a different take. I never minded Ahsoka when she debuted in 2008. I thought she was largely inoffensive and was happy to see another lead female character in the series given how little of them we had. And yes, she only got better and better as she grew, and totally deserved her popularity. But something’s been wrong with her ever since her time travel-based survival of her big duel with Darth Vader, accelerating with her depiction by Rosario Dawson (complete with some awkward as Hell interactions with Luke Skywalker) and Dave Filoni’s dumbfounding remark that Ahsoka’s voice being with the voices of other dead Jedi in The Rise of Skywalker doesn’t necessarily mean she’s dead. It feels like she’s become a Creator’s Pet, a character that Filoni refuses to let go of past her natural expiration date. That’s why the primary excitement I have for the upcoming Ahsoka series is for Thrawn, not for her. She just isn’t that interesting anymore.

Amarant Coral (Final Fantasy IX) - I disliked Amarant back when I first played Final Fantasy IX, seeing him as this generic badass loner edgelord character who didn’t have very well-written character development. However, a few years back I replayed the game. And while his character development remains as shoddy as I remember (I feel like the developers just ran out of time and both he and Freya suffered as a result), I found myself greatly enjoying Amarant because I now could see that he’s pretty clearly a knowing parody of a generic badass loner edgelord character! The game knows he’s a jerkish stick-in-the-mud for no good reason and has fun with it, with Amarant’s snarky comments and frustration at having to be dragged all over creation by Zidane and his merry band of idealists making him hilarious.

Cain Madhouse (To The Abandoned Sacred Beasts) - Refer to this post. I first encountered Cain through the anime, where I thought he was a cool villain but not much else than that. He seemed to be there purely for the sake of providing the series with a central antagonist. Then I read the manga, and was honestly taken aback at just how interesting, complex and even sympathetic Cain was as a character. He isn’t even the true villain of the story, a role actually shared by his abusive father and the evil religious nutcase he’s in cahoots with. While he’s certainly far from a blameless martyr, Cain truly is doing what he believes to be for the best, and in his own twisted way still loves the people in his life that he cares for and genuinely wishes to do right by them. And all this nuance despite being named “Cain Madhouse!”

Charmcaster (Ben 10) - Here I’m talking about one version of the character in particular: the one from Ben 10: Omniverse. Back in 2014 when she was fresh, I greatly enjoyed this take on Charmcaster. She was really funny and cute, her magic was badass, her design was wonderful, her voice-acting was entertaining, and in general she was a major step-up from the version we’d gotten in Alien Force and Ultimate Alien. Unfortunately, time has not been kind to her. I don’t hate her, but I can’t fully enjoy her when so many of those AF/UA aspects are still in play with her, which makes her and her trajectory somewhat nonsensical, not to mention tasteless and ultimately kind of pointless. That was OV’s whole problem, I suppose: trying desperately to reconcile the original Ben 10 with the retcon-ridden AF/UA and largely failing. It doesn’t help that the next incarnation of Charmcaster in the rebooted continuity is so much better, as are similar characters in other shows such as Lena from the new DuckTales.

Dawn (Pokémon) - In the Diamond & Pearl anime, I didn’t care for Dawn for a good while, partly because doing a rehash of May immediately after May had left was insulting especially when I loved May so much and partly because there were other issues with her character’s utilization that irked me. However, after her subsequent, much-improved appearances in Best Wishes and Journeys, I looked back at her in her anime series of origin and realized that it really wasn’t Dawn that was ever the problem - it was Ash and Brock! It’s a franchise-wide trend: whenever Dawn is paired up with literally anyone else, she shines. Even the rehashing of May and personal gripes I have don’t matter much because she’s so likable. But when with Ash and Brock as their traveling companion, she by and large becomes the most generic goodie-goodie shojou girl possible. Just detach her from them and she’s a solid character.

Eraqus (Kingdom Hearts) - That great character design and Mark Hamill’s impeccable voice-acting made me think he was sympathetic when I originally played Birth by Sleep. Overtime, that impression faded. Yes, I agree with him that darkness is a problem and vigilance against it is needed; even if he was supposed to be wrong about that, he isn’t. The problem is that he goes about that in the dumbest, most counter-productive way possible. Terra would literally not have a darkness problem if not for Eraqus’ dumbass teaching methods. Worse still, everything that goes wrong in the story could have been avoided if he was just honest with his pupils about everything, including the fact that Xehanort might not be on the up and up given his obsession with potentially causing an apocalypse, an obsession he literally scarred Eraqus over. And maybe he shouldn’t have jumped immediately to murder as the solution to Ventus’ awareness of his own special existence posing a danger to the universe. If that wasn’t enough, we later learn he openly cheats at chess and just expects everyone to take it.

Katsuki Bakugo (My Hero Academia) - I used to hate this character; he was obnoxious and unlikable, yet the narrative and other characters never reacted to him the way they should and bended over backward to accommodate him. However, nowadays I don’t hate him so much as I feel sorry for him, on a meta level. Bakugo could have been a superb character with a great redemption arc, the pieces are all there. But for some reason or other, Horikoshi instead decided to keep him the angry, violent, petty, egotistical asshole he’s always been, and justifies doing so while also playing at redeeming him by treating his super-dickery as comedic. I’m sorry, but that doesn’t work when it didn’t start out as comedic and had terrible effects on people like Izuku. Bakugo’s only been funny when he’s the butt of the joke, not when others still have to suffer from his rage-outs. It’s sad that Bakugo can’t live up to his potential, especially when others in the series like Endeavor (who’s a far worse person) do.

Kevin 11 (Ben 10) - I loved Kevin as a villain in the original Ben 10, hated his sudden change in character complete with a quickie redemption and out of nowhere romance with Gwen in Alien Force but was willing to tolerate him and wait to see where they’d go with him because he was admittedly pretty funny, loathed what ended up happening with him in Ultimate Alien which turned me off him altogether, and in Omniverse...ditto what I said about Charmcaster. But then there’s the continuity reboot version, and because of it I now have to admit that while I’ll always hold a soft spot for him, the original Kevin doesn’t hold up too well either. He’s a pre-pubescent kid named Kevin 11, yet he’s a purely evil psychopath and his villainous appearance is that of a grotesque mutant chimera? Yeeeah, I think the school bully with a troubled home life who has his own evil version of Ben’s Omnitrix and its aliens makes a lot more sense. Him not changing his ways so easily, staying Ben’s rival no matter how much they might team up, and having feelings for Gwen that are comedically one-sided also helps.

Kyo Sohma (Fruits Basket) - Back in the day, Fruits Basket to me was just the 2001 anime series, and I honestly found Kyo pretty annoying. His hair-trigger temper and violent inclinations were a turn-off, as was his dub voice and that whole concluding arc with his true form. Then I read the manga and saw the faithful 2019 adaptation, complete with an incredibly improved performance by Jerry Jewell, and now I absolutely love the guy! No joke, he’s easily one of the best, most interesting and likable male leads in a shojou, as is Yuki.

Lysandre and Diantha (Pokémon) - Just see this post for details.

Mary Jane Watson (Spider-Man) - I’m talking specifically about the version portrayed by Kirsten Dunst in the Sam Raimi trilogy. She came off as a generic superhero girlfriend in the first movie to me, a hodgepodge of several characters from the comics instead of a proper adaptation of Mary Jane. It got worse in the second movie, where she played the annoying obstructive love interest trope. But despite the stupidity of having her be kidnapped in the climax again, I found myself really enjoying her in the third movie. This made me pay closer attention to her in the first movie, and to check out all her deleted material (much of which was included in the novelization) in the second movie. Not only did I find her to be a strong, truly human-feeling character, but she was more faithful to the comics’ Mary Jane in several key areas than many give her credit for, and Kirsten Dunst always gave a great performance.

Prince Demande and the Black Moon Clan (Sailor Moon) - I recall liking these villains fine as a kid, but feeling like they weren’t as good as the Dark Kingdom. While the Dark Kingdom is still my personal favorite group of villains, I now have to concede that the Black Moon Clan in both the manga and anime are superior. They’ve got the more complex set-up, feel darker and more dangerous, and have by far the best of Chaos’ incarnations in the Death Phantom. Meanwhile, I recall feeling some sympathy for Demande when I was young; his situation wasn’t an easy one after all, and he did love his brother very much, not to mention in the anime he gave his life for Usagi. Then I grew up and learned what rape was. Fuck this guy. Even if I love him as a villain, he’s a horrible person and no sacrificial death can change that.

Regina Mills (Once Upon a Time) - My stance for a long time has been that Regina was an overall good character in the first three seasons but then totally fell apart from some truly appalling creator favoritism. Having revisited the show recently, I don’t entirely revoke this stance, but it’s more complicated than I thought. When you get down to it, Regina only ever worked properly in Season 1, where she was a humanized yet still proudly evil antagonist. Season 2 not only dropped the ball in terms of consequences for her, but it fast-tracked her down the redemption path in a way that was ham-fisted and not believable. Season 3 handled her on the heroes’ side much better, but it’s nigh impossible to reconcile with the backslide she went through in the second half of Season 2, where she is depicted as this absolute psychopath delusional beyond the point of recovery, but Adam and Eddy genuinely don’t view her that way and weren’t meaning to make her come off that way - in their eyes, her grievances are all legitimate. And that’s really what I have a hard time ever getting around: the notion that the villainous Regina I loved in Season 1 was never the real Regina, just a stand-in until A&E had free reign to finally give us their Regina and re-orient the story to being “how the poor sad Evil Queen got her happy ending” like they originally envisioned.

Roxas (Kingdom Hearts) - So TV Tropes has Roxas for this trope, saying he was divisive due to the KH2 prologue he starred in, but stuff like his FM boss battle, his presence in Coded, and especially 358/2 Days increased his popularity, to the point where KH3 resurrected him to give him a happy ending. I’m....kind of the exact opposite. Honestly, I’ve always liked KH2′s prologue, warts and all, and while at first it was disappointing Roxas wasn’t a huge presence in KH2 given all the hype he was given, as time went on the more I appreciated his story and what was being said with it. It was genuinely complex and thought-provoking. I do not like the black-coated Organization XIII member Roxas that got shoved down our throats afterward, I tend to care about him the least out of 358/2 Days’ cast when playing that game, and I hate how such a nuanced story as what we had in KH2 gets undone, in a nonsensical way, solely for the sake of cheap fanservice (ditto for Xion’s case). Yeah, the FM boss battle is awesome, but for me mainly so because I get to kick that stupid black-coated Roxas’ ass!

Rumpelstiltskin (Once Upon a Time) - Another case of a character that’s listed on TV Tropes, saying that his popularity waned because of him constantly going through the Heel Face Revolving Door, which especially damaged his relationship with Belle. For me, that in of itself wasn’t the problem. He’s the freaking Dark One, practically the show’s main villain! Of course it’s going to be hard for him to ever reform. What soured me on him for a long time was the narrative’s framing of him and other characters’ reactions to him, which were increasingly insufficient for what an utter bastard he truly was. Going back over the show, I’ve somewhat softened on him again since he himself was a mostly well-written, well-acted and consistent character across 5 whole seasons, and I don’t feel like taking mistakes from the narrative and other characters out on him; it’s not like he asked for any of that. It’s just in Seasons 6 and 7 where I feel he was out-of-character on the whole, to two opposite, incompatible extremes.

Seto Kaiba (Yu-Gi-Oh!) - When I first began watching the anime, I thought Kaiba was a cool and sympathetic rival character. As it went on, though, I got sick of him being such a one-man Spotlight Stealing Squad and how hard the makers of the anime were actively trying to make him look cool. It didn’t help when I read the manga and saw this wasn’t the case for him here; he wasn’t even the deuteragonist the way the anime positions him, Joey was. But enjoying him in The Abridged Series made me revisit the actual show, and I actually realized that while those issues I had are technically still there, the 4Kids English dub has always done its best to mitigate them with Eric Stuart’s voicework and lines, which actually keeps him far more in line with his original manga self, who isn’t an overtly sympathetic, honorable and “cool” rival but a crazy, extravagant jerkass. And I love him that way. Screw the rules, he has money!

Shadow the Hedgehog (Sonic the Hedgehog) - Shadow was awesome in Sonic Adventure 2, I was definitely a fan of him there. But then his popularity caused him to be immediately resurrected, to diminishing returns, which made me sour on the character and consider him emblematic of the Sonic franchise’s problems. I wished he had just stayed a one-shot. However, recent things such as the Sonic Boom TV series, the Sonic Prime TV series, the Sonic Forces DLC, The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog and the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog 3 movie have all made me re-evaluate Shadow. Now I think he’s not bad as a series mainstay, just subject to being mis-used...but hey, so is every other character, so it’s not an issue unique to him. Used well, he’s honesty one of the franchise’s best characters.

Slade Wilson (Teen Titans) - I used to truly buy into the notion of him as a badass Anti-Hero / Anti-Villain like many people did, but after reading his original stories up through “The Judas Contract” and especially Christopher Priest’s run on the Deathstroke comic series, I no longer hold that view of him. Slade’s a badass combatant, sure, and as a threatening villain you definitely have to appreciate him. But as a person, he is not a badass. At all. He’s a pitiful, prideful, predatory scumbag. He’s “badass” and “honorable” in the exact same way that Walter White is: it’s all a big smokescreen to compensate for what a small, lowly, wretched excuse for a human being he is. Great character, great villain, absolutely intolerable person.

Supreme Leader Snoke (Star Wars) - When The Force Awakens came out, I didn’t like Snoke at all. He was the cheapest of retreads (an old, decrepit Dark Side user who rules the Empire and corrupts a Skywalker into becoming his evil apprentice), the cheapest of plot contrivances (the remnants of the Empire can only become a powerful threat and the victory from Return of the Jedi undone due to this fucker from out of nowhere), and the cheapest of Mystery Boxes (who is he and where did he come from and why does he do what he does, isn’t it so mysterious, don’t you just wanna speculate and theorize all over the internet?) As annoyed as I was that he died without any answers in The Last Jedi, I also liked him better as just Kylo Ren’s stepping stone. Better effects for him and a hammier performance by Andy Serkis helped. And when The Rise of Skywalker revealed he was literally a puppet of the resurrected Palpatine, everything about him just clicked. Stupid people online rant about insufficient foreshadowing for Palpatine’s return, but rewatch the trilogy with Palpatine in mind and Snoke himself - everything about him - is the biggest piece of foreshadowing there is.

Ulrich Stern (Code Lyoko) - Through Code Lyoko’s first two seasons, Ulrich was hands-down the weakest part of the show for me. I didn’t think he was interesting or likable, and his Will-They-Won’t-They romance with Yumi, who could honestly do much better, was so exhausting. But then we hit Season 3, and the two-part prequel. Everything about Ulrich’s depiction in that just screamed “This guy is an asshole, you’re not supposed to like him”. It reframed everything we’ve seen of him as deliberate; even his lust for Yumi now comes off as just a way for him to feel better about himself since deep down he’s aware of what a shithead he is. Then when we returned to the present day action, Yumi firmly breaks off any potential for dating him. From this point on, Ulrich has to develop on his own terms, and he becomes so much better as a character; I actually found myself liking him, sympathizing with him, and appreciating his willingness to change for the better; a great foil to William whose stubborn unwillingness to do the same costs him and everyone else around him. The season 3 finale reminding me of the reason Ulrich became the way he used to be in his absolute scumbag of a father also helped a lot. He’s not my favorite and still kind of a dick, but I like him now.

Venom (Spider-Man) - Like most kids, I thought Venom was awesome growing up. Once I got older and looked up his history, I found that the majority of it was not very flattering, making me feel more conflicted about the character. Where do I stand on him now, you may ask? It’s simple, really: I love Venom - the symbiote. It’s Eddie Brock who I feel is the problem. Beyond the name and bonding with the Venom symbiote, I don’t think there’s been a consistent thing about this guy across all of his incarnations. The issues with Venom can almost always be traced back to the human part of the equation, because he was thought up on the fly by David Micheline with very little about him solidified beyond being an angry psychopath. I much prefer Venom as the symbiote, the host body be damned, and I’m glad that depiction has been gaining traction in recent years in various comics, TV shows and video games.

Xehanort (Kingdom Hearts) - So I totally subscribe to what’s on TV Tropes about Xehanort the Keyblade Master (was hailed as a great villain in Birth by Sleep, now seen as a horrible villain for everything that followed). But I want to talk about Terra-Xehanort. Because while I love him and both split halves of him, back in the olden days I preferred Ansem over Xemnas. He had the cooler design, a more vivid personality, was tied far closer to the Disney Villains, and of course was the villain in the original Kingdom Hearts (forever my favorite even if KH2 is technically a better game - and even then KH still has the better story). Now it’s reversed. Even disregarding how (with the exception of Dream Drop Distance) Xemnas retained his dignity as a character going forward while Ansem didn’t, there is just a weight and presence to Xemnas that I’ve fallen in love with more and more as time passes. He has the same depth and darkness of character as Ansem but takes it even further. His plans are even smarter and with more direct involvement from him. And of course, there’s him being KH2′s Final Boss, which means he’s irrevocably associated with the peak of the series to me. He’s the only incarnation of Xehanort whom I can safely call both a great character and villain to this day.

#Character Perception Evolution #Opinion #Analysis

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cosmicgamer · 3 years

Text

This episode's really fucking uncomfortable (and not in a good way) looking back at it, especially given all the context with Lena & Magica and the fact Webby & Violet are forcing her to do it

And not even once do either of them think "Ya know maybe this was a really stupid idea to bring Lena over to Magica"

#My post #Ducktales #Lena Sabrewing #Magica De Spell #The Phantom and The Sorceress #Tw: Abuse #Not to mention the fact Webby is all like 'tAlK tO hEr lEnA'#Like bro this is the same person that gaslighted her for 15 years and fucking possesed her #They just honestly force Lena to do it and I hate that so much #Also there's literally a point where Lena doesn't get her magic to work and Magica berates her #And Violet just makes some smug comment about being a fast learner #Like what are these idiots doing why can't they read the room in this episode?#I get they were probably going for the whole 'good guy and bad guy' teaming up crap #But given the fact the first season treated their relationship as an abusive one and was pretty serious about it too #The fact they do this feels insulting to be honest

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natsfirecat · 3 years

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Natasha Romanoff X Fem!Reader. R has fire powers linked to her emotions. The Avengers try to guess who her crush is and when Natasha’s name is mentioned R’s powers play up 🔥🔥. So her friends make it their mission to get the two together. Fluff please and thank you 😊

yes i LOVE writing pyrokinetic reader

Operation Fire Widow

word count: 2.5k

warnings: some swearing, Supergirl references, accidental burning

A/N: anon i’m so sorry this so long. i got shadowbanned and my dumbass didn’t know I could get my account back until recently so- but anyway i hope you enjoy! :D

"Sam?"

"No,"

"Bucky?"

"Also no,"

"Me?"

"Just when I thought your ego couldn't get any bigger, no,"

"Ugh, fine. Is it Steve?"

"Dumbasses,"

Sighing, Carol and Wanda looked at each other in defeat; they were not going to crack you tonight.

"Alright, new subject then," Peter interjected, taking a sip of his root beer. Despite his age, you found that he fit in well with you Wanda, and Carol. The four of you made quite an interesting friend group.

"I overheard Mr. Stark talking about how Mr. Fury made Natasha train a bunch of new SHIELD agents and she made a lot of them cry,"

You gripped the pillow tighter, picturing her losing it and yelling. The thought started to make smoke come out of your hands, hence why you were gripping the pillow tighter in an attempt to hide it.

Unfortunately, your attempt was unsuccessful.

"Y/N what the hell are you doing?" Carol asked, noticing the smoke rising.

You let go of the pillow, then balled your fists to try to stop the smoke.

"What's going on?" Wanda asked softly. When you first joined the Avengers, she was the one who helped you learn all about your powers and how to control them. She knew you lost control sometimes, so she placed a gentle hand on your back, which nearly burned her.

"Wait a minute," Carol said, connecting the dots. "It's Nat, isn't it?"

"No!" You lied, feeling the smoke starting to rise from your palms again.

"It is!" Peter said with a grin.

You sighed, hiding your face in the scorched pillow.

"Don't be shy, Y/N," Carol said, smiling at you. "It's sweet,"

"It's pathetic, and never gonna happen!" You protested, not peeking out from the pillow.

"I beg to differ," Peter stated proudly.

"Me too," Wanda said.

"This is gonna be a thing now, isn't it?" You said with a groan.

Peter thought for a minute, thinking about your superhero name and Natasha's.

"Operation Fire Widow," he said.

Wanda and Carol nodded in agreement.

Yep, this was definitely going to be a thing now.

The next morning, you woke up to a loud knock at your bedroom door.

"What is it?" You groaned, rolling over.

"Us!" Wanda yelled back.

You let out a deep breath, there was no getting out of this one.

"Come in!"

The door opened, and Wanda, Carol, and Peter all walked in and sat on your bed. Peter was holding a piece of paper with a bullet list on it.

"What is this?" You asked, rolling your eyes at them.

"Operation Fire Widow!" Peter replied with a bright smile.

"Oh what the hell?" You said, giving in. "Tell me about the operation,"

The three of them surrounded you, holding the piece of paper up.

"We've created a three-arc plan," Carol started. "Part one starts today; we're gonna get you and Nat in the living room at the same time, alone. Then we're gonna take away all the blankets, and turn the air on really high so it gets freezing. Because of your powers, you'll be fine and be really warm, so then she'll want to cuddle you to warm up,"

"Oh come on, you guys aren't gonna actually freeze the room, right?" You replied, slightly concerned.

All three of them looked dead serious.

You let out a long sigh,

“Look, you’re not gonna actually do something like that. I’m open to some things you guys could plan, but this is taking it too far,”

Carol rolled her eyes, then snatched the paper back.

“I’m going downstairs now,” you told them.

“Good, ‘cause Natasha’s down there!” Wanda called as you exited your room, earning an eye roll in response.

She was right, Natasha was sitting at the table eating breakfast.

“Hi,” you told her. She waved in response, giving a small smile.

Unfortunately, she stood up as soon as you sat down.

“Where are you going?” You asked.

“I need to reheat this,” she replied, holding her plate up.

“Wait!” You said, stopping her. “I could do it! It’ll be faster!”

You immediately regretted it as soon as you said it. She raised an eyebrow at you, then shrugged. She handed you the plate without another word.

Taking in a deep breath, you knew you couldn’t mess this up. You closed your eyes, then slowly began to heat up the plate.

Once you finished, you handed it back to her and smiled triumphantly.

She hesitantly grabbed her fork and took a bite out of it, then looked at you with a shocked expression.

“It’s a little warmer than I was expecting, but it’s better than how it was before. Thanks,”

You smiled at her for a few awkward second before backing away.

You ended up backing into the counter, your hands smoking as a jump response.

“Shit!” You cursed, closing your fists whilst trying to ignore the growing pain in your lower back.

“Are you okay?” Natasha asked, standing up immediately.

You gave her a thumbs up, forcing a smile.

“I’m good, I, gotta go, I-”

With that, you ran out of the kitchen before spending the next few days trying to forget the incident.

“Alright, you’ve done enough sulking,” Carol said as she barged into your room without even bothering to knock. “It’s time to talk to her again,”

“What? More operation Fire Widow?” You asked in a mocking tone.

Carol rolled her eyes.

“You guys are just like Kara and Lena, you’ll either be the greatest couple of all time or the worst queerbait ever. In your case, it would be because you’re too afraid to admit your feelings to her,”

You sighed. Of course your best friend would use one of your favorite ships to pressure you.

“Talk to her at Tony’s party tonight, okay?”

“Fine,”

“Good. Wanda and Peter have already agreed to help you get ready,”

You couldn’t help but smile at all their efforts to help you with the woman you were hopelessly crushing on.

Carol returned your smile, then exited your room.

A few hours later, as promised, Wanda and Peter (who was surprisingly good at doing makeup) arrived.

Wanda had come over with a few different outfits for you to try on, while Peter already sat behind you and started doing your hair.

Whilst he was experimenting with a bunch of different styles, Wanda held two outfits up, then held one over your chest.

It was a sparkly purple dress. She pulled it away and held the other in it’s place.

This one was a dark red suit. Wanda’s eyebrows raised, then she set it down before holding one last outfit up.

“That one,” you said. It was darker with some sparkles on it, just enough to make your eyes shine.

After putting the outfit on, Peter added the final touches to your hair.

He then turned you around to face him, carefully putting some makeup on your face. He sat up a little straighter, leaning in to make sure he got it right.

“Perfect,” he said after a few minutes.

Wanda gently grabbed your wrist as you stood up, leading you to the bathroom so you could look at yourself in the mirror.

“Is that one of the steps in your little operation?” You asked Peter with a smile.

“Maybe,”

“You look beautiful,” Wanda told you, grinning widely.

“Thanks,” you replied, returning her grin.

Just as you were about to say something else to them, your bedroom door opened once again as Carol walked in.

“Wow, Y/N...” she said, looking you up and down. She smirked at both Wanda and Peter, then back to you. “Go get your girl.”

The music was loud, there were people surrounding every side of you. It was honestly overwhelming if you were being honest.

You eyes scanned the room, looking for Natasha, but you couldn’t make anything out in the crowd of people.

“Sorry,” you muttered, making your way through all the people.

Being in the middle of the crowd was doing you no good for finding Natasha, and you hated being surrounded by people like that anyway.

So you walked away from the dance floor, and made your way to the drinks.

You couldn’t help but sigh as you took the drink. Your friends had gone through all this effort for you, and you hadn’t seen her at all.

As you held the glass in your hand, the liquid inside began to bubble. You frowned, realizing that you were involuntarily using your powers.

You took a deep breath, then closed your eyes.

In 1...2...3...4...

Hold 1...2...3...4...

Out 1...2...3...4...

Hold 1...2...3...4...

You repeated this pattern a few times until you could feel yourself calming down.

You opened your eyes, and sure enough, your drink had stopped boiling.

You began to head for the hallway when the familiar red hair swept into your vision.

“Nat!” You called.

She swept around to face you, her lips immediately curling into a smile.

“Y/N, there you are! You look amazing, by the way,”

“Thanks! You look amazing too!” You replied, hoping she couldn’t see the red in your cheeks as you blushed.

As you took the last swallow of your drink, she stepped closer to you.

“I’m probably gonna leave soon, I’m not really in the mood for a party.” She said. “But, before I do, wanna dance?”

You nodded, taking in a deep breath, hoping she wouldn’t notice.

She smiled, then grabbed your hand as she led you to the dance floor.

For a few moments, the two of you stole glances at each other while moving your body along to the song. It was going fine.

Until it wasn’t.

A slow song started playing.

You were about to suggest to leave the dance floor when she shrugged, then wrapped her arms around you.

Natasha was touching you. Her hands were on your shoulders as she pulled you closer to her. She was actually dancing with you.

You let out a shaky breath before placing your hands on her waist.

As you stared into her eyes, all you wanted to do was close the gap in between you and kiss her right then and there.

However, the nerves in your stomach were stopping you. As much as you tried to stop it by slowing your breaths, you felt the anxiety getting worse.

“Ow!” She said suddenly, pulling away from you.

You gasped, realizing that you had once again used your powers without meaning to. This time, Natasha got hurt from it.

“I’m sorry,” was all you managed to get out before dashing away from her, and out of the building.

Natasha watched you run out, her mouth hanging open, dumbfounded.

She wasn’t mad. Disappointed, yes. But not because you hurt her. She knew you had pyrokinesis, something must have trigged your powers. She was mostly disappointed because of how you left her.

The burn barely even stung anymore.

She walked off the dance floor, attempting to follow you.

While Natasha was unsuccessful at finding you, she was lucky enough to find one of your best friends.

“Peter!” She called, walking up to him.

“Hi Ms Romanoff,” he replied, grinning.

“I’ve been over this with you, call me Natasha or Nat.”

“Right, sorry, Nat,”

“It’s fine, I wanted to talk to you about Y/N anyways,”

“What about her?”

As soon as your name was mentioned, he tensed up. Had things not gone well between you and Natasha?

“She ran out on me,” she told him. “We were on the dance floor, and something set her powers off ‘cause she burned me. She apologized, then just ran off without another word,”

“Oh no...” he replied, frowning.

“Do you know why her powers could’ve been acting up? Is something going on that’s causing that?” She asked.

“No-” he replied too quickly.

Natasha caught onto this.

“Peter... what’s going on?”

She took a step closer to him, narrowing her eyes.

He gulped, looking to the floor.

“I told you, Ms. Romanoff, nothing’s happening,”

She took another step closer.

“If you don’t tell me right now...”

“She likes you-” he got out just as she was leaning in again.

“What?” She asked, finally stepping away.

“Oh god, she’s gonna kill me now.”

“What do you mean she likes me?”

“Nothing, I-I gotta go-”

Just as he was about to run off, she grabbed his wrist.

“Oh no you’re not. Sit down. You’re going to tell me everything.”

The next morning, your heart dropped to your stomach when you got a text from Natasha asking you to meet her in the training room.

You had spent the rest of last night, and a good portion of this morning watching sad episodes of Supergirl.

You closed your laptop right as Lena shouted the words, ‘I KILLED MY BROTHER FOR YOU, FOR OUR FRIENDS! DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU’VE DONE?’

Carol was right about you and Natasha being like Kara and Lena. You could’ve been one of the greatest pairings ever, but instead you ruined it when you burned her and ran out.

You let out a slow breath, preparing for her to yell at you for hurting her and want nothing to do with you ever again.

You texted her back, saying that you were coming as you finally changed out of your pajamas.

You could already feel your palms heating up as your heartrate increased on the walk. You were trying so hard to stop it, but there was already a little smoke.

When you opened the door to the training room (which you had to do by pushing with the side of your body, since you were worried you could accidentally burn the door with your hands) you tensed up at the sight of her.

She didn’t look mad.

In fact, she was smiling at you.

She walked over to you, then started to put a hand on your shoulder, before you backed away abruptly.

“You okay?” She asked gently.

You weren’t sure how to respond as you balled your fists, doing whatever you could to get your powers to stop.

“It’s okay, and you’re okay,” she told you, leaning in close. “Take a deep breath with me,”

Had this happened earlier, it would’ve been embarrassing for Natasha to bring your nerves down like this. But now, it didn’t feel embarrassing. In fact, it felt safe.

She made you feel safe.

Once you felt okay, you gave her a small smile. She returned your smile, then took your hands in her own.

You almost tensed up again, but soon felt relaxed as she ran her thumb over your knuckles.

You stared at each other for a few moments of comfortable silence before she leaned in closer.

“So, about your little Operation Fire Widow...”

“Oh my gosh, um- it’s not what it sounds like! I promise, it’s-”

She brought a finger to your lips, interrupting you.

Your cheeks turned bright red as she moved her finger under your chin so you’d look her in the eyes.

“Y/N, I think you are adorable,” she said, smiling. “In fact, I’d really like to take you on a date, if that’s alright with you?”

You couldn’t believe what she was saying.

Natasha Romanoff, the intimidatingly, scary, spy who could easily kill you in two seconds if she wanted to, liked you back.

Suddenly feeling a surge of confidence, you leaned forward and kissed her.

Your lips fit so perfect on hers as you smiled into the kiss.

She moved her hand around the back of your neck, and moved the other through your hair.

She softly bit your lip, prompting you to allow her entrance. Her tongue explored your mouth as you leaned in even closer to her.

You didn’t plan on stopping anytime soon, but unfortunately air soon became an issue.

You were practically gasping for breath by the time you finally disconnected your lips.

She couldn’t help but smile at you, reconnecting your hands.

“So I’ll take that as a yes, then?”

#natasha romanoff #natasha romanoff x reader #natasha romanoff x fem reader #natasha romanoff x fem!reader #natasha romanoff x you #natasha romanoff fluff #natasha romanoff x yn #soft natasha romanoff #black widow #black widow x reader #black widow x fem reader #natalia alianovna romanova

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criston-cole · 3 years

Text

Josie Calloway is having a bad day. As she stands in the foyer of the large banquet hall, her phone buzzes.

How’s it going?

I hate you so much for making me come to this without you.

Love you too, baby. I’m sorry. Try to have some fun.

Josie puts her phone away when it becomes clear that her girlfriend won’t be responding again any time soon. She takes a deep breath before heading towards the table stationed right in front of the entrance. A large banner is stretched across the front of it: Mount Helen Boarding School Class of 2009 10 Year Reunion.

She gives the attendants her name, and after watching them argue for five minutes about the misprinted name tag, she just grabs it off the table, clipping it to her dress, and heads into the belly of the beast.

The ballroom is exorbitantly decorated, as is only fitting for the alumni of Mount Helen Boarding School whose families’ net worths range in the billions. Josie had never really fit in with the rest of her class, being one of a handful of scholarship students. Being deeply in the closet and in denial about it didn’t help.

When the invitation had come, it had sat on her desk unanswered for weeks until she’d drunkenly RSVP’d with the idea of at least being able to enjoy mocking her waspy former classmates and their bleach blonde husbands with her partner. But one unforeseen work emergency later, and Josie’s here alone, surrounded by the people who had made her life hell for years.

She heads straight for the bar. The open bar is the one saving grace of the night and she’s not going to take it for granted. As she waits in line, Josie feels a light tap on her shoulder.

“Josephine?”

Josie turns at that, stunned when she recognizes the person who had said her name. A woman stands before her in a perfectly tailored suit that wraps around generous curves. Dark hair frames a face that would be intimidatingly beautiful, if not for the brilliant smile on it.

“I thought that was you.” The woman’s accent is subtle, but familiar. “I’m not sure if you remember me, I’m-”

“Lena Luthor.”

And then Lena Luthor is holding out her hand to introduce herself to Josie, like she isn’t one of the most famous women in the world.

“It’s Rojas, actually. Doctor Lena Rojas.” Josie feels a chill run up her spine at the accent accompanying the voice coming from behind her. Long, dark hair brushes her arm as Andrea Rojas, in a flowing dress with a slit going all the way up her inner thigh, sweeps past her, right into Lena’s outstretched arm. Andrea reaches up to smooth down the lapel of Lena’s suit, brushing a kiss on her lips along the way.

Lena Luthor, no Lena Rojas, beams at her wife, her smile somehow even more radiant than before.

“Andy.” She emphasizes her words with a pat low on Andrea’s hip before looking back. “Please, just call me Lena.”

Josie almost melts when the force of that smile is focused on her once again. “Then, I’m Josie.”

“Josie was in chem lab with us, senior year.” Lena’s talking to Andrea, who now has a mischievous smirk on her face.

“I’m sorry, but I honestly don’t remember much about that class except for when we…” Her voice trails off as she leans in to whisper in Lena’s ear. Josie spies how the hand that had been fiddling with Lena’s collar has disappeared under her jacket.

Lena giggles, ducking her head. “Andrea, behave.”

Josie feels her knees wobble just a bit as she catches the wink Andrea throws in her direction.

“I’m just kidding. Of course I remember Josie. You talked about her final report for days.” The words are accompanied by a fond eyeroll.

“Well, she was the brightest student in the class, besides me.” Lena says it without a hint of ego. “I’ve always wondered what you got up to after graduation.”

As if it wasn’t overwhelming enough to find out in quick succession that the two hottest girls in her grade had become two of the most powerful women in the world, and that they had gotten married along the way, Josie had to deal with the extra curveball that they knew who she was.

She suddenly realizes that they’re waiting for her response. She stutters through a response, trying and failing to make her low level lab position at Lord Tech sound fulfilling.

“But y’know I think my supervisor might let me start doing some of my own research soon.” Josie feels her voice trail off as the pair in front of her appear to have a silent conversation that only they’re privy to.

Andrea’s hand finally reappears from within Lena’s jacket. She extends it towards Josie, a white card held between meticulously manicured fingers.

“Give that number a call on Monday. We think you can do better than Lord Tech.”

Josie takes the card, hoping that her hand isn’t shaking too obviously. Out of the corner of her eye, she spots a woman with a clipboard waving furiously over at them.

This time Lena’s the one rolling her eyes. “No rest for the wicked.” She gives Josie one last look at that perfect smile. “It was great seeing you again.”

And then Josie’s left watching them walk away together, Andrea’s hand sliding deep into Lena’s back pocket as Lena leans into her. They’ve reached the far end of the room by the time Josie finally glances down at the card in her hand.

Lena Luthor-Rojas

L-Corp CEO & Head of the Science Division

Josie Calloway is having a pretty good day.

#rojascorp #my writing #ok well this happened #never thought i'd write an oc kdjshfjk #also that graduation year is completely random #lena's age is completely unknowable at this point

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supercorpkid · 3 years

Text

Rescue Mission – Suicide Mission.

Part 4 - Not a fair fight.

Supercorp, Kara Danvers x Daughter!Reader, Lena Luthor x Daughter!Reader, Alex Danvers x Niece!Reader, Brainy x Reader, Eliza Danvers x Granddaughter!Reader.

Word count: 2480.

Warnings: Injuries. Pain. Angst. Some graphic fight scenes I guess.

Previously on the series - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Whatever it cost.

Your life has been put at stake before. You almost died three or four times. Honestly, too much for a 16-year-old-girl. But this. This is different. There’s no aunt Alex to call for help, no Supergirl coming in to help you pick up the pieces. No Lena waiting for you at home with comfort hugs and donuts.

You land on the DEO, shaking. You thought about not coming the entire way here. What if you just wait until Supergirl wakes up so she can help? Would it be that bad?

“Brainy!” You call him, and he turns around to you. Tablet in hands, still monitoring the shapeshifters. “Can we wait until my momma wakes up? Then we can go for them. I mean, I didn’t see much damage around the city so-”

“We can’t.” He stops you.

“Why? Honestly, we both know I’m no match for a shapeshifter.” You say, and Brainy looks up from his tablet.

“Oh.” He smiles a little. “That’s what I’m counting on.”

“I’m sorry?” But it doesn’t take long until you tie all the knots. Of course. Of course you couldn’t trust anybody!

Brainy turns into Supergirl right in front of your eyes, and hits you with a blow of freeze breath that throws you back down. You fall, all fours, and look up to the shapeshifter in front of you.

“You are definitely not a match for us.” It presses something in the tablet and soon you hear a woosh of air coming from containment and landing a punch on your face.

Shit! Fuck! Damn it!

It played you just right! Made you believe that you could trust ‘Brainy’ because he found your family, and imprisoned one of the shapeshifters, but it was obviously just a plan. Now both are here in front of you, and if one was already hard enough, two looks impossible to beat.

You get up and fly out of the DEO. First superhero rule: if possible, take the fight to where no civilians can get hurt, so you will have less casualties. In this case, maybe just yours is enough.

The other two Supergirls fly right behind you. You feel one of them grabbing your feet and tossing you back to the ground. You fly up less than a palm before your body hits the concrete. You keep flying farther away from the city, but it’s forced to stop sooner than you would like.

One of the Supergirls punches you down, and you feel your body smashing against a boulder in the desert, making a hole on the hard rock. Dust rises up and around you. You cough, getting up from the hole and you look at both aliens in front of you, using your momma’s pretty face. You can’t win. You wouldn’t be able to win even if you were up against just one Supergirl, let alone two. You breathe deep. You were right. Two Kryptonians are better than one. You just wish this advantage were to your side.

“So, it was you all along.” You yell from a distance.

“I told you not to trust anyone.” You hear Kara’s voice and your heart beats faster. “But I suppose you are just a kid.”

“I am.” You agree with your head, taking a deep breath. “But I am her kid!”

You fly towards them, punching one in the face, making it fall in the hard rock, like you did, breaking it off in the process. But you won’t give it a chance of recovery. You fly down, settling on top of its body. Kara’s body.

“You don’t deserve this face!” You say, giving it another punch. “You don’t deserve these powers!” Another one. “You don’t deserve to wear this crest on your chest!” It’s where you punch after and you watch the alien losing its breath, looking as beat up as you found your momma. You raise your fist again, ready to end it, and feel the other alien grabbing your hand.

“What makes you think you do?” It says, flying high with you, while you try to untangle yourself from its firm grip. When you look up again, it has changed its form. You’re face to face with yourself.

“I’m not a phony!” You twist around, and it drops your hand, kicking you in the chest instead. You fly far away, trying to regain your breath. “But now it’s a fair fight.”

“Is it?” It asks, tilting its head at you. You look at your face staring at yourself on the other side and smile. Yes. Now it’s a fair fight. You know your strengths, and you know your weaknesses. And you have so many of them.

It flies closed fist at you, but you saw it coming, it’s always your first move. You fly out of the way, hitting its back with your heat vision, making it fall on the ground, raising up dirt all around it.

“You can’t win.” Supergirl gets up from the hole it was in. Oh, come on, it was almost gone. You use your heat vision again, but it’s met in the middle with its own heat vision. Shit, this is useless. Fighting Kryptonians it’s a fucking hell.

The other alien rises from the ground, and you see yourself between both of them. You don’t have a lot of options, it’s clear to you. You can run, but where to? You can buy yourself time, but for what? Help isn’t coming, you know that.

“We shouldn’t both waste our time with this kid.” Fake Supergirl says, almost ignoring your presence right there between them. “You know where she took them. Go get them.”

Breath stops midway. Heart stops mid beat. Time slows at its own accord.

No. Not them. Not your family.

“Oh yes, we should thank you, by the way.” The other Superkid flies to Supergirl’ side, and your eyes are filled with tears with the sight of that. You wanted that. You wanted a Superkid and Supergirl team-up. Instead, two monsters are using your faces, bodies and powers. They don’t seem to acknowledge your discomfort with the scene, as they go on.

“Getting the whole family together in one place. You just made our job a lot easier. Now we can kill Supergirl and everyone she loves in just one blow. And you? You’ll be alive to see it all going down with your help.”

You swallow hard knowing they are right. You helped. You thought you were the one doing the saving, but they were letting you. They were playing you, so you can do the job for them and that’s why it felt so easy. That’s why you encountered almost no resistance; it was all for this moment right here.

It’s your fault Lena has no memories. It’s your fault Jamie was taken. It’s your fault Supergirl is not here defending the city and the family. And now it will be your fault they’ll kill all your family in one blow.

You feel something burning inside of you. It’s not anger, it’s not sadness. It’s a mix of all the feelings you once had. It’s the slow burn of love, and the heavy taste of hate on your mouth. It’s the bittersweetness of having such a strong and rotten last name, and the wonderfulness of being a part of this family. It’s the cautiousness of hiding your powers, and the relentless yearn of letting go and bursting into flames, destroying everything and everyone on your way. But most of all, it’s that moment where ‘you should do better’ kicks the ‘you’re doing great’ to the side of the curbs and takes a hold on you.

You could even try to hold this feeling inside you, but you know better. This is the time to stop thinking, stop using your powers, and let them use you instead.

“Don’t thank me just yet.” You say with a little smile playing on your lips.

Fighting two of them was never going to be a fair fight and you know it. Even with you letting your powers take over you, even after beating them, even with this faintest feeling that you might -just might- pull this off because you’re fighting for the right reasons.

It doesn’t take long until you find yourself trapped under both getting punches after punches. The taste of blood is strong on your mouth. You know you’re going to lose. You’re minutes away from blacking out.

You have been beaten down before. By red kryptonite Kara, by villains using green kryptonite against you, by aliens from another dimension, by your own fears and your anxiety. You were once beaten down to the point of suffocation. You were once covered in your own blood and vomit. For time and time again, you thought you were going to die. Once you even prayed that you would.

This moment right here, feels like another one of those. You can feel it. When they’re beating you down so hard your blood is the one splashing on their faces, when you slowly feel yourself losing consciousness. When the last thing you see before your mind goes totally blank is Lena’s eyes and Kara’ smile. Maybe this is the last time you feel you are going to die. Maybe this time you’re actually dying.

And you know what comes next. They’ll go to the Fortress. March in there using your face. It’s your face your family is going to see blowing up the entire place. And when they realize it’s not you, it will be too late, they will be doomed. Your whole family will be destroyed like they promised in the message.

You won’t accept it. You may die, but your family won’t.

You untangle yourself from them. Grab Supergirl’s cape -capes are lame, you still remember that- and fly up. Up. Up. Up. The other shapeshifter follows you, trying to catch you before you do what they understand now it’s going to happen.

“If you do this, you will die!” You hear Kara’s voice. But it’s not her, and you know your Kara would do anything to protect her family. Anything.

“I don’t care if it kills me. All I care about is taking you down with me!” You say and you reach the exact point. You know if you keep going, you’ll be too far gone. You almost died in outer space once. You don’t know exactly how you survived, but you know this time you can’t pull it off again.

You hold Supergirl’s cape stronger and spin it around. You see the shapeshifter trying to change its form, but it’s too late. You toss it into space and look down to the other one.

“Two Superkids dying in outer space together is almost… Poetic.” You fly towards the other shapeshifter, the one with your face.

“You don’t want to do this.” It says, staring at you, like it's looking at your soul.

“You’re right, I don’t.” You grab its throat and look up. “But it’s whatever it costs!”

Up. Up. Up.

No air left in your lungs, no other thought except that this is the right thing. Dying was never going to feel right but dying for your family, it’s the closest you could ever feel to death being right.

The other you are now transformed back into its ugly alien form, turning blue. They’re gone. It’s over.

You close your eyes feeling light-headed and you feel like crying. It doesn’t matter if it’s the right thing or if it’s for your family, you still don’t want to die, and you’ll still miss them.

You know this won’t matter. But maybe, just maybe, the watch will send them a signal and Kara will come for your body when she wakes up. That way they can mourn you properly. All of them, but Lena since she doesn’t even remember you anymore. At least she won’t suffer, you think. You press the emergency watch. And you’re out.

“Will you please stop going to outer space?” You hear softly in your ear, and you open your eyes trying to focus them on what is before you. Blonde locks flying in the wind, a perfect baby blue sky over you, and that warm smile only one person in this universe has. “I’ve got you, little one. You’ve got me before; I’ve got you now.”

You smile. And before passing out again you think that you have to stop almost dying. It’s starting to get truly exhausting.

You open your eyes, looking around to make sure you actually didn’t die. It’s stupid, you know, but still you find it’s hard to believe you pulled it off. Somehow you pulled it off.

Alex is in the bed next to you, awake, finally. Brainy is also in a bed, the real one that was probably hurt by the shapeshifters so one of them could take his place. Kara is pacing around nervously, and the rest of the family are also in the infirmary, creeping around the sick ones.

“You fucking dipshit!” Jamie slaps your arm, and you almost feel the sting. “I told you to come back. You promised you would come back whatever it costs!”

“Well… I’m here.” You give her a little smile and she rolls her eyes, full of tears. Next thing you know, she is hugging you tight, and sobbing on your suit.

“I hate you.” She whispers in your ear, and you smile, while the whole family looks at both of you. “I hate you and your hero complex.”

“I love you too.” You smile and she lets go of you with a smile. Kara is the next one to throw her arms around you and kiss your temple.

“You’re the best superhero in this town.” She says, and you almost believe her. Almost.

“Mom.” You let go of Kara and look around in the room. “Where is she?”

They all stare at you blankly. No one says a thing.

“Where is Lena?” You demand, and Kara drops her head low and lets out a sigh.

“We’re gonna get her back, kid.” Her hand cups your face, and she strokes your cheek. You see the pain in her eyes, and you feel tears forming on yours. “One thing at a time.”

Your heart squeezes on your chest, and you forget about the fact that you were probably actually dead for at least a minute, not long ago. This doesn’t seem remotely important, as Lena not having her memories and not knowing who you are right now. You almost died, and your mom is not here to hold you gently and say, ‘you’re ok babygirl’.

Kara seems to be able to read your mind, like Lena usually does, when she puts her hand on your knee and gives it a gentle and assuring squeeze. “One thing at a time, baby.”

#supergirl #kara danvers #supercorp #supercorpfamily #lena luthor #supercorp daughter #kara x lena #kara x reader #supercorp fanfic #lena x reader #reader insert #superkid

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waveypedia · 3 years

Text

The Family We Make

Companion piece to Leaving the Nest (can be read in any order)

Ao3

After Bradford is defeated, it takes hours for the adrenaline of the day to wear off.

Fenton calls his mother, who brings half of Duckburg’s police force over much sooner than should be humanly possible. Any questioning stares are met with amused shrugs and Gyro’s passionate declaration to never get between Officer M.A.M.A. Cabrera and her son. Spoken from experience, of course. Officer Cabrera’s officers and the superheroes present arrest FOWL’s goons. (Pepper gives May and June goodbye hugs.)

The villains are gone, of course, having split with the help of Magica’s sorcery and a harmless raven on her shoulder. They’d left with winks and playful smiles tossed over their shoulders. Almost friendly, but not quite. Familiar. The promises of future tussles and battles left unsaid in the desert air. No one says anything outright, but the villains’ smooth departure puts a smile on everyone’s faces. It’s the promise of a next time. Of countless adventures to come. Bradford, for all his meticulous and careful planning, lost.

Goldie steals Manny away to ride into the nearest town and comes back with a cooler of snacks. Uncle Scrooge - Dad (Dad!) - and Granny level their fiercest glares at her and pointedly ask if she paid for them. Goldie giggles behind her hand and avoids the question, dropping a packaged ice cream cone in Dewey’s hands. He lights up, and Dad melts just like the ice cream under the hot desert sun.

Webby, sitting blissfully between Dad and Granny, has a perfect view of their conversation with Goldie. She keeps shooting Webby weird looks, like she isn’t quite sure what to make of her. Honestly, Webby doesn’t really blame her. Webby has always been Granny’s granddaughter through and through, and she inherited Granny’s disdain for Goldie and protectiveness of Dad.

Webby leans against Dad, and he puts an arm around her. Steady and protective, although she can feel his heart fluttering in his chest. He’s exhausted too - he went through perhaps the most today, at least physically. They’re both too tired to speak, at least right now, but they’re content enough to be in each others’ presence.

Dewey leads the other kids to the ice cream, and they wave her over. Gosalyn passes a cone to her, and Huey hands her a napkin. She sits sandwiched between Boyd and June, eating ice cream on the ramp of the plane. Violet is holding Lena’s cone because Lena is busy weaving friendship bracelets for May and June.

Webby glances back to where Dad and Granny have set up camp. Members of their family are filtering through, offering assistance and comfort. Donald’s leading a team to fix the plane, and Ludwig is bringing a group through FOWL’s headquarters like a tour guide, to pick up any evidence and missing mysteries. Gyro is off to the side, painstakingly fixing Boyd’s body and the Gizmosuit, with Della hovering over his shoulder and making snarky remarks he pretends to be bothered by.

Soon they’ll be in the air, and she still hasn’t talked to Dad. Really talked to him.

Fear starts to pool in Webby’s gut. He seemed to take it well enough, but that was in the middle of the fight. What if he doesn’t want to be her father? What if this changes her relationship with her other family members?

Webby squeezes her cone so hard it cracks and melted ice cream spills onto her hand.

Why should a piece of parchment, magic or not, decide her family, when she’s spent years cultivating and choosing the perfect family of her own? For better or for worse?

A familiar hand waves in front of her face, green sleeves flapping in the slight breeze, and Webby jumps, startled. Her family, no longer contentedly eating their ice cream, are all staring at her with varying degrees of worry.

“Hey, Webs?” Louie blinks at her and shoves his hands back in the pocket. “You were kinda spacing out there.”

Webby shakes herself back into the present and grins sheepishly at him. “Sorry. What’s up?”

Louie jerks a thumb inside the plane. “Mom just came by. We’re about ready to start heading back. Reinforcements just got here, and they’re going to take everyone else home.”

Webby blinks and casts a quick glance around the desert, cultivated by years of spy training and adventuring. Della is indeed a few paces away, talking to Launchpad, next to the broken plane wing looking as good as new. On the other side of the plane, Amunet and D’jinn are talking to Goldie and Storkules as they enter Gladstone’s blimp. The desert is clearing out, and those who haven’t already left are busy packing up any supplies.

Dad and Granny amble over with the rest of the adults into the plane. Dad stops in front of them, placing his cane on the ground with a clink and folding his hands over it. He’s smiling, tired but fond. His eyes rest on Webby for a moment longer than everyone else before moving on.

“All ready, kids?” Dad asks, his beak quirking up in a familiar cocky smirk, and something fond settles in Webby’s gut.

“Ready,” she replies firmly with the rest of them, smiling, and enters the plane, ignoring her growing nervousness. She’s with her family now. She’s safe.

When they’re all safe and settled in the belly of the Sunchaser once again, after Launchpad’s little snafu with the emergency hatch release, Webby seeks Dad out.

He’s sitting in the seat closest to the cockpit, talking with Aunt Daisy. Webby’s full to bursting with nervous energy, but, as she knows, it’s all for naught. His face lights up when he sees Webby coming. Aunt Daisy, as savvy and clever as she is, gives Webby a fond, knowing smile and slips away with a pat on Dad’s knee and a ruffle of Webby’s hair.

Hesitantly, Webby jumps into Aunt Daisy’s chair and maneuvers herself to face Dad. She busies herself for a few moments by fidgeting with her friendship bracelet.

Dad rearranges himself to face Webby, too. “What can I do for you, lass?” he asks, but she can tell from his tone he already knows where this conversation is going.

“So. Um.” Webby tugs at the hem of her skirt, bunching it up in her fists and hurriedly smoothing it out again. “Dad.”

“Dad,” he repeats, his voice full of wonder and amazement. A small smile tugs at his grin, threatening to burst and split his face.

“Can we talk?” Webby asks nervously. Her voice breaks a little on the word talk, and Dad noticeably winces.

“Of course,” he replies, awkward and stilted. “Go ahead.”

“Well…” Webby stares down at her skirt, then back up at Dad with glassy eyes. “Do you love me?”

Dad jerks, shocked. It’s clear that of all her questions, he certainly wasn’t expecting that one.

“Like a daughter,” Webby clarifies. “Do you love me like a daughter?”

Dad’s face changes, softens. It’s unreadable, but not unkind.

“Of course,” he replies softly.

Webby flinches and glances to the side, at the wall of the plane. Anywhere but Dad’s face. She tries to hide her discomfort, but it’s clear he notices.

“Do you… not want me to?” he tries.

Webby shakes her head. “Of course I do,” she replies softly.

“Then why…” he trails off. He has a million clauses he could finish the sentence with, but they all hang heavy in the air between them, unsaid.

Webby can’t look at him. “I… I don’t want you to only love me because I’m your daughter,” she replies. Her voice breaks on the word daughter. “I want you to love me because I’m me.”

“Webbigail Vanderquack.” Dad stares at her incredulously. “I paid full price for your birthday party. And it was only a front! How can you think I don’t love you?!”

A shocked giggle bursts out of Webby. After a moment, Dad joins her in his own giggling fit.

“I know you love me,” Webby replies quietly after their giggles have died down. Dad’s smile sags, and his expression turns serious and forlorn. “But it’s not the same. I- I know I’ve always been Granny’s granddaughter. It’s a little different. I love you, but I hate that we’re family because a missing mystery said so, and not because we love each other.”

Dad’s expression softens. “Oh, lassie.” He opens his arms, and Webby crawls into his embrace without a second thought.

Dad smooths her hair and tucks his chin onto her head. “Did you know,” he says, his voice muffled by the embrace, “that technically, May and June are my daughters too?”

Webby’s eyes burn. “Hmm?”

“Aye,” Dad continues. “If you were made from my DNA, and May and June were made from yours, then they’re a part of me too. Maybe they’re more like my granddaughters, but the point stands.”

Webby buries her face further into Dad’s coat and doesn’t respond. She’s not sure how too.

“Point being, May and June are my family, and I will treat them as such. I’m sure they’re marvelous young girls, and lovely sisters for you, my dear.”

Dad shifts his embrace so he can see her face. He holds her gaze with a steady and serious look.

“But they’re not my daughters. You, Webby darlin’, are. Do you know why?”

Webby shakes her head.

Dad hugs her tighter. “Because you always have been,” he replies, his voice thick, and oh. “Maybe not with that exact label, but, as Lena would say, labels are weird. You’re my family. You’re one of my kids. I know you, and I love you, Webby darlin’.”

“I… I know I didn’t make the effort to get to know you when you were young,” Dad continues. “I will be the first to admit I regret that. I’ve made a lot of mistakes when it comes to family. But I’ve had the honor of watching you grow these past years, and of being your family. And I wouldn’t trade that for the world.”

Webby nods. She knows they’re both thinking of earlier that day, when Scrooge’s declaration was put to the test, and won, but only narrowly. He doesn’t make that statement lightly.

Dad shifts, and his embrace loosens. His expression turns troubled and almost… nervous? It scares Webby by osmosis, but a part of her that she hasn’t processed yet thinks it’s comforting that he’s just as scared as she is. It’s new territory for both of them, but they’ll conquer it together.

“Webby, lass,” Dad begins, hesitantly. “Do you… not want me to be your father?”

Webby hums thoughtfully. Out of all the questions that had arisen in the wake of the Papyrus’ reveal, she hadn’t directly considered this one. It had been at the back of her mind, waiting, lingering.

Despite the lack of deliberation time, Webby knows the answer. She’s always known it, from the moment Bradford had confirmed her ancestry.

“Yes,” she says confidently, so firmly that it startles Dad. “It’s like you said. You’re my family, and that didn’t change.”

Dad’s face softens, and his shoulders slump with relief, and his grin threatens to split his face. Webby grins back, a mirror of his own.

“But,” she continues. “I… I like calling you Uncle Scrooge, too. It feels right to call myself your daughter, but it also feels right to call myself your niece. Does… is that okay? Does that make sense?”

“Of course,” Dad replies, shifting his arms. “I think I know how you feel. You are my daughter, and my niece. You’re one of my kids, and that will never change.”

He smiles wryly. “I do like having this special connection to you, though, lass. I have many heirs, but you’re the heir of Clan McDuck. That’s not something to take lightly. I’m proud of you.”

“I’ve never had a father,” she says after a minute. “Granny told me about a father, and a mother, too, but I never really knew them. But I’ve always had you.”

“Aye, Blaise,” Dad replies. “Your so-called ‘mother’ was your grandmother’s niece, if I remember correctly. Arianna. She and Blaise were sweet, if a bit airheaded, from what your grandmother’s told me. They were in a car crash shortly before you were bo- before your grandmother brought you home.”

Webby hums. “I didn’t know they were real.”

“Aye, they were very real,” Dad confirms. “As I’m sure Louie or Goldie will tell you, the best lies are closest to the truth. I’m sure they would love you, dear.”

“I don’t know them,” Webby counters softly. She tilts her head back to look Dad in the eyes. “I never will. But I know you.”

He beams at her. “Exactly, lassie.”

Webby shifts back into his embrace, and they sit together for a minute, the plane’s rumblings shaking them both slightly.

“Does this mean Goldie is my mom now?” Webby asks suddenly, her beak quirking into a grin.

Dad startles and squawks. “Ack, no! I know Louie calls her Aunt Goldie, for all the blasted- but now. Er, I suppose, that’s up to you, lassie,” he finishes somewhat awkwardly.

Webby smiles contentedly and leans her cheek against the fabric of his coat. “That’s okay,” she replies. “It’s my family and I get to choose the members.”

Dad grins proudly, and they lapse back into silence for another few minutes. The adrenaline, both from the harrowing events of the day and the nerve-wracking yet highly anticipated conversation with dad, slips out of her veins, and the heaviness of sleep tugs at Webby’s eyes.

Dad eventually breaks the drowsy, comfortable silence. “I’m proud to call you my daughter.” he murmurs into her hair, and Webby beams. “I’m proud you’re my family, not because that blasted Papyrus says so, but because you chose me. That means more to me than all the money in my Money Bin.”

Webby snuggles deeper into his embrace, her eyelids drifting closed. “Likewise, Dad. I love you.”

He smooths her hair down. The last thing she hears before she falls asleep, blissful and safe, is: “I love you too, Webby darlin’.”

god i. finale came out today and anyone who’s talked to me can verify that i’ve been in constant Duck Mode all day. head full only ducks. i’ve been struggling with motivation lately (as always lmao) but it struck today in the form of my absolute favorite dynamic in the entire show.

if you were in my circles back in 2018, around when confidential casefiles aired, you might remember that i talked a lot about webby and scrooge. i remember requesting them in almost every writing prompt request i was offered. i don’t talk about them much nowaways, and i’m not sure why, because i still love them. regardless of how you feel about the twist in the finale, the pure, unconditional love that webby and scrooge show each other makes me so, so happy. I almost added a section with beakley, because she's an important part of webby's family as well and they need to have a conversation, but webby and scrooge needed their moment. i'll write it later.

this is a bit of trying to make sense of how the theme of found and chosen family fits in with webby’s new biological relation to scrooge and a bit closure. scrooge isn’t the best at having these important conversations, but webby’s pretty good at sticking up for herself when need be.

arianna and blaise are actually based on my OC versions of webby’s parents i made a long, long time ago! arianna was a shush-turned-fowl agent, and blaise was a fowl technician. my plan for them was that they were working for fowl (which was, at the time, based on darkwing duck’s fowl) and eventually, they both cut ties and became freelance villains in st. canard and duckburg. the duck family would fight them, they’d recognize webby and beakley, and the truth would come out. the arianna and blaise mentioned here aren’t my old versions of them, but i wanted to pay tribute to that little picture webby had on her board of her parents. i figured they had to be someone, especially since the woman looked a lot like beakley. my headcanon is that they really were a librarian and an artist, and that beakley raised webby in their images as a tribute to the family she’d lost. also, it didn’t come up in the fic, but blaise is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns!

when watching and rewatching the finale and watching gifs of it, something that struck me was how awestruck and euphoric scrooge acted when he found out. i think most of us focused on webby’s reaction, and beakley’s, but man, scrooge gets so quietly emotional and it means everything to me. this is basically a love letter to that quiet joy, scrooge and webby’s relationship, webby’s beautiful relationship with family, the finale, and ducktales as a whole. i love this goddamn show, and i’m going to miss it so much. see you, space cowboy.

#ducktales #ducktales 2017 #dt17 #webby vanderquack #scrooge mcduck #ducktales spoilers #dt spoilers #the last adventure #wavey writes #ducktales fanfiction

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docholligay · 3 years

Note

"Because you are dying" for Winston and Lena because apparently I hate myself. And Geeky.

THANK YOU FOR GIVING ME THIS OPENING. I've known this bit for a long long time and the moment was never right, and now I'm hoping you'll all be miserable along with me. 1200 ish words.

“You lied to me!”

Winston swung his body across the room and landed in front of her, hair on the back of his neck stood straight up, eyes flaring brightly.

Most people would have stepped back, but such is the nature of love that Tracer did not cower, did not even move her weight to the back foot, simply stared at him and shook her head.

“I didn’t lie to you,” She stamped her foot, “I just didn’t tell you, and that’s not the same thing, Win, it isn’t.”

Winston whirled around, a thousand thoughts crushing through his brain. Never in his life had he wanted to run so badly, and never had he had so little idea where to run to. Tracer couldn’t do this, he whispered to himself, not to him, no matter how much she--of course she could do this, another thought interrupted, and you knew something was wrong, but you let it go because you trusted her, you let it go because--

He turned around, taking a breath. “How long have you known?”

“Long enough.” Winston simply stared at her. “Few months, give or take, love, honestly I’m not sure I quite-- I don’t see ‘ow this ‘elps--”

“When. Did Angela. Tell you.”

Tracer sighed and looked away from him. “September. End of September.”

“So not a few months. Six.”

“Not great at time, me,” Tracer smiled and tossed up her hands, “I think six can be a few, if we’re being fair about it.”

“Half a year, you’ve known.” Winston’s hands were still shaking, balled into fists, “and you told me nothing.”

Tracer shrugged. “Wasn’t personal, Win, I didn’t tell nobody nothing. Not even Em.”

“It IS personal,” he tapped his temple, eyes shut tight, trying to contain an anger he hadn’t realized he could feel, ‘how am I supposed to get through to you? You’re dying, Lena. You’re dying. Were you just going to let me think everything was fine? You never thought you’d have to tell me? Did you,” he looked for a word she couldn’t weasel out of, “mislead me about how well you were? Can you at least say that?”

She nodded quietly. “Yeah, I might ‘ave done.”

Tracer blew by the beat of silence in the air, took a step toward him and laughed, stretching out her hand to touch him. “Honestly, me luck being generally to the good, present moment excepted, thought I might just drop dead and then it’d be a non-issue--”

He recoiled from her. “Then it wouldn’t be an issue FOR YOU. It’s not funny, Lena! It’s not cute! It would blindside the rest of us! You’re selfish, Lena!” He sighed and shook his head, staring down at his feet, “You’re selfish and you’re cruel, and I am...so angry with you. You owe me more than this.”

She took in a huff and narrowed her eyes, her jaw set in a hard line. “I don’t owe you--”

“YOU DO! You do.” He took off his glasses and threw them on the table, pinching at the sides of his head, “You owe, all of us, so much more than this.”

“It’s me own bloody body Win, and I’ll thank you to--”

No. Stop.” He paced about the room. “Ever since I’ve known you, you’ve been quiet about your health, and, I’ve always kept it to myself, and never pushed you, and you act like it’s some heroic act to protect other people, but it isn’t, it’s to protect you. You. It’s not that you don’t want to worry people, Lena, it’s that you don’t want them to worry AT you. You want to live life on your own terms, having everyone treat you exactly how you want, and people having any idea what might be going on with you takes that away, and so you keep shit to yourself, because you are SELFISH.”

“Right, and if I’ve ALWAYS been selfish, figures you might ‘ave considered this as something I could do.” She leaned up against the couch, arms crossed, bristling. “If I’m so bloody terrible, Win, why do you even care? Doing you a bit of a favor, right, nipping off to the afterlife before you ‘ave to tolerate too many more years with me.”

He rubbed his face and looked over at her. “Are you trying to be an asshole right now, or are you just this self-centered?”

“You tell me, being as you know so much about--”

“Lena. Take responsibility. You’ve made Angela keep this secret from everyone, taking this all alone, can’t even talk to Fareeha about it. Your family? Do their feelings not matter to you? Do mine? They love you, and you’re letting your time with them slip through their fingers, and they don’t even know? Parvati? And God, let’s not even talk about what you’ve done to Emily--”

“Right, let’s don’t, as all this started when I tried to do the right thing and leave ‘er.”

“For what? So you don’t have to deal with someone looking at you in a sad way? So none of us take a moment of special care with you? Does that seem fair to you, Lena? Really?”

She stepped up toward him, pushing her face into hers. “Everything is different, once people know, Winston, and I ‘ave some right, whatever you think, to live what’s left of me life the way I want to, as I always ‘ave, and I don’t ‘ave to share me own personal problems with no one--I wouldn’t even be ‘ere if Emily wasn’t forcing me--”

His face fell. “Emily made you tell me?”

In that moment, Tracer stopped. She stepped back. His voice had been soft and calm and oh so very hurt, and the silence that told the terrible answer to his question hung in the air. Tracer cast around for some sort of answer that would make the truth less painful, that would make her look a little less the villain, but no comfortable landing place for that silence appeared.

“Get out.” It chimed like a bell through that silence, slicing it.

“Win--”

He turned his back to her.

“I said leave, Lena. I don’t want you here. Go.”

He may as well have hit her, for as fast as tears sprung to her eyes. It might have been less painful. Never, over the course of their years of friendship, had he ever told her to go. Had he ever refused to see her. But she nodded, and walked back to the door, taking her coat off its appointed place on the rack, and slipped it over her shoulders. Winston’s back was still to her, a large grey mountain in the center of the room, clad in a soft copper colored sweater that wanted mending at the elbow.

She zipped up her jacket, and walked quietly over to him, setting her hand on his back.

“I do love you, Win. I do.”

He reached around, took her hand, kept it, just for a moment, as if he couldn’t bear to let it go, and then dropped it, never looking back to her face.

“Right.” tears began to drift down her cheeks, but she kept it quiet. It was what she did best. “Goodbye, then.”

She walked out the door, and shut it behind her, leaving only the silence.

#touch prompts

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tvcoroner · 2 years

Text

Finale Thoughts Pt. 01: Karamel

Let’s do this. I’m not going to talk much about the episode itself because honestly there’s not much to say. I’m just going to talk about what I thought of the state of things after, and of course my thoughts on Kara and Lena and Mon-El etc. I’m a shipper everyone, this is mostly about the various ships. I’m breaking these up into separate posts otherwise the tags would be a pain in the ass and the reading way too damn long. Considering these are the last posts I’m ever going to make about Supergirl, I’m using the shipping tags even if I have nothing good to say about that ship. You can always ignore or block me if you don’t like that. I’m also using the anti tags, so you can easily block anything I say if you haven’t blocked that tag already.

Kara and Mon-El (Karamel)

Okay let’s start with the least important part. I’m sorry Karamel shippers, but this relationship hasn’t been relevant since season three, and even then only barely. I’ve never hidden how much I disliked this relationship. The entire thing just made Kara look really really bad. They wanted a relationship of opposites so that Kara could “fix” him and turn him into a better man. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see 99% of that change. He left, he came back, he was different.

This ship didn’t exactly have the best start. Mon-El was basically introduced as a replacement for James in Kara’s life, and I don’t need to tell you how monumentally bad that looked. This is one of the few ships on the show where the Supercorp fandom was united with the rest of the fandom, or at least those who didn’t ship Karamel, in not liking him.

To this day it was one of the most lazily handled ships I’ve ever seen. During their relationship there were multiple time jumps that were never directly made clear to the audience. Literal months of time could pass between episodes, which meant Mon-El when through character growth that we never got to see.

James went from not liking him to thinking he and Kara are great together between a number of episodes that James wasn’t even in. It came across as way too forced. The writers REALLY wanted people to see Karamel as an epic love story, but put in very little effort to make it feel like one. It was like someone shouting at you nonstop to care about this character and his relationship with Kara but not telling you why you should care.

Watching Kara not stand up for herself when he fucked up over and over again was exhausting, and she only finally did it in the next season after Mon-El returned from the future, had a new relationship, and got married. It was a very vindicating moment, but it came way too late to make this relationship feel significant. Mon-El was written out of the show and only made appearances briefly in the following seasons. It was clear the writers had moved on.

One of the popular ending theories was that Kara would go to the future with Mon-El. I HATED this theory because it would involve her leaving everyone and everything that has meaning to her to go to a place she has zero connection to other than her ex boyfriend. Karamel shippers desperately wanted this to happen, because at least then it could mean their ship gets back together.

Yeah...that didn’t happen. Mon-El showed up and helped and...that was it. He left. His previous relationship with Kara feels and IS nonexistent at this point. The writers were over it, the experiment had failed. I’m so glad the future ending didn’t come true. It wouldn’t have made any sense despite how many people I’ve seen try to justify it.

In the end, the only annoyance I can muster up for this ship is from things that happened years ago, and it’s just been too long for that feeling to be anything more than fleeting. Karamel happened, and it did bring Melissa and Chris together, who are now married and have a child, so that’s great. But for something that took up so much of an entire season, it was largely irrelevant to the story as a whole.

#supergirl #kara danvers #Mon-El #karamel #anti karamel

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effei-s · 3 years

Text

anderson and his paradox:

about the duality of a man.

(aka see me rambling in this 1500-words long essay about how much i love him)

the first half of his paradox: he’s more than capable of love. i would even dare to say that love is a driving force behind 99% of his actions.

let’s look at examples:

adam’s mom (aurora):

i’ve said it before, i’ll say it again: he worshiped the ground she walked on. it’s a fact. it’s what adam said about him in unravel me: i know he loved my mom. it was always her, everything was about her.

her death was probably the worst thing that happened to him, the loss that made him truly suffer, hence him constantly talking about how he wants to shield warner from it. that whole thing with lena is not about control itself, it’s about warner not making his own mistakes. there’s a genuine desire to protect there.

evie:

considering how little information is given about them it’s honestly amazing how much there lies between the lines (can mafi write everything the way she’s written them, please?).

they’re the perfect example of my favourite type of soulmates. he’s actually second worst person on this planet, because first place is already taken by her. there’s no one who knows him better then her (she knew about adam = she knew about aurora). there’s no one who understands him better than her (them being two vital parts of the RE from the very beginning). it doesn’t matter how much they fight, he trusts her with his life no questions asked: he comes to her before ignite me and asks her to make him immortal. considering evie’s words in defy me about how she was ready to kill him for trying to kill juliette in unravel me it was very risky of him (because if there’s one person that could slit open his throat and kill him for good, because he let his guard down, it would be evie). he trusts her to do her job and has no doubts about her capability to succeed. his first reaction to her death is ‘what? it can’t be real!’ because evie for him is almost untouchable entity ‘if they couldn’t hurt me, they sure as hell won’t be able to hurt her’. when he realizes that it’s true he’s terrified.

and anderson doesn’t do terrified.

/i really don’t know what can scream LOVE louder than this/

warner:

we can’t not talk about warner here.

warner betrays him and he still saves warner life. you need to remember that the only reason why warner is still alive in defy me, after he committed treason, is because anderson protects him.

by that time in restore me/defy me anderson, who technically lost his position as a supreme, still managed to save warner’s life /because he’s cool like that/.

“I had to call in a number of favors to have you transported here unharmed. The council was going to vote to have you executed for treason, and I was able to convince them otherwise.”

even evie doesn’t dare to fuck with warner because she knows anderson will come at them with the wrath of god.

“If Aaron were anyone else’s son,” she says, “I would’ve had him executed. I’d have him executed right now, if I could. Unfortunately, I alone do not have the authority.”

anyone else’s son.

so yeah the problem here is not that warner is one of the heirs of the RE. the problem here is that he’s anderson’s son.

plus his entire conflict with juliette is rooted in the fact that she

a) tried to hurt warner

unravel me:

I cannot allow him to protect a person who has attempted to kill him.

restore me:

The monster we’ve bred has tried to kill my own son.

b) tried to take warner from him.

restore me:

Worse, she’s become a distraction for Aaron. He’s become—in a toxic turn of events—impossibly drawn to her, with no apparent regard for his own safety. I have no idea what she’s done to his mind.

and then in imagine me he declines warner’s offer.

“You would be willing to sacrifice yourself—your youth and your health and your entire life—to let that damaged, deranged girl continue to walk the earth? Do you even understand what you’re saying? You have every opportunity—all the potential—and you’d be willing to throw it all away? In exchange for what?Do you even know the kind of life to which you’d be sentencing yourself ?”

/i dare you to tell me he didn’t love warner, i dare you/

juliette:

as a cherry on top, there’s juliette, of course.

when we’re talking about hate we’re talking about juliette, no questions asked. i truly believe that his hatred for her was stronger than his love for aurora and evie combined. and still what brings him down for good is not hate for her but adoration of her (oh irony, my irony).

after 12 years of hatred, after 12 years of her being ‘the bane of his existence’, he still ended up spending his dying breath to make sure she will be safe.

“I ordered you to remain silent,” he says, glancing back at her. “And I am now ordering you to remain safe, at all costs. Do you hear me, Juliette? Do y—”

“Kill them,” Anderson gasps, blood staining the edges of his lips. “Kill them all. Kill anyone who stands in your way.”

just like defy-me warner, imagine-me juliette survives ONLY because of anderson.

he even apologized to her at one point.

“You know, I realize now that I’ve been too hard on you. I’ve put you through too much. Tested your loyalty perhaps too much. But you and I have a long history, Juliette. And it’s not easy for me to forgive. I certainly don’t forget.”

anderson??? admitting??? that??? what??? he??? did??? was??? wrong???

and not because he needs to get off the hook, but because he actually feels like it was too much???

ALERT THE MASSES, THE WORLD NEEDS TO HEAR ABOUT IT!!!

btw, do my eyes deceive me, or did this ‘not easy to forgive’ mean that he actually already FORGAVE her for trying to kill him?

anyhow if that wasn’t enough look at this:

“What could possibly go wrong?” Anderson asks. “She’s more powerful than any of them, and completely obedient to me. To us. To the movement. You all know as well as I do that she’s proven her loyalty again and again. She’d be able to capture them in a matter of minutes.”

do you see it?

it’s the same thing that happened with evie: no one here is strong enough to hurt her (oh, i can see some PROJECTIONS here happening).

it’s funny how the way Anderson acts is EXACTLY what I expected from Warner. he isn't just talking about how she can do anything, when moment comes he ACTS.

Anderson is guarding Juliette. The same Anderson who’s spent so much of his energy trying to murder her—is now standing in front of her with his arms out, guarding her with his life.

i’d still prefer for her or him to kill ibrahim but even without it... he says you can burn this place to the ground, I don’t care as long as you’re safe, he chooses her over not only the RE, he chooses her over WARNER.

/and you expect me not to ship this??? sure, jen, i’m not gonna/

conclusion number 1: yes, my beautiful people, everything Anderson does in one way or another tied to love.

the second half of his paradox: love doesn’t make him a better person, it doesn’t even make him fully human. you’d think that if person capable of such strong feelings there’s supposed to be something worth saving, just like castle’s said:

“Of course he’s a regular person, son. That’s exactly the point. We’re all just regular people, when you strip us down. There’s nothing to be afraid of when you look at Anderson; he’s just as human as you or me. Just as terrified. And I’m sure if he could go back and do his life over again, he’d make very different decisions.”

(castle is a fucking idiot, never listen to people like him or you’re gonna end up neck-deep in shit)

but at the end of the day anderson remains a fucking monster.

his love for aurora doesn’t stop him from marrying another woman and having a child with her because it’s the easiest way to social climb.

his love and devotion to evie and re (mostly evie, because evie is the reestablishment) doesn’t stop him from playing games with juliette and putting everything and everyone at risk just because he’s bored.

i won’t even start commenting on warner’s situation, because otherwise we’re gonna sit here for days and i’ll end up with 100k words essay about them.

and even his enamourment with juliette doesn’t actually protect her from his violent nature. even this perfect, absolutely perfect juliette still has to prove herself (cut off her finger to show her loyalty). it still very easy for him to hurt her.

conclusion number 2: him being in love, him caring about someone, him trusting someone doesn’t change his fundamental nature. he still remains a destructive force put into a human body.

he’s a fucking satan.

and that’s exactly why i love him.

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lena-in-a-red-dress · 3 years

Text

Notting Hill AU Snippet #11

Kara hesitates outside the Travel Book Shop, noting in distraction that the outside is just about the same color as Lena's blue door. She wonders if it was a deliberate choice, or something Lena simply inherited. It would be simple to ask-- Lena is just there beyond the window, shifting between the front desk and back office completely oblivious to the crisis of faith happening on the sidewalk outside.

She doesn't know what to say. 'You left' is too accusatory, and too much of an echo of what Kara had done six months ago. No, she can't say that.

'I missed you' would be honest, perhaps to a fault. No, too tender.

In the end, Kara can only gather her courage and enter the shop without a game plan. It just so happens that she chooses a moment when Lena is in the back, meaning the person who comes to greet her is a short man in a bowtie.

He nearly swallows his tongue at the sight of her.

"Could I speak to Lena, please?" she asks, heading him off.

To her surprise, the man-- Winn, his nametag reads-- assumes a skeptical expression. "And who's asking?"

Kara doesn't have patience to play games. "Please, just tell her I'm here."

Thankfully, Winn obliges with only a judgemental glance that scrapes her from head to toe. He disappears into the back, and Kara can just make out what he says to Lena.

"Delivery for you up front."

"Can't you just take it?" Lena asks, distracted.

"Nope! Asked for you directly."

Kara hears Lena sigh. "Honestly I don't know why I pay you--"

Lena comes into the front room and freezes. Their eyes meet, and Kara feels something click into place inside her, just as it had on set the day before. But this time, Lena doesn't smile, not even the hesitant one she'd given at Hampstead Heath. Instead, Kara sees her jaw tighten before she walks woodenly behind the front desk.

"You disappeared yesterday," Kara says, desperate to break the unnerving silence. When Lena doesn't respond, Kara covers with a smile. "I guess something came up--"

"Actually, I heard you talking to Siobhan," Lena cuts in, finally. She lifts her gaze to meet Kara's again, and Kara is startled to see the steely glint of resentment in her eyes. "I wonder why you're even here, considering I'm nobody."

Kara's mind races to retrace her steps, to rewind to whatever she might have said. In the next instant, she remembers Siobhan asking about Lena out of hand, and dismissing her interest in a wash of jealousy.

"Oh, no, Lena, that's not--"

"It doesn't matter," Lena interrupts again. She drops Kara's gaze, even as she swallows thickly. "You know, I thought you'd be different."

Different? "From what? The rest of Hollywood?"

If that was Lena's misgiving, then Kara had no hope. Kara had it in her blood now, been bred to it. She had no hope of divesting herself of it now.

"From Veronica."

A record scratches in Kara's brain. She struggles to catch up, remember who Veronica is. Had they met? No... Veronica was-- the bad break-up.

Kara's cheeks heat in a devastated flush.

"I don't doubt that you're two very different people," Lena continues. "You're kind, in a way Veronica never was. And trusting. But even so-- I'm still the dirty little secret, aren't I?"

When Kara inhales, it feels like shards of glass in her chest. "Lena, I know there's no way I could ever make up for the things I said to you. I behaved so, so badly, and I-- I hate that I hurt such a loving, caring person."

Lena turns her chin away, hiding the shimmer of tears in her eyes. Kara forces herself to continue.

"I can't make it up to you, but I want to try. If you... if you can find it in yourself, to maybe... like me again."

A long moment follows, and Kara clenches her jaw against the urge to fill it with more. More words, more pleas. Anything but the unbearable weight as Lena gathers herself and her thoughts.

"What happens," Lena says finally, "if I say no?"

"Then... I leave. I'll go back to America, and I won't call you, or visit you. You won't have to see me again."

It's the only thing she can do. As much as it would devastate her, as much as it would rend her in two a second time, she would do it. She would let Lena go. For good.

"Then," Lena says slowly, her voice low, "I think I have to say... no."

Kara swallows a sob, ducking her head to hide it. She nods. "Right. Okay. Of course."

"We're from two different worlds, Kara. I can't spend my life waiting to be cast aside, Kara. And with you I know I would be. As I already have. Twice." Lena sniffles, clearing her throat. "I deserve more than that."

Kara lifts her head, nodding. "You do. You absolutely do."

She knows she should leave, but her feet refuse to move. She stands riveted to the spot, wringing every last moment from this last meeting with Lena.

"The fame thing isn't really real, please know that. Those few weeks with you were more tangible to me than a lifetime in the industry. Under all the lights and the make-up, I'm also just a girl, standing in front of a girl, asking you to love me."

Kara holds Lena's gaze, and in her eyes she sees nothing but fear and sadness. No forgiveness, no change of heart. When Lena finally lowers her gaze, Kara knows her battle is lost.

Swallowing thickly, Kara risks moving closer, and when Lena doesn't pull away Kara leans in to press a kiss against her cheek.

"Goodbye, Lena."

---

Kara walks back to the hotel in a daze. She makes her way back up to the suite she shares with Alex, and when she closes the door behind her, her sister is on her feet, eagerly awaiting the news.

"So? How'd it go?"

Kara reveals the truth with a barely contained gasp. "She said no."

For the rest of the night, Alex holds her as she sobs.

previous / next

#supercorp #notting hill au

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staarshiine · 3 years

Text

Turbulence

words: 1,773 tw: s*icdial thoughts

Louie knew that he shouldn’t be feeling this way, that it was a dangerous and terrible thought to have, but he just couldn’t muster up the energy to care anymore.

He hadn’t cared about anything for a long time.

or, Louie can’t sleep. He ends up spiraling.

Ao3

Louie didn’t know what it was that woke him up.

These nights even the slightest creek from the old house could startle him awake. It was embarrassing, really, to sometimes fall out of bed just because a poster fell off a wall, especially after he had a day of avoiding bears with chainsaws for arms. Maybe being such a light sleeper was the price he had to pay for a childhood of near death experiences. A shitty trade off, if you asked him.

In the end it didn’t really matter what woke him up, the result was the same.

Louie was left laying alone in the dark, tired out of his mind, but unable to sleep.

For some awful reason, his brain had decided to choose now to be uncomfortably aware of every inch of his body, almost as if sensing his desperate attempts to fall back asleep.

His gut was churning and twisting in a way he knew would evolve into a full blown stomachache the second he decided to get up, and there was a slight pang in the left side of his rib cage. His wrist and knuckles still hurt from when he had smacked the back of his hand against a stone wall while running away from the catastrophe of the day, and there was a similar stinging pain in his knee from when he scrapped it tripping and falling on the ground to narrowly avoid the swipe of an axe. His legs and the bottoms of his feet were aching from the cardio workout he got while running for his fucking life earlier that day.

He was just so tired.

The weariness went much further than just bone deep. It was as if exhaustion was laced into every breath, like someone had made thread out of lead and had sewn it into the very fabric of his soul.

He was tired of not being able to sleep through the night. He was tired of his body hurting all the time. He was tired of being forced to fight just to live every day.

He was tired of his life. He was tired of living.

The realization dawned upon him quietly but all at once, like the tide slowly inching in until he’s suddenly been submerged by the waves he didn't notice creeping in.

Louie knew that he shouldn’t be feeling this way, that it was a dangerous and terrible thought to have, but he just couldn’t muster up the energy to care anymore.

He hadn’t cared about anything for a long time.

When had the constant danger become normal? Why had he gotten used to being kidnapped on a daily basis, as if it wasn’t horrifying enough to get locked and tied up? How had having to run just for the chance to breath for another day become a regular occurrence?

Louie had been running on pure fear for so long, he wasn’t sure how to get through the day without adrenaline pulsing through his veins.

Maybe he was tired of fighting. He barely even knew what he was fighting for.

It wasn’t as if Uncle Scrooge allowed him to keep any of the treasures they found on adventures. The golden luster of a future life filled with riches had begun to lose its shine. Was some pretty coin worth all the trouble it was taking to get there?

He didn’t have many big dreams outside of just getting rich, it was almost sad. It was sad. But it wasn’t as if he was going to get far in life anyways. Louie was a greedy, lazy, selfish bastard and he knew that fact uncomfortably well. No matter what Louie did he could never seem to escape who he really was. Someone always ended up getting hurt.

Did he have anyone to be there for?

He didn’t have many friends, either. Not that he ever really tried to make any, not after the disaster that was Doofus Drake. Lena, Boyd, Violet, and Gosalyn were all nice, but they weren’t really his friends. They were all closer to his siblings. He wasn’t anyone’s first choice.

There was always his family.

His family who probably hated him.

Louie couldn’t even count the number of times he had put them into mortal danger for stupid reasons. No shiny ring or necklace was worth their lives, but he was always blinded by the shine and his own selfish greed, and risked it anyways. What reason had he given to deserve their love? He brought nothing good to the table. All he did was sit around all day and get in the way.

His family didn’t seem to have the same problems with the constant adventures that he did. Day after day they just popped back into action, bravely facing whatever life threw their way. Louie felt so ashamed in comparison. Was the problem just him? What was wrong with him?

Why couldn’t he do anything right?

Schemes were supposed to be his thing, the one skill he had that had the capacity to be helpful, to some degree. He fucked that up too.

He had blinked all of them out of existence because of his stupid fucking schemes, and his mom hated him for it. Of course she did. Who wouldn’t? He certainly did.

God.

He just wanted to go back to bed.

Louie didn’t know how much time he had spent, falling deeper and deeper into his own head, but he felt worse than ever before.

His blanket had long stopped being comforting and instead became suffocating. He could barely muster the energy to rip it off, and the sudden cold made him feel sick to his stomach.

Living in a literal tower seemed cool, but the novelty wore off once they realized Scrooge was too cheap to pay for the heating in the room.

Still, the cold was better than the clammy constricting blanket. He curled up tight into a fetal position, and tried to bite back the tears burning in his eyes.

Louie knew he wasn’t in the right mind, that his brain was playing tricks on him and skewing his perception of reality, but god did it feel real.

In that moment he truly believed nobody cared for him. That he was totally and utterly alone.

Then Dewey let out a loud snore above him.

It was such a stupid and small thing, but he couldn’t help but let out a snort. Which then exploded into full blown laughter.

Louie just couldn’t stop. He knew he was definitely going to wake someone up, but he just couldn’t control himself. He doubled over wheezing and cackling till his stomach and cheeks hurt, and each gasping breath began to turn into sobs.

Between the sound of his own manic laughter he could hear the sheets above him shuffling, and the quiet thunks of Huey climbing down the ladder.

Knowing his brothers were awake to witness his hot mess of a breakdown just made the situation even more hilarious in the same way a depressed clown falling on his ass was. Louie’s face was bright red from how hard he was laughing, and hot tears were streaming down his cheeks. He could barely breathe. Nothing about the situation felt real.

“...Louie?”

Dewey’s sleepy voice cut through Louie’s gasping breaths, and startled him out of his crazed giggling. Somehow both his brothers had manifested at the edge of his bed without him noticing. Louie could barely make out his brothers’ concerned expressions through his watery eyes.

Huey’s eyebrows were furrowed so hard Louie was surprised he hadn’t gotten wrinkles yet, and Dewey was rubbing his eye and clutching a pillow to his chest. He looked almost scared. Louie had to look really insane for Dewey of all people to be scared, Dewey wasn’t scared of anything. It was honestly concerning sometimes how often he would throw himself head first into danger.

“What happened? Are you okay?” Huey fretted, and moved to sit near him on the bed.

Like he had to ask. Louie knew he looked like a garbage fire that was hit by a freight train then tossed into a blender and hurled into the fucking sea.

You tell me, do I look okay, Hubert?

He knew he was being a little mean, but it was enough to throw Louie back into hysterical laughter, which quickly dissolved into violent sobs. Huey let out a distraught noise and wrapped an arm around his shoulders, pulling him close. Louie just let himself be held and cry into his older brother’s sleep shirt. He felt like a baby, but he couldn’t be bothered to care anymore. The bed dipped and creaked slightly as Dewey sat down on the other side, and began to rub circles into his back. That just made Louie cry even harder.

They really did care about him.

The thought suddenly flooded him with pure relief.

Louie didn’t know how long he spent sitting there and sobbing his eyes out, but eventually he ran out of tears to spill. His heaving cries sputtered off into quiet gasps and eventually he was left quietly clutching to Huey’s side. The night still felt unreal, like the second Louie let go Huey and Dewey would vanish and he would be all alone again.

“...No,” Louie weakly whispered out, his voice scratchy and raw from the abuse Louie had just put his throat through. “I’m not okay. I… I think I haven't been for a really long time.”

No one said anything. Dewey just leaned into his other side and gave Louie’s hand a slight squeeze. Huey shifted slightly to reach up and gently wipe away Louie’s tears. He rested his palm against Louie’s cheek and guided his head to rest on Huey’s shoulder. They were such small acts of affection, but it was enough to warm Louie’s heart. It was right there, sitting sandwiched between both his brother’s, did Louie finally feel a sliver of hope.

He was loved.

It didn’t matter what he thought of himself, there would always be two people in his little corner of the world who cared about him.

Louie was still tired. He wasn’t sure anything could lift that heavy feeling out of his chest, but just sitting there and being held made it just the slightest bit lighter.

Maybe he could make it through another day.

Maybe tomorrow morning he could work up the courage to talk to his siblings and explain just exactly how he was feeling. But for now, all Louie was concerned about was letting his heavy eyelids slip shut.

And finally, he fell asleep.

#ducktales #louie duck #huey duck #dewey duck #suicidal thoughts tw #cal writes #ask to tag #hurt comfort #angst #guess who finally wrote something lmao #sorry its kinda dark #i wasnt feeling too hot LSKDGJH but hey i actually finished something so thats a plus

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thinking1bee · 3 years

Text

Changed Part 2

Requested by Anonymous

Parings: Lena Luthor x Reader

Tags: Violence, Angst, Mentions of Death, PTSD and Anxiety, War, Fluff, Humor

Everything Taglist: @sammy90682 @nobody13 @owloftheshadows @captain-josslett @camslightstories @worldovart @finleyfray @acertainredhead

Getting reacclimated to civilian life was harder than you anticipated. The fear of being attacked when no one was going to assault you was unlike anything that you’d ever experience. It was like hearing whispers in your brain, telling you to constantly be on guard no matter how safe your environment was. Any loud noice was like a bomb. Any bright light was like a flash bang. It was hard living in fear, living on the defensive when there wasn’t a need to be. Lena, though, was with you every step of the way. There were days where she spent the night with you in your apartment when you asked, and then when you needed your space, she would always reassure you that she was just a phone call away. You didn’t know why Lena stuck around through all the anger and irritability. You don’t know why she stuck through the random bursts of rage or the flinching whenever she got nearby. You didn’t know why she would even bother dealing with someone so broken. She would always say that it was because she loved you, but you knew that there was only so much one person could take. You hated being fragmented, your shards jagged and strewn in scattered places that you never seemed to find. You hated that the continued therapy sessions that you were taking weren’t helping as fast as you thought they would. You were as beaten as the day you were airlifted from the battlefield, and every inch of you despised it.

Falling asleep was a nightmare and staying asleep was damn near impossible. You could never stay asleep for long, no matter how many drugs you were prescribed or how often you took them. Memories of dead bodies littering the desert sand had you waking up in a puddle of sweat every time and you shivered as their lifeless faces haunted the shadows of your mind. Every time you woke up gasping from a horrible dream, your first instinct was always to check your surroundings, to make sure that you weren’t in the hands of the enemy or worse, surrounded by the bodies of your platoon. Your heart would be in your throat, beating hard and only fueling the adrenaline you felt, and the moment that you realized that you were all alone, you would cry. Hot tears would spill down your face because in addition to the fear, guilt would sweep over you in strong waves, reminding you that this was your punishment for surviving what others had not. You would cry and cry and cry, until you couldn’t anymore. Then you would isolate yourself, tending to your emotion and mental wounds by yourself. You didn’t want to be seen like this. It was a disgrace.

Lena was always the one to keep you from falling too deep into the rabbit hole. She always made sure that you didn’t turn to vices to try and numb the pain. She always made sure that you weren’t a danger to yourself. As a girlfriend, she took on more responsibility than what was fair, and you tried to keep that in mind. Never had you wanted to be a burden nor take advantage of her, but she was always there, making sure that you were well taken care of. Even now, she was opening all the blinds to let in the sunlight, and you watched as the setting sun illuminated the dark living room. Lena was off from work and quite early given the nights you know she’ll would put it weren’t it for you, and even as she gave you a reassuring smile, you still couldn’t help the regret that you felt for interrupting her life.

“Hey Y/n, when’s the last time you showered?” she asked, and you furrowed your eyebrows as you tried to think hard. You couldn’t remember honestly, another delightful symptom of the PTSD. You remembered the times when you could recall almost anything you wanted. Now it was like the hard drive of what was left of your mind would get wiped frequently and it sucked. Lena took your silence as an answer and she leaned down slowly, as to not spook you, and kissed your forehead sweetly.

“Why don’t you get cleaned up while I get dinner started?” she suggested, and you nodded.

You got up from the couch and made your way to the bathroom, and pausing before going inside, looked at her.

“Lena, if you ever decided that you didn’t want to stick around anymore, I would understand.”

Lena smiled but still shook her head. It was something you said to her rather often, your way of reminding her that she had a way out, but her answer was always the same. She would just smile and shake her head. You’re slow to get undressed. It was your least favorite part about showering. The mirror above the sink had newspaper taped over it so you couldn’t see your reflection. The scars on your body made you hate the skin you were in and every time you saw them, you would dissolve into tears. They were ugly, another token from war, and there were few days where you were apathetic towards them, and then there were many, many, days when you never wanted to see them again. You hid every inch of your skin behind sweats and long sleeved shirts. As far as you were concerned, if you didn’t see them then they didn’t exist. Except that line of thinking never worked when you had to shower. You closed your eyes as you nervously undressed and you moved as fast as you could into the hot, cascading water of your shower. You let the droplets wash over you. Their warmth chafed away the bitter cold that seemed to settle into your bones as of late and you closed your eyes as she heat warmed your finger and toes. You let your mind go blank and took several deep breaths on and out. You were doing good, and almost relaxed, until you became hyper aware of the water hitting your skin, and the more you focused on the droplets, the more it felt like grains of sand against you. The next thing you knew, you were back in the desert, and the steam from the shower felt like sweltering desert heat against your brow. Shadows floated behind closed eye lids and you forced them open right before the bodies could come into view, and right before you almost vomited on your feet. You threw yourself out of the shower, emptying the contents of your stomach into the toilet, and laid there panting as the stress fueled adrenaline continued to make your world sway chaotically. Puddles of water soaked the bathroom floor as you swallowed down gulps of air in attempt to slow your heart. You couldn’t do this. It was a bad idea, so after getting on shaky feet, you turned the shower off and got dressed as fast as you could.

You returned to the kitchen to find that Lena made homemade chicken soup, and though you weren’t hungry, you forced yourself to take a few bites. Though Lena wasn’t trying to make it obvious, you could tell that every so often she would steal glasses at the bowl between your hands to make sure that you were eating properly. She knew that you wouldn’t finish the whole thing, but as long as you finished most of it, she considered it a victory. After a while, you slowed down before stopping altogether, and the soup settled heavily in your stomach.

“Good job, baby girl,” Lena said genuinely as she placed a warm hand on top of yours. You smiled sheepishly at her gentle offering of praise and you helped her to clean up. It was dark now, and you dreaded going to sleep. Twisting your fingers nervously together, you faced Lena who turned to look at you.

“Lena, do you mind staying with me tonight? I don’t want to be alone.”

She gave you her signature bright smile and nodded. “Of course.”

It was only a 20 minutes later when Lena had changed into her pajamas and you were snuggled against her under the blankets on your bed. Lena held you close to her, your back against her front, as her arms wrapped around you with warmth and security. With her here, your eyes drifted close instantly as you floated down the lazy river of unconsciousness.

***

Lena was jarred awake. The feeling of you struggling within her hold had her eyes flying open and her body out of the bed in an instant. She could see how your eyes moved wildly behind closed eyelids and how taut your body was. You mumbled something before immediately gasping and swiping aggressively at your arms. Fire. Lena knew immediately that you were having a nightmare. You relived the same scene again and again in your head and it was always when the vehicle blew up with you in it, and you were engulfed in fire.

The last time that she tried to wake you up, she had done so forcefully on accident. She was spurred on by her fear of what was happening. The ending result had ended up with you putting her in a chokehold on accident. You didn’t forgive yourself for days. So, she tried a different method that she had found on the internet. With a clear and calm voice, she called your name.

“Y/n?”

You didn’t respond immediately. Your head jerked to the side as you continued to put out the flames that weren’t there.

“Y/n, I need you to wake up.”

You woke up gasping, your eyes searching your surroundings subconsciously for threats as you immediately threw off your sweatshirt in fear.

“Y/n, you’re home. There’s no fire and it’s just you and me. You’re safe,” Lena said over and over. She repeated it as many times as needed until she saw you calm down a little.

You were suffocating. You could taste the smoke in your mouth, the arid atmosphere crisp and dry and so very, very hot. You could smell burning flesh and what you wanted more than anything was to run. You didn’t care where. You just wanted to run away from the fire and the burning pain in your body. But you listened to Lena’s level voice. You let it ground you and you hung on to every word. Her promise that everything was safe was what calmed you down. You were safe. You weren’t being dragged from the burning remains of your vehicle. You had fallen asleep in your girlfriend’s arms.

While your breathing never slowed, you did eventually stop swiping at your arms and your gasps turned into sobs. Lena watched you, her heart aching for you, as you folded in on yourself and hid your face in hands.

“Can I hold you?” she asked, and you nodded frantically as you shuddered hard. You felt the bed dip, followed by arms encircling you softly. She kissed you tenderly and you buried your face into her neck.

“I kept seeing them!” you wailed. “I saw all of them. It’s was nothing but faces and fire, and they were grabbing me, pulling me in. I couldn’t fight them!”

Lena was on the verge of crying as she continued to hug you close. Snapping you out of a nightmare was the worse, but more damage would have been done if she hadn’t woken you up at all. Her hand rubbed your back soothingly as you cried it out. You were so scared. The fire felt like hands that were pulling you straight to hell, and no matter how hard you fought, you were powerless against the force that kept dragging you. The faces were what always lingered. Grotesque and grisly images of your fallen friends tortured you in your sleep, and every time you saw them, they would manage to always look worse than the previous night.

You cried until nothing more came out, until there were no more tears, no more gasps, and when it all finally stopped, you felt numb. Lena released you to look at your body. You were drenched in sweat. Droplets if it trickled down the side of your head and you shivered as your undershirt clung wetly to your skin.

“Let’s get you out of these clothes.”

Lena helped you change, and she helped you gently to drink some water. You gulped it down, sighing in relief as the dryness in your throat went away. You settled back into the bed with her by your side, but you were still too on edge to close your eyes. Sleep wouldn’t be coming soon so you lie there as Lena cuddled you close.

“Thanks for being here,” you whispered, and you felt her kiss the back of your head.

“Of course. I’m not going anywhere.”

#supergirl fanfic #lena luthor #reader insert #violence #angst #death #PTSD #anxiety #fluff #humor

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