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waytooinvested · 2 months

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Vengeance, Victory, and Undying Love - pt 12 - Epilogue

12th and final chapter of my Supercorp fic in which Lena still creates something called Non Nocere to deal with her broken heart after finding out Supergirl's identity, but this time she gives the name to a different project. A more personal one. And now she’s coming for Supergirl.

The full story is also available to read on Ao3

...............

The first few days had been intense, both of them desperate for the emotional closeness they had been missing since Lex’s bombshell, and the physical closeness that was proving to be a revelation to their touch starved bodies.

Lena had cancelled appointments and shareholder meetings recklessly, and it was only Kara’s ability to pull a last minute exclusive with Supergirl out the bag that kept her from being fired after the fourth day she hadn’t shown up for work.

They had spent every minute of that time together. Talking. Crying. Kissing. More than kissing. Until at last things had begun to settle, and they found that what was left was…

Joy.

Pure, simple joy in each other’s company and the fact that finally, against all the odds, they had ended up exactly where they had always been heading.

Of course, their bliss bubble couldn’t last for ever, and eventually they both acknowledged that they were going to have to get up, put on their big-girl pants (or really, any pants at all at that point) and go and make things right at their respective work places.

After that things fell more or less into a better version of the way they had been before, only now sleepovers after movie nights were a forgone conclusion, and their sleeplessness included much more than just talking all night (though there was plenty of talking too). During the first one Kara had told Lena all about her fantasy of the picnic basket and the sunrise, and while that particular dawn found them too busy (and much too naked) to go flying about the countryside, they got round to it eventually, and it was everything Kara had hoped it would be.

Even with the amount they still had to talk through and all the emotional processing that needed to be done, when it was just the two of them even the hard parts felt as natural as breathing.

It took a little longer with the others.

There was still some wariness on both sides, and the first games night Lena turned up to, nervous and clutching an excessively pricey bottle of wine as a peace offering, had been… strained, to say the least.

No one had actually said anything against her – had even hugged her and told her they were glad she was back – but the conversation didn’t flow as naturally as it once had, and there were more than a few glances at Lena and Kara’s linked hands, as if they all badly wanted to comment but had been told not to make a big deal over it.

It was difficult, and it made Lena want to ice up and hide behind her old Luthor-trained emotional defences again, but she persevered, and so did they, and bit by bit the tension eased until it seemed as if they had been able to paper over the cracks in their group dynamic and settle into a new normal.

At least, until the night at Al’s when they had all had a one drink too many, and somehow the conversation had gotten on to the subject of relationships.

Kara had taken Lena’s hand and said how happy and lucky she felt to be with someone she could feel fully herself with, and the others had smiled and agreed.

All except Alex.

Alex and Lena had had their own whisky-assisted heart to heart weeks before and had thought the air was clear between them, but now Alex turned to Lena and jabbed a finger at her with the sort of intensely earnest frown only achievable by the moderately inebriated.

‘You know Lena, I am so mad at you’.

Kara froze, glancing between her sister and her girlfriend.

‘Hey, Alex come on, it’s all in the past-’

‘No, no Kara it’s not. I am so mad at her’.

The whole table was silent now, holding their breath and waiting for whatever would happen next, no one quite knowing how to diffuse the pending argument.

To her credit, Lena wasn’t biting back. Her happy smile had faded and she was clutching Kara’s hand twice as tightly as before, but she was waiting, outwardly calm, to allow Alex the space to say whatever she so clearly needed to get off her chest.

‘I mean seriously. How the hell are any of us supposed to make a grand romantic gesture ever again after that? It has got to be the single most dramatic, over the top way of declaring your undying love for someone ever’.

She paused and grinned round at them all, seeming not to notice the tension she had created and the confusion that followed it after this remark.

‘Undying. Get it? Because she literally cured Kara of the one thing that could kill her?’

Alex laughed at her own joke, betraying the fact that she at least, had passed well over the tipsy/drunk dividing line.

‘It’s freakin’ ridiculous. Brilliant, but ridiculous. Still, I’m going to get my own back one day. When I tell this story in my sister-of-the-bride speech at your wedding’.

The tension eased, and a couple of people chuckled along as everyone realised that there wasn’t going to be a fight after all, but they didn’t relax entirely until Lena joined in the laughter and put an arm companionably around Alex’s shoulders.

‘I can’t wait to hear it’.

And that’s when Kara knew for sure that everything was going to be alright.

And also that one day, maybe not for years, but one day, she would hear that speech.

Because she was going to marry Lena Luthor.

#supercorp #supergirl #supercorp fanfic #supergirl fanfiction #kara x lena #lena luthor #kara danvers #multi chapter fic #my fic #angst with a happy ending #AND THE HAPPY ENDING IS HERE WE MADE IT #final chapter #thank you for reading I hope you enjoyed the journey

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nextwarden · 3 years

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The world is burning

"I think I deserve a bit of fucking honesty for once," the tall blonde says after a while. "Just once. Just this once, stop fleeing and face me."

Her voice is ragged and sizzling, raw in its power and in its emotion. The quiet and ever soft please that follows almost immediately is barely heard, almost slips by unnoticed but you know it's there because it's her, and even if she were to go hellblazing all guns blasting the girl would still apologize for the trouble. The infinitely kind and stupid soul she is.

It's a while since either of you spoke, a long and loud silence settled over the echoes of the last words like a blanket of mist over a fire, dousing the embers. Not all of them, it seems, as the forcefulness is still there, under the tan, freckled skin of your friend. The friend. The only one that matters right now. Or ever. You can see it, sizzling the air and stinging your eyes. And you can see the fire in her eyes right then too, bright and blazing, and you feel like she could burn worlds and reduce them to cinder with the effortless weight of a single gaze. It's amazing, terrifying and beautiful at the same time and you can't quite find the strength to look away from it.

Some would say that of your eyes. Some have said it. She has said it. Beautiful, deep, bright like stars in the night, like their favourite colour. As powerful as a god's blood, if gods could bleed. They can, in fact, bleed. You know it, you've seen it more than once. How scared you were when it seemed to taint the world so much that it was all you could see, all you could feel, all you could scream. That's why you ran, that's why you always run, because even gods can bleed and you can't be a god-killer, not again.

You can hear yourself speak before your mind even catches up with what you should be saying. You can feel the hotness in your chest echo the one that, strangely but not surprisingly, has been hinting at your loins for a while now. And the heat becomes white hot, unbearable, it spreads all over like thunder and lightning, both needle-thin and tidal-like, destroying every single foundation of your being. It's molten and you're drowning in it, slowly, painfully.

"Well what do you want me to say exactly?", you begin, unsure of what you're even saying, but saying it anyway because if you don't you're sure you're going to be consumed on the spot. And anger can only sustain one for so long. That, you know by experience. So you have to let it out, you have to let the pressure flow out before you blow. You didn't want it to be here, so close to everything being done. It couldn't be here, not today of all days. And yet, here you are, on the farthest balcony you could find, hidden from the rest of the party, alone with the one person you can't trust yourself being alone with. And you don't want to say it, any of it, but you want to, you need to, desperately so. And she looks at you with those eyes, those fucking eyes, and you can't anymore. So you let it flow, halted, weird and breathless.

"You want me to say that I haven't been able to get you out of my head since the day you came crashing down through the walls of the fortress I spent years building around myself? On your own and with only that damned smile to boot? That despite your frankly infuriating unending joy and hope for this godforsaken world and its bunch of asshole idiots I can't manage to be irritated by you? That before I even knew it I found myself unable to help but be instantly comforted by your warmth, or that I can't even fall asleep anymore without your arms around me? That you smell of orange and honey and somehow of the sea and I can't walk into a goddamn room without being reminded either of it or the absence of it?! Hell, I've been thinking poetry about the way your brow crinkles adorably when you're problem-solving; and sometimes, in my most deluded moments, that from the way you look at me, I pray to all the higher powers I know of that that problem is me because there's so much in your eyes and I can't fucking read it! Me! I can't read it! How ironic is that?! And still I hope... Or perhaps I should tell you about how I sometimes can't take my eyes off your neck, I mean do you know how hard it is to not just give in and sink my teeth in there? It pulses, and you keep flexing it whenever you get ready to throw down! Or that I wonder far too often what it would feel like to run my hands all over you and what sound you would make as I unravel you with nothing but my fingers…? That I feel like an angel each and every moment you look at me like that because I'm simultaneously floating and falling? That I fucking hate myself for even thinking these things because you're not mine. You're not even mine to want anymore, and that's not even broaching the subject of what I've done, what I have done to you. I almost killed you and, and, and-", you can't help but feel the tears that have been rolling against your lungs fall free upon your cheeks now, "I almost killed you…"

You take a deep and shuddering breath, it aches all over but you're not finished.

"I have been nothing but pain for you, pain and sadness and an unending headache. And still you come back. You come back to me and bring me back in, always. I can't quite figure out why or how you can still look at me after all of that, all of the damage I caused, all of the blood I've spilled… Or- or that despite everything, all of that, even if I hadn't fucked everything up, if I deserved anything but your contempt and hate and anger for a single second… Should I tell you about what I've done to give you my blessing? That although I cannot deserve anything ever again, I have the gall to not be able to fucking stomach you with them and I had to come up with not two but three new mantras just to keep my mind off of things and to be able to smile in your direction like I mean it because I have to be so happy for you because you deserve the world and now that you have it, after everything, I'm not about to take that away from you, not even get close to threaten it, by acting out of line and letting all those fucking hints that I am iredeemably smitten and in love with you, and have been for the past years, even surface for a single second because I fear it would destroy what happiness you have finally found and then me in turn because I can't even think about hurting you in any single way without feeling like I'm going to die? Because I know it! I know… You deserve the world, and I deserve to die…", your voice is threatening to give out.

"Is that what you want me to say?", you barely manage to croak out.

Your throat was already sore before but now it must be raw and bleeding, you think, as you realize you can't quite recognise the voice coming out of you as it too dies in the distance. You can taste the acid in your mouth. Then it's like the darkness before creation: there's silence and nothing, and all that nothing is cold, so cold. And scary too in it's deep silence. You've always been weary of silence. Silence meant many things: disappointment, the prospect of anger and pain, loneliness, death... You can feel the shiver crawl up your spine. And before anything else can not happen, here you are, combusting and burning away at the stake of your own stupidity, your mouth tasting like iron, your chest on fire and your lungs in cinders as you begin to realize the implications of what you've just voiced.

"Yes," you finally hear from the distant void that has devoured the world around you, somehow softer than any breeze you've ever felt and somehow louder than the Sun itself. "Yes, that's what I want", you hear her say.

And before anything else can not happen, there she is with her arms and her gentle strength and her love, holding you despite the fire licking your soul and the cataclysmic blaze consuming your whole being. You're burning up, it's like a fever. And you know when it finally dies down only ashes will remain, ashes to be scattered in the wind. Yet, despite all of that, here she is, holding you tighter than she's ever held you, gentler than you deserve, and her eyes. God, her eyes. They roam your face, as if painting you in the deathly glow of your final instants. Let the fire blind her to what just happened, erase the memory of this moment, you almost wish. You want to be selfless but you're not, and you know it, so you let yourself burn atop the pire of her gaze and hope that whatever comes after delivers you from this unbearable conflagration.

And in all your glorious selfishness, your unreserved desire, she has the gall to smile at you with that beautiful and ever-loving smile.

"That's what I've always wanted," she whispers gently.

That's when it clicks. You are the world. That's why you're burning.

***

So I had this idea while reading a fic a while back and when I came back to it yesterday I couldn’t decide if I wanted to make this about Supercorp, Bumbleby or OCs of mine, so I just “duck it, I’ll make it about everything!”

Definitely not polished enough, but I’m too lazy to rework the kinks right now so, here, take this.

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protectwoc · 4 years

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why all reylos are racist

y’all can go ahead and cancel me now because some of you are not going to like what i have to say and i am completely okay with that.

this recent gq interview with john boyega has incensed me. hearing all the things he went through, from disney and from “fans” and with no support from anyone… i’m livid. sometimes when i think about it for too long i start shaking, i’m so furious. and the response from the reylo fandom has infuriated me to a degree i honestly didn’t know was possible.

some of you may have seen my recent tumblr rampage. it’s reylo bullying hours here on my blog, and i’m not sorry either. one person threatened to post screenshots of my comments, which like… okay? i know what the fuck i said, it wasn’t that long ago. in fact i was going to include the screenshots in this post right here, but they blocked me before i had the chance. sorry. i’m sure somebody has them. anyway…

over the past two days in the star wars fandom we have seen something unprecedented: an outpouring of support for john boyega. both reylos and anti-reylos have joined forces to voice support for john in the wake of the gq interview (and the blm protests, let’s be real, some of y’all would not have given half a fuck if it wasn’t suddenly cool to be antiracist). and this showing of unity is one of the most rage-inducing things i’ve ever seen in a fandom (which is saying something; i have seen some shit).

reylo fandom, full offense intended, but where the fuck do you get off? you’re supporting john now? where was this support when tfa came out and you couldn’t stand the thought of him next to your white-girl-self-insert? where was it when tlj came out and your boy ryan completely sidelined him? where was it earlier this fucking year when y’all twisted a harmless joke (like yall haven’t spent years writing reylo-throne-room-sex-meta BULLSHIT) and ignored the vile racist shit coming from your own fav’s mouth? but you’re supporting him now? now that being antiracist is trendy? fuck outta here with that bullshit.

your fandom is the reason for the vast majority of the absolutely subhuman treatment john has endured over the last few years. your fandom influenced ryan (yes i know what his name is) to write tlj the way he did, you have behaved indefensibly here on tumblr.hell writing and drawing and fantasizing about all sorts of racist bullshit, and y’all have STAYED in his twitter mentions spewing hatred seven ways to sunday. but NOW, without a shred of self-reflection, you’re supporting him? now his experiences are valid?

the way that your fandom refuses to take accountability for its actions makes me see red. y’all stay on some “not all reylos” nonsense and i am SICK OF IT. i’m only gonna say this once, and i want you to hear me: you cannot be a reylo and be “antiracist”. you cannot participate in a fandom that has behaved the way yours has and say “blm, uwu acab.” you can’t. like do you think black people are dumb? that we can’t see right through you? we can.

“but rae,” i hear you whining. “you’re gonna say just because i like two characters together i’m a racist?” and of course not. that would be ludicrous. i think just because you knowingly engage and participate in a fandom that has racism encoded in its dna, you’re a racist. i think because y’all are in bed with racist harassers, racist trolls, and racist content creators, you’re a racist. that’s what the fuck i think. y’all lost the right to “it’s just a ship” me the instant you dragged john boyega into this.

here’s an example: i watched tfa about three days after it came out. i watched the first half, saw the obvious relationship set up between finn and rey, and thought, “aw, cute.” then i watched kylo and rey fight, watch him offer to teach her, and thought, “... interesting.”

when i got home i checked tumblr for finnrey content, saw the outpouring of love from black fans, all the cute fanart and fics blooming, and smiled. then, slowly, guiltily, i searched “reylo.”

BOOM. racism. the things i saw in the tag that night are tattooed on my brain. reylos rejoicing about the obvious rey/kyle pairing because “sw would never put her with that monkey finn”. calling him an “oaf”, “useless”, “bumbling”, “stupid”. reylos joking about how “when they talked about the Dark side, [they] didn’t think they meant that kind of dark.” “woke” reylos pretending to ship stormpilot in an obvious ploy to get finn away from kylo. and in between all of that, cute ship art. fun fics. talented gif makers. and nobody saying shit about the reprehensible behavior going on in their tag.

reylo is built on a foundation of racism. from that first week, racism has been woven into the fabric of your fandom, and it’s been going unchecked. and i don’t mean calling out other reylos. that’s not enough. i mean taking actual steps. y’all have been sitting in a cesspool of racism for five years, and its time for you to get the fuck out or shut the fuck up about being an “ally”. y’all need to leave this fandom.

don’t agree? here’s another story. in 2017, when i still watched supergirl (before i grew taste) i shipped karamel. for those of you who don’t know, karamel is the ship of kara zor-el (supergirl) and mon-el, her second love interest. when supergirl was moved to the cw for its second season, the decision was made to abruptly end her romance with jimmy olsen, played by mecahd brooks (a black man) and replace him with mon-el, played by chris wood, a white man, who was revealed to be, among other things, an alien slaveowner, as well as a playboy and all-around terrible person. and i shipped them. look, i’m not defending myself, but i never really bought the chemistry between jimmy and kara. even though mon-el’s introduction and the way that they carelessly disregarded kara’s feelings for jimmy made me uncomfortable, i thought the way melissa played her attraction to chris wood was more believable (and again, i’m not defending myself, but they are now married so it’s not like i was wrong). so i shipped them. simple as that, right?

well, no. not really. because the inherent racism in the way the writers wrote out her admittedly sweet romance with a black man in favor of a white slaveowner jerk kept bothering me. and finally i decided that it made me too uncomfortable to participate in. i never really reblogged any karamel fandom stuff, but i completely divorced myself from the fandom. i stopped reading karamel fic, and i switched to reblogging exclusively jimmy/kara content until the fandom died out/i stopped watching. i made a choice that real life racism is more important to me than a fucking fandom or a ship, and then i acted accordingly. simple as that.

and i’m not saying you have to stop liking the reylo dynamic. i still like the chemistry between kara and mon-el. i’ve shipped problematic ships before (bamon comes to mind) and i don’t think there’s anything wrong with that (to a point). but there’s a difference between liking a ship dynamic and engaging and contributing to a fan culture of racism. you have to stop participating in the fandom. y’all are in bed with people indistinguishable from confederate-flag-waving-all-lives-matter-touting racists and you don’t feel the need to get out of that environment? there comes a certain point where you have to decide if fandom bullshit is more important to you than fighting racism, and unfortunately, reylos have chosen wrong. that, ladies and gentlemen, is why all reylos are racist, regardless of what they say. roll credits.

except i have more to say, so i’m gonna say it. first of all, i’m not trying to hold myself up as some kind of paragon of virtue. i’m not holier-than-thou because all my ships are “woke” or whatever. chemistry is subjective, and we’re all going to be attracted to different ship dynamics, and there’s nothing wrong with that in theory. what matters is the execution. i finally had to say one day, “you know, this ship and the racist baggage it carries is actually less important to me than battling systemic racism on every level, including the fandom level”. y’all thought being antiracist was gonna be easy? that you wouldn’t have to make some actual changes, to make some actual sacrifices? sorry not sorry to disappoint. and if i, a normal-ass person with flaws and problematic thinking that i’m still dealing with and the whole ine yards, can make that decision, then other people should be required to as well.

(what really irks me is that the karamel fandom wasn’t even really that bad! i definitely could have gotten away with being a karamel stan in 2017. thankfully the supercat and supercorp shippers were doing the lord’s work and bullying them into submission (don’t think i’m letting y’all off the hook either, y’all have got some racism to deal with as well but that’s an essay for another day) but like most of the racism happened at the writing level; the fandom itself wasn’t engaging in racist clownery on the regular. but like the reylos are. y’all see racist bullshit coming from your neighbor, fav fic writer, artist, gif maker, whatever, and don’t say shit? don’t feel the need to distance yourself from them? gtfoh.)

i made this argument earlier when i was on my rampage (which i’m still on btw so don’t clown in my inbox, you will get your shit rocked) but i’m going to make it again because i feel like its important to note. when i pointed out that existing in the reylo fandom while you are aware of its racism makes you complicit in that racism, a white reylo told me earlier that (paraphrasing, my memory’s not as good as it used to be and i did mention that they’d blocked me) “you don’t solve a problem like systemic racism by ignoring it. leaving the fandom would be allowing it to happen.” when i pointed out that that’s police officer rhetoric almost verbatim, she (a white reylo) admonished me (a black woman) not to compare police brutality to a “ship war.” lmao.

look, clearly y’all need a refresher on what “systemic” means. it means, quite simply, that there are systems, large and small, allow for racism to exist, and it also means that allowing for racism to exist on the small scale means expecting it on a large one. like you think police officers spring fully formed from the head with racist ideals already ingrained? no! they learn it and learn to justify it with “well just because my friend made a racist joke doesn’t make me a racist” and “just because i laughed at my friend’s using a racist term in my video game doesn’t make me a racist” and “just because my friend is a racist doesn’t mean i’m a racist” and then we have people watching their coworkers kneel on a man’s back for 8 minutes with no remorse. i’m not gonna solve police brutality by fighting reylos on tumblr, but fandom racism is real racism with consequences on our world, and i don’t tolerate ANY type of racism. and the fact that you are so willing to not just tolerate it but justify it should say something to you.

and not all reylos are like this. similar to cops, good reylos don’t last. i have seen people grow so disgusted by the racism in the reylo fandom that they publicly turned their backs on it, and those reylos i respect. you’ve heard of “the only good cop is an ex-cop” well get ready for “the only good reylo is an ex-reylo”.

(and also like far be it from me to justify a cop but one could at least say they have their livelihoods to think about (not like they couldn’t just pick a nonmurderous profession but i digress) but you reylos can’t even choose between taking a stance against the hateful and unjustified bullying of a man who had the audacity to… get a job (?)... over a ship? come on now.)

the point of all this is, for all their posturing about “being antiracist” and “fuck 12” and “support john boyega”, reylos have decided that a relationship between two fictional people is more important than all the black and brown people who are hurt by that decision and the consequences of that decision. and before y’all pull some “b-but there are POC reylos!” (stop fucking using poc as an adjective, its a noun, it stands for person of color, please use it as such) internalized racism is a thing. busting out your token “reylo of color” (see how easy that was?) is not going to change my mind. all reylos are complicit in the racism of their peers, and being complicit makes you culpable. full stop.

and that is why the public support of john boyega from the reylo fandom has me seeing red. renounce your fandom or keep that man’s name out of your mouth. anyway, this was long and ranty and entirely stream-of-consciousness and i’m refusing to edit it so it’s probably completely incomprehensible to anyone besides me but if you made it this far thanks for reading ig. all reylos are racist, blm, fuck 12, acab, stan john boyega, don’t clown in my inbox unless you’re coming to bully me for being a karamel shipper, which i deserve (or do, i couldn’t give less of a fuck). good night.

#john boyega #anti reylo #raetalks

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this-is-lightning · 4 years

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Supercorp FicRec P.9

Next! Another part in my ongoing ficrec series. I go through my bookmarks on AO3 that I have made in my 3 years of reading supercorp fiction and select the ones I like the best. 5 fics per part.

Masterpost

The Inevitability of Robotics by donteatmyfingerprints (series in 2 parts)

Lena Luthor builds a robot, and gets more than what she bargained for.

w: 11,972

r: general audiences

I always liked this AI becoming self-aware and real trope. Short and cute, a little angst, action.

The Sky and The Sea by Story_ii_Character

There is an old Kryptonian story, about the sky and the sea. Two forces of beauty and power, destined to be together, forever kept apart.

But some endings are meant to be re-written.

w: 19,229

r: teen and up (but could go up to mature)

Another medieval AU! With lots of magic and soulmates and sword-fighting and childhood friends and an arranged marriage. Short but wonderful. Must read.

lena dies on a wednesday by karalovesallthegirls

Lena is trapped in a loop, reliving the day she dies over and over again. She just doesn’t know it.

w: 18,480

r: mature

Well Lena doesn’t know, but Kara does. Angst-meter on medium. She dies for real every time (so tw/ for all sorts of violence and death) but its not permanent. Happy ending. Great writing, great action, mystery, a desperate pining Kara, Lena being confused for the first two thirds of the fic, its really good.

Remember? by Thatoneloser_kid

“Would you believe me if I told you that I remember every single one of my past lives, every one of my lives in the infinite universes out there, and in every single one we end up together.” Lena questioned quietly, running her fingers up and down Kara's arm.

"That sounds like a corny pick up line."

"We've been married for ten years," Lena pointed out. "Does this seem like something I would lie about?"

Lena remembers all of her past lives she has spent with Kara.

w: 53,855

r: general

So basically all the AU’s in one. Lena also remembers stuff from different universes and it’s pretty cool. Some bits are shorter, some longer. Also a little angst. Great writing and pacing. Fluff and cuteness too. A definite must read!

asking polite with a gun in your hand by lostariels

When the teenage daughter of National City's notorious Luthor crime family finds herself with a baby and is promptly kicked out of home, she finds herself taken in by an all too willing to help paramedic, and a feeling of what love and family are really about as the two grow closer.

But she can't outrun her family's past forever, and she can't protect all of the people she loves from them, although Lena's determined to try, working with a covert government organisation to finally bring her brother to justice.

w: 247,730

r: mature

Seems like I’m gonna put all of lostariels fics on here too. Cause they’re all just so good (and long). Angst-meter on a high medium. Kid-fic. Loots and lots of pining. Fwb, bed-sharing, roommates, Lena’s kid calls Kara mommy ‘cause shes totally not her unofficial second mom lol, action and danger, bad-ass Lena. Just all the good shit. Happy ending where everyone gets what they deserve.

#supercorp #supercorp fic rec #mine #9

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theplaguebeast · 4 years

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A Long Ramble On My Experience Reading Nothing But Fanfic For Over A Year

So, my entire Adult Journey Through Fandom (as opposed to my Teen Journey Through Fandom, which started around 13 and petered off when I was 19) began because summer 2019, after I moved back in with my grandparents and left the state I’d spent the last ten years in behind (along with almost all my possessions excepting my cats, my wolf pelt, some clothes, and some misc stuff including the entire Lord of The Rings series in paperback) I went to Archive of Our Own (AO3) on my shitty phone that didn’t actually function as a phone because that costs money, and went to the Fallout 4 section (because I have played that game to DEATH AND BACK, modded it to death and back too) and started reading. Because it was literally the first fandom I could think of.

And then, one day, as I was reading Piper/f!SS I thought ‘What’s another Media I Have Consumed’ and for whatever reason, Legend of Korra came to mind which is wild because I watched it when it came out and then NEVER touched it again. I did wind up rewatching it after reading probably around 100 Korrasami fics, but I watched it BECAUSE of the fics.

Then, and I think I hopped onto this because a bunch of writers who wrote Korrasami also wrote them, I fell into Clexa. And I’d watched.... like five seasons of The 100? IDK, whatever it was that season-dumped on Netflix in like 2017. And WHOO BOI did I stick around there for a LONG TIME. We’re talking 90 pages of my AO3 history (20 fics per page yo) of JUST CLEXA.

Thru a similar mechanism I started reading Supercorp, and here is where I come back into my ‘I don’t even GO HERE’ tendency, because you see I still have not seen a single episode of Supergirl but you bet your ass I have read literally about a hundred fics for it.

Then, again, via authors-who-I-liked-writing-for-other-fandoms-than-how-I-found-them I read a hefty pile of SwanQueen (which, RIP y’all OUAT fucked y’all huh?) and that’s a show that I had really honestly TRIED to watch but guys... The only thing going for it really is that it’s the better Live Action Beauty And The Beast and that’s sad on a number of levels.

Then Pitch Perfect caught me up and I HAVE seen the first movie (and jesus if that het romance wasn’t shoehorned in) but also ONLY the first movie but that didn’t stop my consumption of those fics.

At some point I strafed thru the Glee fandom and rediscovered Faberry which I don’t recall ever actively shipping Back In The Day but you BET YOUR ASS I thought they were both SUPER GAY when the first couple seasons were airing, which is also the last time I watch it at ALL.

And from there, AGAIN this has ALL happened because I kept checking out other stuff written by authors I like, I started reading Sansa-shipping Game of Thrones fics. Now here is a Very Important Thing to Know: I started with Sansa/Margaery, and you might have seen earlier my discovery that I fell into reading other Sansa ships via Sansa/Ellaria/Oberyn.

Before that point, even as a teenager, I shipped ZERO heterosexual couples. NONE. NADA.

Also, I had not watched Game of Thrones past season 4. (Some of you may be aware I watched and liveblogged watching the whole series recently. Do not do this thing.) I still spent seven months reading almost exclusively GoT fanfic. I’ve bought the books. I’m in MULTIPLE discord servers for GoT fan shiz.

And I also fell into checking Other Works By This Author I Like, except now, because I will read a fic featuring Sansa with literally anyone because it’s interesting to me, I started also reading het ships.

And so I wound up reading A Bunch of Zutara, and I had seen Airbender back when it aired and also... at some other point. But I did not rewatch it when it came out on netflix because holy shit Korra retroactively makes me so mad about both series now that I really think about Katara okay guys? Because I’m not okay. I’m mad. Whatever.

Somehow I wound up BACK in the Once Upon A Time fandom, by the way, but this time with Rumbelle (remember when I mentioned Beauty and the Beast earlier? HI) and man it’s interesting to see two sides of a fandom like that lemme tell ya.

And now, to the present, where I’m reading Bethyl fics for The Walking Dead, which I saw like three seasons of and mostly remember as ‘that show with the zombies where I got mad that no one could ever actually catch a fucking break for more than five minutes’ which is, for the record, WHY I stopped watching. And the extra funny thing is that I didn’t really author-hop for that one I just went ‘hey i know vague things about this IP let’s read stuff’ and Bethyl was just... the first ship I clicked on? And now I’m fucking Team Delusional and I DON’T EVEN GO HERE.

I need to REALLY DEEPLY HIGHLIGHT the fact that out of EVERY fandom I have listed, BEFORE I got into them I only finished/kept up with TWO of the shows and the one video game, ONE fandom has made me make myself watch the series it’s based on (and I’ll read the books as soon as they get here I’m not paying for fast shipping y’all), and EVERY OTHER ONE I know of from watching like three seasons on average.

(This is not including the fandoms where I checked out like five fics, went ‘I’m bored now’ and left. There’s like five of those I think???)

So what I’m saying is that I get a basic understanding of a piece of media and then throw it away and go check out the fan shit because it’s more entertaining to see what everyone’s doing with the toys the media provides. Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice And Fire is a fucking anomaly on every single front, literally every other fandom I have, there is The Ship That Happens (well, OUAT gets two, but they’re not mutually exclusive so WHATEVER) and then pretty much every other ship ranges from ‘whatever’ to ‘fuck off’.

But fucking Sansa Stark, man.

Anyways I’ve got 350+ pages (that’s over 7,000 fics yo) of AO3 history since June 19 2019 because quarantine changed zero percent of my lifestyle. If I can do math (debatable) that’s 15 fics a day every day, on average for nine-ish fandoms but the vast majority is GoT/ASoIAF.

Tune in fking WHENEVER when I finish the project my brain has decided will happen (THANKS HYPERFIXATIONS) where I’ve got the full data for all of this bullshit so I know how many words of whatever fucking ship I’ve read.

#current life #Past Is Prologue #Pondering #fandom

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fulcrumahsokaamidala · 5 years

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Happy Saturday!!! So this is me thanking awesome fanfic writers for their amazing work. ♥️ I want to recommend spectacular fanfic stories I read this week! ♥️ They are posted in the order I read them. This is something that I want to continue moving forward, and all posts will be tagged #saturday spectacular fic rec

| ONE | (Oliver The Footballer) by @someonesaidcake | Arrow | WIP

Summary: Felicity Smoak had a plan; to save enough money to kick her monotonous job and start up the company of her dreams. She made good plans, solid plans, attainable plans.

He was never part of her plan.

His name was Oliver Queen, the reclusive Brazilian football star with a broken smile and a story to tell.

He'd never planned on her either.

Surprise Children by @icannotbelieveiamhere | Arrow | One-shot

Summary: Oliver has just let William leave with his grandparents. He wants to protect William and keep an eye on his son but he needs help from an old friend in Central City. Felicity is acting strangely after her phone call.

His Girl Wednesday by BlueBayou | Arrow | Completed

Summary: Missing her interview for a position in the IT department of QC, Felicity Smoak meets Oliver Queen, son of the CEO and future CEO himself. Only Oliver doesn’t take the company as seriously as he should and after yet another fiasco with his assistant, his mother decides to take matter into her own hands and select one with more qualifications than long legs and deep cleavage. In an effort to get her off his back, he pretends he already hired one: the blonde nerdy girl he met a few minutes ago.

Or when Arrow and Ugly Betty crash in my head (except we all know Felicity could never be ugly). It is mostly Arrow, I borrow a few plot ideas/characters from Ugly Betty.

The Cuff Links by @realityisoverrated-fic | Arrow | One-shot

Summary: On the day of Robert and Oliver's funeral Moira gave Tommy a pair of Robert's cuff links that were always intended for Oliver. Tommy finds the perfect occasion to fulfill Robert's original intentions.

Workouts and Babbles by ElasticMonk | Arrow | WIP

Summary: Oliver comes to the rescue of one cute blonde at his gym just as Felicity stumbles upon one handsome mayor at her gym. They both have something in common, but will it bring them happiness?

He's Just The Nanny by @oliversmuse | Arrow | Completed

Summary: Oliver Queen has been working as a Nanny for the last 5 years when suddenly the family he is working for is transferred to another city. Open for a new assignment he is sent to the home of Smoak Technologies CEO Felicity Smoak and is hired on the spot to watch her three year old daughter, Ellie. As the weeks pass, feelings start to develop and things get complicated and Felicity and Oliver learn very quickly how love can change everything.

The Proposal by @spaztronautwriter | Arrow | WIP

Summary: When Felicity Smoak finds herself in a bind, she enlists the help of her assistant Oliver Dearden to help keep her from being deported and losing her job. The problem is, in order to do so, they kind of have to get married...

The What If Harassment Alternative by portlandborn | Brooklyn Nine-Nine | WIP

Summary: What would have happened to Peraltiago And our intrepid detectives, if Amy had reported her mentor captains ugly behaviors?

"Time for a story" Drabble Series by @smkkbert | Arrow | WIP

Summary: This fic shows Olicity and their life as a (married) couple with family. Although Olicity (and their kids) are the protagonists, other characters of Arrow and Flash make appearances.

It started as a drabble series, but developed more and more into a full domectic AU. Although some chapters are still drabble-like, there are longer storylines by now.

Do you remember by @smkkbert | Arrow | WIP

Summary: Eight years after Oliver and Felicity became teenage parents, they have everything they could have ever hoped for and more. They have a good life in a nice house. Their marriage is happy, and a second baby is on its way. The calm they have settled in is interrupted abruptly when a stalker starts terrorizing Felicity.

Arrow Out of Context by @smoaking-greenarrow | Arrow | WIP

Summary: Collection of prompts using Arrow quotes.

Airplanes, Coffee and Deadlines by @hope-for-olicity | Arrow | WIP

Summary: Felicity begins working at a national newspaper where she has always dreamed of working. On her first day, she meets a very interesting photojournalist. The two will eventually work together but sparks fly immediately.

The Ravager by @laxit21 & mewmew666 | Arrow | WIP

Summary: Slade Wilson's plan for revenge against Oliver took time, money and no shortage of lives to pull together. His plan didn't anticipate Felicity Smoak. How will his plan change now that his lost-lost daughter is working with the very man he's trying to destroy?

Artemis by @laxit21 & mewmew666 | Arrow | WIP

Summary: When the Queen's Gambit sank, two people were stranded on Lian Yu. Five years later, four came back.

The Daughter That Was Left Behind by @laxit21 & mewmew666 | Arrow | WIP

Summary: Before the Gambit, Oliver Queen met QC intern Felicity Smoak. When he boarded the Gambit, he left something behind. Now, five long years later someone is waiting for him.

Semper Fidelis by @oliversmuse | Arrow | WIP

Summary: Oliver Queen is a member of the Bravo Squad, a team that specializes in search and rescue, covert infantry and translating foreign documents. He is known as one of the best and even though he is one of the youngest recruits he advances quickly. While serving he meets Lance Corporal Felicity Smoak, a young woman with skills in hand to hand combat. Despite the fact they butt heads they fall in love and soon start to talk about a future together. However, when her plane disappears on a mission in China and she is presumed dead, Bravo Squad searches frantically for her, only to find her plane and her bloody dog tags. Five years later Oliver runs into "Megan" at a coffee shop near that gym he has been running with his friends. She has lost her memory from the plane accident but has had dreams of Oliver and the Bravo Squad. With the help of his friends and team mates, can he help her reclaim her past and fall for him once again?

Daughter of the Demon by @laxit21 & mewmew666 | Arrow | WIP

Summary: What if in 1988 while traveling through Las Vegas Ra's al Ghul bumps into a nice waitress named Donna Smoak and they have one-night stand together? A little bundle of joy named Felicity Smoak is the result. In 2014, the Demon Head becomes aware of his youngest daughter's existence.

Felicity of Themiscyra by @laxit21 & mewmew666 | Arrow | WIP

Summary: Years ago, Donna Smoak left the island of Themiscyra and her sister Queen Hippolyta behind to live in man's world. She never told Felicity the truth about where she came from. As a result of the Undertaking, Felicity discovers some of her Amazonian abilities and makes an interesting new friend: Diana Prince.

I Scream But No Sound Comes out by @laxit21 | Arrow | WIP

Summary: When Oliver returns from Lian Yu after five years, he comes back different. What happened there damaged more than just his body. How will his friends and family deal with this new Oliver?

And So the Adventure Begins by @mindramblingsfics | Arrow | WIP

Summary: Felicity spent her first year of college focused solely on her studies. In year two, with the convincing of her best friends Iris and Sara, she lets her hair down a bit. Oliver spent his first year partying with his wingman Tommy and living up to the status that came with his last name. He realizes he should buckle down focus on the most important part: actual school. Oliver and Felicity meet, and even though they are on different ends of the spectrum, they don't realize that they can each bring out hidden parts of one another.

Emerald Archer Martial Arts by @alexiablackbriar13 | Arrow | WIP

Summary: In May 2019, a tired Oliver Queen and four months pregnant Felicity Smoak retire from their vigilante duties and move to the redwood forest town of Bloomfield with their son William, to raise their family in peace.

Along the journey, they build their own successful companies, increase the size of the Smoak-Queen clan by a couple more, train their kids in self-defense, and live out a blissful existence.

This is the story of 7 years of their happiness and family antics, after 7 years of crime-fighting and hardship to save their city.

Providence by @so-caffeinated | Arrow | WIP

Summary: Will Queen has struggled in silence in the year since he was shot. But when a shadowy crime lord known as Domino targets the only woman Will’s ever truly loved, fate forces him to confront his demons in ways he never could have imagined… Whether he wants to or not.

Amelia Prescott has fought to take control of her life since learning two years ago that her personal and professional worlds were manipulated by others. But nothing can prepare her for just how hard she'll have to fight to set her own course, especially when her heart belongs to a damaged man and a crime lord threatens her every professional move... And her life.

Destiny brings them together, but as chaos reigns and personal demons haunt Will and Amelia both, it may also threaten to tear them apart.

I wear high heels (she wears sneakers) by @mogirl97 | Supergirl | WIP

Summary: “Lena. It’s not just about football.” Kara waved her hands around emphatically, “It’s about school spirit and hanging out with your friends—“ Lena didn’t want to bring up the fact that she didn’t have any friends to hang out with. “—and watching me obliterate a bunch of guys’ egos and going out for celebratory Big Belly Burger afterwards.” ~A Supercorp High School AU~

#fanfic rec satuday spectacular #fanfic #fic rec #weekly fic recs

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argyle-s · 6 years

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THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME CHAPTER 23/38

Rating: Mature

Read at Ao3

Start at the Beginning

Cat returns to National City, Max gives a press conference, and Maggie has some questions for Kara

Notes: A couple of quick notes. First, this chapter does touch a bit on Kara's relationships in the previous timeline, including Kara/Lena, Kara/Sara and Kara/Cat. For those of you who might be a bit worried, this is not a harem fic, Supercat's still end game and Supercorp is not really a big thing in this story or the sequels, even though Lena is going to be a major player in Devils in the Dark and A Plague of Righteousness. I make no such promises about Supercanary and the sequel, because Sara is a *huge* part of Kara's past, and that relationship is going to be relevant to what happens.

Thanks to @ifourmindbeso for her great work as a beta. Any remaining mistakes are entirely my own.

Chapter 23 - Responses

“Mom!” Carter yelled as Cat stepped into her office. He jumped up off the sofa where he’d been curled up against Kara and ran over to her.

“Honey,” Cat send, dropping her purse and bending down to enfold Carter in a hug. “I missed you so much!”

Carter pulled back from the hug, and Kara didn’t have to be able to see his face to know he was smiling when he announced, “I met Supergirl!”

Cat looked at him with a mixture of surprise and amusement on her face. “You did?”

“Yeah,” Carter enthused. “She stopped by to drop some stuff off for Kara, but Kara was in a meeting, and she recognized me from a picture in your office. I got to see her use her super-speed and got to see her fly. She was amazing, and she was so much prettier in person.”

Kara noticed Cat’s eyes lift up to look at her for just a moment, before looking down at Carter, and she noticed a slight blush in Cat’s cheeks.

“Did you notice anything else about her?”

“Um, she’s really fast,” he said.

“And strong and brave and kind,” Cat said, “and she saves people all the time. Tell me, what do you think makes her a hero?”

“Her legs,” Carter said. “Definitely her legs.”

Kara had to bite her lip to keep from laughing at the absolutely poleaxed look on Cat’s face.

“Her heart, Mom,” Carter said after a moment.

“Oh! That was a joke. Carter, you never make jokes.” Cat pulled him in for another hug, before pulling back. “Are you ready for school?” she asked.

Carter nodded. “Yeah. Just a minute.”

Kara stood up, picking up his bookbag as he turned around. “Bye, buddy. It was fun hanging out with you.”

Carter closed the distance between them and wrapped his arms around her, hugging her tightly. “Bye, Kara,” he said, before taking his bag, and turning back to Cat.

“Mom, Kara and I had an epic nerf battle, and she can play Settlers of Catan almost as well as you can. Can she watch me again?”

“We’ll see, sweetheart, but you need to run along.”

“Okay,” he said, and headed for the elevator.

Kara and Cat both watched him go until he disappeared from sight. “You’ve got a really wonderful kid there, Ms. Grant.”

“I do,” Cat said, turning around. “And he seems to have taken quite a shine to you.”

Kara shrugged. “I think getting to meet Supergirl was a point in my favor, but it was nice. It reminded me of the time I spent as a part-time nanny.”

“You never cease to amaze me,” Cat said.

“What do you mean?”

“Just, everything you can do, how amazing you are, it’s hard for me to picture you taking care of someone’s kids or being a waitress at Noonan’s.”

Kara smiled at Cat. “I know you don’t see the appeal, Ms. Grant, but sometimes it’s nice to be normal and just fit in. I didn’t have a lot of that growing up, and being different… Well, you see how it is for Carter.”

“I do,” Cat said. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

“It’s okay,” Kara said. “I had Alex.”

Cat frowned slightly for a moment before Kara saw the lightbulb go on. “Alex is your sister?” she asked.

“Yes.” Kara said. “Eliza and Jeremiah, my adoptive parents, were both wonderful, but I don’t think I would have made it without Alex. She protected me, fought all the fights I couldn’t. After Jeremiah died, Alex stepped up helped take care of me. Eliza did her best, but she was grieving.”

“I’m sorry,” Cat said. “That must have been hard for both of you.”

“I survived,” Kara said. “I’m good at that.” Cat started to reply, but stopped, and the silence stretched out until Kara couldn’t stand it anymore. She was about to stammer out an apology and make a run for it when Kaldur’ahm appeared at the door.

“Ms. Grant, Ms. Danvers, there’s something you should see,” he said.

“What is it, Jacob?” Cat asked.

Kaldur’ahm walked past them and went to Cat’s desk, where he picked up the remote and turned on the monitors, switching them to the live news feed from Channel 3 news, and turning up the volume.

“We now take you over to Leyna Nguyen at the National City courthouse for more,” the reporter on screen said. A moment later, the screen switched to a Vietnamese woman standing behind a group of reporters.

“Thank you, Rick. We’ve just gotten word that Maxwell Lord, billionare tech genius and CEO of Lord Technologies has been released on bond after being charged in a series of bombings and attempted bombings around National City.”

Kara watched as the camera swung away from the reporter to focus on Max as he descended the stairs of the court house. He stopped, a few steps from the bottom, where the reporters were waiting, and held up his hands to quiet them all down.

“As you all are no doubt aware, yesterday I was arrested in connection with a bombing and several attempted bombings here in National City. I want to start by saying these charges are ridiculous, and I have no doubt that I’ll be vindicated by a jury if these trumped-up charges aren’t dismissed out of hand. As for where these charges come from, I’d say look at the timing. Two weeks ago, I came out in opposition to National City’s new so called ‘hero’ and now, here I am, charged with a bombing she failed to stop, arrested when I’m the target of the attack, and held in jail while Supergirl’s friends in the government rifle through my personal papers and through Lord Technologies files and servers. This is persecution, plain and simple, because I refuse to bow down to one of the aliens who claims they’re here to protect us. If you want to know what really happened, I say, look at Supergirl.”

The crowd of reporters started shouting questions at Lord. Some were even intelligent. Things Kara, or Cat, or Lois, or Clark would have asked. Lord didn’t answer any of them. Just strutted towards the waiting limo.

The camera swung back to the reporter. “There you have it. Maxwell Lord is claiming he’s innocent of all charges and that this is an attack by Supergirl and her supporters meant to discredit him.”

“Turn it off,” Cat said, and Kara looked over at her, because that was Cat’s furious voice, and that was usually reserved for use after board meetings.

Kaldur’ahm switched the screens off and turned around to look at Cat.

“Jacob,” Cat said, “call Bunny Watson down in research. Tell her I want *everything* on Maxwell Lord. Then call StratoJet and book a Cessna Citation X or Gulfstream G-650 from Wayne Field Executive Airport in Gotham to Nations Bay Executive Airport here in National City. Tell them I expect wheels up within an hour. If they argue, tell them CatCo is perfectly willing to find someone else to run all of our charters with. Then get Vicki Vale the line for me, set up a conference call with Perry White and Lois Lane, and find me a personal concierge service that has branches in Gotham and National City that can handle packing up and moving someone from there to here in less than four days.”

“Ms. Grant?” Kara asked.

Cat turned to her. “He’s coming after Supergirl in order to save his own ass. I won’t have it. She deserves better than that. Vicki Vale’s the new head of our investigative reporting team. I’d planned to hire Snapper Carr, but something made me reconsider.”

“But Perry and Lois?” Kara asked.

“If he takes down Supergirl, that will drag Superman down with her, and it will drag down CatCo and The Daily Planet. We’re going to drag every single skeleton in that man’s closet out into the light of day, and let the world see who Maxwell Lord really is.”

Kara felt herself start grinning. “Give me a couple of hours,” she said. “I might have something for you.”

Kara sat down at her desk in her office on the forty-second floor and touched her ear piece to call the DEO. Susan answered immediately.

“Hello, ma’am.”

“Hey, Susan. Is Hank around?” Kara asked.

“Here, Supergirl. What can I do for you?” J’onn asked.

“Do you have a version of the dossier on Maxwell Lord that’s been scrubbed for release?” Kara asked.

“No,” J’onn said. “I can prepare one, but it will take a couple of days.”

“Send the full one over Konex,” Kara said. “He can scrub it.”

“What’s this about, Ms Danvers?” J’onn asked.

“Did you see Max’s little press conference?” she asked.

“No,” J’onn said.

“Hold on, I’m sending you a link.” She tapped the home button on her phone. “Konex, find a video of the interview Maxwell Lord did on the steps of the court house this morning and send the link to Susan and Hank.”

“Of course, Lady Kara,” Konex replied.

“Got it,” Susan said. There were a couple of minutes of silence.

“Well, that could be a problem” Hank said.

“I know,” Kara said. “But I’m working it from my end. Send the dossier. Supergirl needs to be out and about today.”

Cat looked up from her desk at Jackson’s gentle knock on the door of her office. She stared at him for a moment, wondering again at Kara’s choice in replacements. Certainly, his suit was expertly tailored, but it did little to hide the man’s muscular build, and the scars on his neck kept peeking above his collar, and the snake head tattoos on the backs of his hands, though those almost blended into his dark skin. Even the blonde hair was unusual for a black man working in an office. So far, he was competent, even if not quite up to Kara’s level, but it was clear the man was not used to office work and it made her wonder what, exactly, Kara thought she needed protection from.

“Yes, Jacob?” she asked, and the way he smiled at her told her he knew she was using the wrong name intentionally, which just irritated her.

“Ms. Danvers sent down some files for you,” he said, holding up a stack of papers the size of a phonebook in one hand, and a thumb drive in the other. “She said to tell you she’d sent a copy to legal for clearances, and a copy down to Bunny for double checking, but that everything in here should be printable.”

She waved him forward, and he walked over to her desk, and handed her the files and the thumb drive. She sat the drive aside, opened the first of the files and nearly dropped it in shock. She started thumbing through it, just skimming the highlights.

“Where’s Kiera now?” she asked.

“Ms. Danvers said she’d be reachable by phone if you need her but would be away from her desk for the day. Something about it being a really busy day for Supergirl.”

“Hmmm,” Cat said. She reached over to her computer and pulled up the ‘#supergirlsightings’ hashtag on twitter. “Well, our girl has been busy, hasn’t she?”

“Yes, Ms. Grant.”

“Well, Jacob. Thank you for bringing this down. Be a dear and fetch me a lettuce wrap.”

“Of course, Ms. Grant. Before I go, however, Ms. Danvers asked me to let you know that Supergirl has asked if you’d like to do a joint interview with her, Bruce Wayne, and Diana Prince tomorrow following a press conference they’re holding at the Wayne Enterprises building.”

Cat looked up from the file. “Did she say what the press conference was in relation to?”

“She said that Supergirl was partnering with Wayne Medical and the Artemis Society to release some Kryptonian medications.”

“Now, that is definitely news worthy,” Cat said. “Set up the interview for studio seventeen. Coordinate with Kiera on the time and ask her if she could prep a pre-interview briefing for me.”

He nodded and left without another word. Cat watched him go, wondering for a moment what Kara could be up to with this latest move, but she supposed she’d find out when she got the pre-interview packet. That, however, was a worry for another day.

She looked down and started re-reading the file. The one with clear evidence to indicate that Max Lord had been engaged in experiments conducted on inmates in a private prison up state. The one that was just the first in a stack.

She checked the clock. Vicki had gotten on the charter roughly an hour ago. It was a five-hour flight from Gotham to National City on a G650 running full tilt. She sat the file down and picked up the thumb drive, plugged it into her computer, and opened her email client.

She’d never especially liked Maxwell Lord, but he’d never really seemed worth her attention. Not until now. But he’d taken a shot at Kara, and that was not acceptable. No one touched her Kara, not unless they wanted to face her wrath, and she was going to enjoy crushing Max like the little cockroach he was.

“Hey, Kara,” Maggie said, startling Kara a little. She looked up a bit surprised to see Maggie standing in the door to her office. In the old timeline, Alex, Winn, J’onn and Sara were the only ones who’d ever been able to sneak up on her because they were the only ones she’d ever gotten so comfortable with that they had faded into the background soundtrack of her life. Lena might have gotten there, had she lived long enough, and Kara was always too hyperaware of Cat for that to ever happen, but as close as she was with Maggie in that timeline, Maggie had never slipped over that line. Kara couldn’t stop herself from realizing that this was something she’d done better, this time around.

“Hey, Mags,” she said, giving Maggie a smile. “Come on in.”

“Mind if I close the door?” Maggie asked.

“No,” Kara said. Cat might prefer an always open door to her office, but Kara had too many secrets for that sort of thing to really work for her. She watched as Maggie shut the door, then walked over and took one of the seats in front of her desk.

“What’s up?” Kara asked.

“I wanted to talk to you about what you told us the other day,” Maggie said.

“Oh,” Kara said, a little surprised with herself for not expecting this. Maggie was never stupid, and Kara knew she had to have pieced things together. “What do you want to know?”

“Do you even have to ask?” Maggie asked.

“Not really,” Kara said. “But as you sure you want to know?”

“I think I already do,” Maggie said. “You never stopped trying to talk me into meeting Alex, and you were so sure that we’d like each other, and then I met her, and she’s just as incredible as you said. I didn’t even think about it at first, but Alex and I are hanging out almost every night unless one of us is on duty, and even then, we’re texting. I didn’t want to admit it at first, but I’m falling for her, hard, and I don’t think you would set me up like that unless you knew how it would turn out. You’re many things, Kara Zor-El, but cruel isn’t one of them.”

“I can be,” Kara said. “The kindness is a choice people like us make every day. You, me. That, we always had in common. The universe has not been kind to us, so we chose to be kind to others to make up for it. But I can be cruel. I went out and hired one of the few people in the world that would even stand a chance against me and gave him instructions to kill me before I hurt Cat, because I *have* seen the day I stop making that choice. That’s the future I saw. One that made kind people fear how cruel the universe can make them. So, are you sure you want me to tell you what that future was like?”

“Jesus, Kara. You give speeches like that, and you have the nerve to call J’onn a drama queen,” Maggie said.

Kara narrowed her eyes. “Okay, fine. See if I give you the tickets for the private Nine Inch Nails concert I got this morning.”

"Nine Inch Nails?" Maggie asked, coming half way out of her chair before she stopped herself and sat back down.

"Yep," Kara said. "Winn's a fan. I'm sure he'd love the tickets."

"You are an evil woman, Kara Danvers," Maggie said, the amusement in her voice taking out any sting the words might have had.

Kara just gave her a beatific smile.

"How do you even have those?" Maggie asked.

"Trent Reznor sent them over for Supergirl," Kara said.

"And you're just giving them away?" Maggie asked.

"Yes," Kara said. "I'd give them to Alex, but she always ends up getting involved at work and forgetting. The tickets get wasted."

"I might do that if it wasn't Nine Inch Nails," Maggie said. "I can't believe you don't like them."

Kara shrugged. "It's not that I don't like them," she said. "I think they are brilliant. A lot of the stuff you and Alex like is. I just don't like what the music makes me feel. The stuff I listen to, it helps keep me in a better frame of mind."

Maggie leaned forward, reaching across the desk and squeezing Kara' s hand.

"Are you okay?" Maggie asked.

Kara nodded as she realized how watery the room had gotten.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I don't think I've ever had that conversation with anyone but Sara."

"She an NSync fan too?" Maggie asked.

"Eighties hair bands and Disney soundtracks," Kara said. "Lena was the one who liked NSync."

"You really liked Lena, didn't you?" Maggie asked.

Kara smiled. "Does it show?"

"Yeah," Maggie said. "I'm surprised though. I looked her up, and she's not blonde."

Kara laughed, but she felt her cheeks heating slightly. "I think it was the whole Luthor thing," she said. "The whole forbidden love angle was enough to make me forgive her the black hair."

"She and you were a thing?"

"No," Kara laughed. "Sara was my first, and only, girlfriend in the other timeline. When I met Lena, I was nowhere near that self-aware. I was still trying to date James, which was awful.”

“You dated James?” Maggie said.

“Yes, and if you tell him that, I swear to God, I will make you do the L-Word rewatch when Alex comes out.”

“Oh, FUCK NO! I am not throwing myself on that grenade,” Maggie said.

“You say that now, but just wait until Alex gives you those sad puppy dog eyes,” Kara said with a small laugh. “Anyway, Lena is straight."

“You sure?” Maggie asked.

“The part where I managed to get her boyfriend killed was pretty compelling evidence,” Kara said as she frowned at the memory. "I don’t know. I think I had a bit of a crush on her. Didn’t realize it until after I realized what I felt for Sara was love, but then I didn’t realize that I had a great big crush on Cat either."

"Oh, honey, I am so sorry," Maggie said.

Kara shrugged. "I've spent most of my life watching people I love die," she said. "But Cat and Lena, they were hard."

Maggie squeezed her hand again. "I'm sorry. I came in here to satisfy my curiosity and ended up dragging up all your bad memories."

"It's not your fault," Kara said, reaching up with her free hand to wipe away tears that were threatening to spill. "It's just the nature of the subject. But yes, you and Alex were together. Married, in fact."

Maggie let go of her hand and set back, looking slightly shocked. "Wow," she said. "Married?"

"You asked," Kara said.

"We're we happy?"

"Mostly," Kara said. "I only ever saw you fight about two things."

"What?"

“Well, when she first came out, you told her you didn’t want to date someone fresh off the boat,” Kara said.

“Ouch,” Maggie said. “Really? Future me sounds like a bitch.”

“Don’t be too hard on future you. Remember, she didn’t have your Darla Anonymous sponsor to look out for her.”

“Okay, fair point. I’m just surprised Alex would have me after that.”

“I’m not,” Kara said. “Alex had it bad. Really bad. She’d know you all of three weeks before she came out to me.”

“Damn,” Maggie said. “I got game.”

Kara sputtered. “Please,” she said. “The ‘I don’t want to date someone fresh off the boat’ thing didn’t last a month. You got a tiny little scratch in the middle of a fight, and later that night, you were standing outside Alex’s door with pizza and beer and some cheesy speech about how life is short.”

“God, that sounds terrible.”

“Yeah, well, Alex must have really loved you, because she bought the whole thing, hook, line and sinker. I think you guys had known each other three months when you moved into her apartment.”

“Oh, God. Talk about living the cliché,” Maggie said, laughing. “So, what was the other thing?”

"Kids," Kara said. "Alex really wants kids."

"Oh," Maggie said, laughter suddenly gone. Kara could see the wheels turning. "How did that end?"

"I am not going to tell you," Kara said. "That future was a nightmare. That Maggie and that Alex made those decisions in a world falling down around them. You and this Alex have to live in *this* world, and whatever compromises they worked out in that world might not work here in this one. You have to find the answer for yourself. Just be honest about what you want. Both of you deserve that."

Maggie nodded and gave Kara one of those dimpled smiles that always turned women into stammering puddles.

"I swear you are some kind of lesbian Yoda," Maggie said.

Kara narrowed her eyes and leaned forward. "Call me that again, and I will melt your face."

"Okay!" Maggie said, holding her hands up in surrender. "Okay. Maybe not my best choice of phrase."

Kara laughed and leaned back in her chair, opening her desk drawer and taking out an envelope. She tossed it across the desk when it landed in Maggie's lap.

"Go on," Kara said. "Take Winn with you and try to talk him into growing a spine and asking out Cat's new assistant. The mooning drives me nuts."

"I was thinking of asking Alex," Maggie said.

"If you do, be sure. Alex is tough, but her heart isn't, and you have more power to break it than anyone."

Maggie nodded. "I'll be careful. I promise."

#supergirl #supercat #supercanary #sanvers #fanfiction #the shape of things to come #kara danvers #alex danvers #cat grant #maggie sawyer #sara lance #j'onn j'onzz #susan vasquez #lois lane #clark kent #james olsen #winn schott jr.#future shock

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thatsjustsupergirl · 7 years

Text

S2 Stat Wrap-Up!

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times ... and as we’re about to kick into S3, here is a long-overdue look at what the fandom was up to with writing fic over the past year:

Notes:

Kara/James was knocked off the Top 10 back in January and staged an impressive comeback, regaining the #10 spot in May and more than doubling the amount of fic produced in S1.

All of the Alex hetships from S1 have flatlined, so they’ve been knocked off the board probably forever.

Kara/Mon-El did not break into the Top 10 until halfway through S2.

That said, the number of fics for Karamel exceeds the total for all other hetships combined, which ... more on that later.

Fic output for S1 ships where one partner is absent in S2 was not affected by said absences.

Femslash output for S2 was not affected by anything fandom seems to think is important -- the only thing that has a demonstrable effect on the larger fic trend for any ship is a sponsored writing week.

Output decline on Supercorp & Sanvers started much earlier than people think, and those drop-offs have been consistent for over six months now, fic-week bumps in June excluded.

That’s right: fic output for both ships went up in June at a normal rate, despite all the SDCC yelling.

On the flip side, “protest” ships did not actually catch on, unless you want to tell me 7 fics/month is popular.

The fic output now is at nearly the same volume it was this time last year.

Ship-free fic got a good boost in numbers, but it declined as a percentage of people’s writing interest. This tracks pretty neatly with the show’s prioritizing romantic relationships over the Danvers sisters.

Biggest change from S1 to S2: the amount of femslash increased by over 5%, but remained narrow in its focus.

Supercat accounted for over 60% of all femslash during S1, and the top three femslash pairings made up 88% of reading options, with 15 other ships rounding out that last 12%.

In S2, the top three pairings (Supercorp, Sanvers, and Supercat) made up 87.6% of all femslash fic, leaving that remaining 12.4% of fics to be split among forty different ships.

Meanwhile, the ratio of no-ship fic dropped -- as did the ratio of hetfic, even though both grew at substantial rates if you look at the raw numbers. (Both saw publication increases of about 3.5x their S1 totals.) Ratios of slashfic and OT3 fic, on the other hand, doubled -- with one ship of each kind landing in spots #11 and #12 for most total fics.

Diversity among hetfic offerings also tanked in the same way they have for femslash, with Karamel now making up 60% of the total.

The amount of fic per rating is still basically the same -- there’s been a slight uptick in Rated T/Rated M fics and a drop in Rated E/Not Rated stuff since last year, but it’s not noticeably large.

What’s interesting, however, is the broader trendlines in how much fic is published every month:

Blue is S2 and red is S1 -- darker colors represent the whole fandom, lighter colors are femslash only.

So, what’s really intriguing here is the way the S2 publication rate spikes almost immediately and then proceeds to drop off to exactly what it was at the start of last year. There’s a stretch of three solid months in S2 where femslash writers actually stopped influencing the overall fandom’s behavior trend, which is a first over the course of two years.

Downward trends in the summer are entirely normal, so none of that is a surprise. The biggest reason for the widening split between “total fandom” and femslash in S1 was spikes in the amount of no-ship fic, whereas in S2 the divergence was a broader combination of no-ship, het, and OT3 fic that all started to increase publication later in the season.

And now, on to some new stuff, courtesy of the data collected by @supergirlstats

Fun with Screentime: Who spent the most relative time together?*

There were 11 combinations of regular & recurring characters I looked at for S1, and what was striking here among the top 6 was the amount of balance in how Kara spent her time -- in large part because multiple people were sharing scenes together all at once. Alex is the most compartmentalized, since she’s one of only two series regulars who didn’t work at CatCo, and she doesn’t start hanging out with Kara’s friends until late in the season. Similarly, Kara spent about half as much time with J’onn as Alex did (not shown).

And then we have...

So, there were 11 character combinations in the dataset for S2, and the first thing we can see is that romantic relationships were clearly made a priority by the show’s producers. Both Kara and Alex (and even J’onn) have a noticeable gap in the amount of time they spend with their significant others compared to their family members or friends. If it seems odd to you that the percentage of time Kara & Alex spent together is basically the same even though the actual number of minutes deceased from S1 to S2, consider: every character was being thrown into scenes with one other person, in isolation, in a way that did not happen in S1. So Kara’s time was divided up among a lot more characters, making her relative amount of time with Alex high by comparison.

Other odd but interesting note: Kara spent almost the same proportion of time with J’onn as Alex did in S2 -- the difference is less than a percentage point.

Note: Alex & Winn wasn’t a combo covered by this data. Out of all the combinations of major & recurring characters I was able to look at, Kara and James had the lowest percentage of shared time in S2 (18%), followed by Kara and Lena (20%).

I then ran screentime data against fic publication rates, and that turned up some fascinating stuff, but this post is already long and that stuff involves math, so I'll save it for another day

*Methodology note: shared screentime percentages are weighted 65/35 with the character who has the most total screentime weighed more heavily than their scene partner.

#supergirl #supercorp #karolsen #my meta #fandom stats #long post #season two #season one

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y02mustang-the-bard · 7 years

Text

Supercorp Week 2k17 - Day One

Day 1 Prompt: When they first realize they have feelings for each other

I realize I took this as "when they first knew they were in love". Oops.

Inspired by djchika's beautiful Catco magazine manip and ProfessorSpark's "Her Brother's Keeper" fic.

Read on AO3.

When Two People Fall In Love

By: James Olsen

Let it be known up front that I am not a professional reporter. My place has always been behind the camera, providing images to accompany the words of far better writers than I. However, at the request of one of my best friends, I have agreed to perform the interviews for and fully write this article.

-----

It's four on Friday afternoon and I knock once, waiting only a few seconds for the door of an apartment to open. I am immediately invited in. The apartment is warm and welcoming, with touches of turquoise amidst slate-grey and a vase of sunflowers visible on the kitchen island next to a bowl of fruit. The apartment belongs to one Alex Danvers but it is her sister that answers the door.

Kara Danvers is one of those talented writers I spoke of earlier. We’ve been friends since I first moved to National City almost four years ago and it has been a joy to watch her go from Cat Grant’s assistant to a stellar reporter.

Today, she laughs at my notepad and pen, greets me with a hug, and gestures to the living room. “Is it okay if we sit here?”

“Wherever you want, Kara.”

“This is your article.”

“Living room is fine,” I decide, because I know she’ll start offering a dozen suggestions if she thinks I'm uncomfortable. I sit in the teal kendall chair and though the fireplace to my left is quiet, it adds a comfort to the room.

Kara is wearing dark jeans and a beige cotton long-sleeved shirt, though the sleeves are pushed up to her elbows. Her hair is back in a loose braid. “Do you want anything to drink? Coffee? Water? Hot chocolate?” She begins to walk toward the kitchen to prepare whatever drink I request.

It's mid-August and National City is still well within the throes of summer, but Kara Danvers can and will drink hot chocolate at any time. “I'm fine, thanks.”

Kara sinks into the grey sofa with a brilliant smile. She seems excited to be on the other side of an interview. “What's my first question?”

I ask her a few off the bat, like what she’s wearing on her wedding day, who all is in the wedding party, details about the venue, and she cuts me off, grinning, without answering any of them.

“Did Snapper give you those?”

She’s referring to Snapper Carr, Catco’s senior reporter. He’s also her boss and mine, in this endeavor, at least.

“Maybe.”

“He’s been trying to get that information out of me for the past six weeks,” she laughs. “I don’t want Snapper’s questions, James, I want yours!”

I look down at my notepad and cross three more questions off the list. “Your adoptive mother is in town, right?”

Kara smiles broadly. “Yeah, Eliza came in from Midvale on Tuesday. It’s been so great to have her here.”

“Who all will be at the wedding?” This is my question, not Snapper’s.

“Besides Eliza, Alex, obviously,” her sister, “and Maggie,” Alex’s wife, “Winn,” Winn Schott, formerly of Catco’s IT department, another mutual friend of ours, “J’onn,” a family friend, “and a few other close friends.”

“So it’s going to be a small ceremony.”

“Pretty much.”

“No initial plans for a big wedding?”

She shakes her head. For as much of a people person as Kara Danvers is, as much as almost everyone she meets genuinely likes her, she also enjoys her privacy and time away from the crowds. “I don’t need a big wedding. I just want this one, with Lena, whatever form that takes.”

“What’s been the most unexpected thing since you started dating?”

She considers the question briefly. “Unexpected? You mean, besides Lena agreeing to go out with me in the first place?” She chuckles. “I was such a mess when I finally asked her.”

“What happened?” I know this story, but it's a good one, and worth retelling here, on the eve of their wedding.

“I had been trying to work up the courage for months,” she begins, “and every time I thought I had an opening, something happened. One of us would get a phone call, or Lena would have to run to a meeting, something would always interrupt the moment and then I'd lose my nerve.

“So after about three weeks of stammering my way through conversations and awkward pauses, she confronted me about it. Said she knew something was wrong and wanted to help. I swear, the words that came out of my mouth were, what's wrong is that I really want to kiss you but I want to ask you on a date first and I keep trying but I just can't, and it's driving me crazy.”

“And she said yes?”

“She kissed me. Then she said yes and we went to dinner. Where I promptly spilled wine all over her, shoved my hand through the bread when I tried to sop up the wine from the table, and sent a waiter and his tray flying after I jerked my arm back and almost hit him in the face with my elbow.” She's blushing, even though it's been more than two years. “Luckily I didn't break his nose.”

She adjusts her glasses. “Lena calmly paid the bill, with a tip large enough to cover the waiter’s medical bills if he had any, took my hand, and lead us out of the restaurant. We drove back to her place so she could change shirts, and it was silent the entire drive, and I spent the whole time thinking how I couldn't even give her one nice date, why would she ever try for a second?

“She changed clothes and then sat down next to me and reached for my hand, and she said, “I don't want some cliched, perfect date, Kara. I want you. The same as you’ve always been. I don't want you to change just because we’ve started dating.” And it took a little while for that to sink in totally, but Lena was nothing if not patient with me. But, yeah… after that horrible attempt at a first date, much less asking her out in a jumbled mess, I'm so thankful to be marrying her tomorrow.”

“Do you have a honeymoon planned?”

She relaxes visibly, shaking off the remnants of embarrassment. “We’re going somewhere,” she says with a lazy grin. “I actually got Lena to take off a whole week from L-Corp, it's going to be so amazing.”

“Where are you going?”

“You're going to have to find out when we post pictures after we come back.”

They've both been very tight-lipped about details surrounding both the wedding and the honeymoon. Their privacy has been breached often enough that it's unsurprising they want to keep this close to the vest.

“Has that been hard? The media attention since dating Lena Luthor?”

“I think it’s been more difficult for Lena, honestly. I expected it to be really bad - you know, junior reporter dating the CEO of L-Corp, I was the shiny new thing in the narrative, maybe there would be concerns of my bias in previous articles, and so on. The press had been following Lena for over a year by that point so I figured I would get a lot of attention after our relationship became public.”

“But you didn’t?”

“No. They,” she bites her lip and looks apologetic, “they just focused on Lena even more.” She shrugs, barely lifting one shoulder. “At first, I tried to intercept them if they approached us together, but it didn’t help.”

I remember, now. “You were at DeMarco’s.”

“You’ll have to ask Lena about that.”

And I will. Lena Luthor is the second part of my interview, after all. But I have one question still on my list.

I lean forward. “When did you first know you were in love with Lena?”

She giggles and pulls her knees up to her chest. “Can I be really cheesy and say the first time I saw her? No? Okay.”

Her blue eyes grow distant. She chews her bottom lip absently. I wait. When the smile blooms across her face, I know she's found it.

“Oh, gosh, okay.” She grabs a throw pillow and squeezes it as she speaks; she does this when she's excited so I prepare to take notes. “We’d been dating for about two months and Lena had a terrible day at the office. Investors were grumbling about her plans to open another branch, the board was fighting her on adopting a project she'd been working on for almost a year, and then - boom, the power went out in the middle of an important conference call.”

The blackout of 2018, of course.

“Terrible, right? I was working on an article here at the apartment, it was a Saturday after all, and she left L-Corp when it was clear the power wasn't coming back anytime soon. I expected her to text me and then try her condo first; we were still like eight months from moving in together, remember.

“So about three in the afternoon, the front door opened,” she waves her hand as if to show the movement, “and she walked in and set her purse on the counter. I stood up and asked her if she was okay. She ranted for a second about everything that had gone wrong. I went to pour her a glass of wine when she put her arms around me, sighed into my shoulder, and said she'd just needed to come home and see me.”

She turns her head and meets my gaze. Her eyes are shining with unshed tears. “That's when I knew I loved her, with all that I am.”

-----

After leaving Alex’s apartment, I call Lena to see if she’s ready for our meeting.

“I’m sorry, I’m afraid I’m still at the office.”

“You do know you’re getting married tomorrow, right?”

She hums into the phone. “Give me fifteen minutes to finish up here.”

Fifteen minutes will easily turn into an hour. I can’t blame her; if my year-long stint as acting CEO for Catco taught me anything, it’s that a CEO’s work is never done, especially for someone as hard-working as Lena. “Should I just meet you at L-Corp?”

She laughs. “Alright. I’m heading out now.” I hear the lid of her laptop click shut. “Meet in forty minutes at my apartment, okay?”

I agree and begin making my way across National City. Though it’s nearing seven-thirty by the time I step into Lena’s building, the sun is still above the horizon, casting long shadows. It’s warm, though there’s a light breeze that feels great.

I hope the weather will be as pleasant for the wedding, wherever it’s being held.

I knock on the door. Nearly a minute passes before it opens and when I step inside, Lena is trying to get her hair to cooperate and stay in the casual bun I think she’s trying for; she finally sighs and leaves it down.

“Would you like something to drink? I have tea.”

“Tea would be great, thanks.”

She moves to the kitchen and I realize she’s barefoot. Since arriving home, she’s changed out of what was almost certainly a skirt and blouse, with her hair in a tight bun, and into stonewashed jeans and an oversized t-shirt. It’s clear she’s comfortable here and I find myself relaxing in response.

The theme of the apartment is cool and maybe a little dark, but I can see where the deep blues and purples have begun to co-exist with the burnt orange and pale yellows. Kara’s touch. After all, she and Lena have been living together here for over a year.

“Is this some nod to tradition?” I ask, as the kettle begins to boil.

She glances over her shoulder at me, an eyebrow up in question.

“You and Kara not seeing each other the night before the wedding.”

She laughs. “Not at all. We just decided we wanted to do our interviews separately. She’ll be coming over after we’re done here.”

After she fills two mugs with hot water from the kettle, I open the packet of tea she offers and follow her to the living room. We settle on opposite ends of the couch. The front of her shirt says “Midvale High School” and I chuckle into my cup.

When she nods to tell me she’s ready, I try to engage my reporter brain.

I ask the same initial questions, hoping for insight into the wedding party or the venue.

She smirks. “Those are from Snapper Carr, aren’t they?”

“... Yes.”

“He is insufferable. I had lunch with Kara two weeks ago at Catco and he actually tried to make small talk with me, in an attempt to find out if I’d picked up my dress from the boutique. As if I’d accidentally give him details about what I was wearing or where I got it from.” She rolls her eyes. “So. No, I won’t answer any of Snapper’s questions.”

When I tell her Kara said the same thing, her eyes brighten and she seems pleased. I glance down at my notepad for another question.

“How was the planning?”

“Not half as crazy as most weddings, I’d imagine. Jess, my assistant, is amazing and I don’t know what I would do without her. She’s the reason anything I’ve tried to plan has come together as well as it has.”

“Will she be at the wedding?”

“Of course.” A sharp eyebrow raises and I am reminded again of her presence in the boardroom. “Do you honestly think I would have her help me plan one of the most important days of my life and not invite her?”

“No, I mean, of course not.” I clear my throat. “Who else will be there?”

She gives the same list I got from Kara.

I attempt to clarify. “What about for you?”

“Ah. Well, seeing as how all of my immediate family members are either deceased or incarcerated, I’d say that limits my options, doesn’t it?” Green eyes meet mine but her glare only lasts a moment. “Kara’s family and friends have become mine, as well.”

A tilt of her head tells me she includes me in that group.

I’m not certain she’ll still feel that way after I bumble my way through this interview.

“Is there anything you can tell me about your plans for your honeymoon?”

“Only that I can’t wait. Kara and I so rarely get a single day together without being interrupted by work, having an entire week to ourselves is going to be fantastic.”

“What would you say has been the most unexpected thing since you started dating?”

She thinks on that one for a while, sipping her way through half her cup of tea. “How well we complement each other. She’s much more outgoing whereas the only time I join a crowd is if I’m speaking in front of it. I was a vegan for years and she’s convinced that all vegetables are evil unless they’re breaded and fried.” We both chuckle at the truth of that. “I was worried, at first, that despite the fact that we worked well as friends, in spite of and even because of our differences, that it would just be too much when we dated. I imagined us clashing, arguing about decisions that used to be simple, getting frustrated with the everyday minutiae of a relationship.”

“A thousand papercuts.”

She nods. “Exactly. But,” I can see a smile form at the corners of her mouth, behind the rim of her mug, “it never happened. I mean, of course, there are arguments, but they’re pretty rare. We talk things through, together. We communicate openly and honestly. She’s always believed in me and I can’t imagine doing anything other than supporting her.”

Silence falls and I try to read my own handwriting. This is why Snapper suggested I use my smartphone. [Ed. note: Yes, that’s why.]

Lena allows me a few moments to try to find my place. When she sets her empty mug on the glass coffee table, the sound startles me into speaking.

“Are you going to change your last name?” It isn’t a question I had written down, not a smudged line on the notepad, and it serves as yet another lesson.

She’s thoughtful for a moment before: “Was that a question you asked Kara?” and I realize my mistake.

Foot, meet mouth.

“No,” I admit quietly.

When she falls silent, I expect a rebuke, well-deserved, about how far she's gone to repair the Luthor name, and beyond that, how she is more than her last name.

As are we all.

She just smiles and says, “That's a shame. Kara probably would have told you.” I try to apologize but she waves me off. She curls one leg underneath the other and resettles on the couch.

I move on. “Kara mentioned that the paparazzi was difficult for you, surrounding your relationship.”

“You’re referring to the incident at DeMarco’s.”

“Can you explain?”

“I grew up around the press, essentially,” she begins, “back when the Luthors were a popular story for their wealth and status. Lillian and Lionel weren’t what you would call true socialites, but there were galas and parties and fundraisers and other public events where they were expected to be seen. Lex and I would often attend.

“I had my first interview in front of a camera when I was six and at least several each year after that. After I took over L-Corp,” [Ed. note: L-Corp was previously known as LuthorCorp, when it was run by Lillian and Lex Luthor] “obviously the press interest intensified. Beyond the regular press conferences, I began to have a more steady stream of reporters following me. By the time Kara and I began dating, I was used to their presence and could usually give them the slip, especially if I’d recently held a presser.”

She shifts her position once more, stretching her legs out and crossing her ankles. “Once they started to suspect there was a potential love interest in my life, their focus changed from getting the inside scoop on the next L-Corp project to the chance for some juicy gossip. It brought around an entirely different breed of paparazzi and this one I wasn’t prepared for.

“They were relentless. Wherever Kara and I went, there they were. Even when we tried to stay under their radar, taking sometimes fairly ridiculous measures, they found us. After about a month of it, I’d had enough.”

She stands and takes her cup into the kitchen to add more hot water. “We went to dinner at DeMarco’s for our one-month anniversary.”

She rejoins me on the sofa, both hands grasping the mug. “DeMarco’s, if you recall, is popular for its atmosphere. The lighting is low, only the front side of the building has windows, there’s a small fireplace in the back with overstuffed chairs, a live band plays at any given hour, and the largest party to a table is a group of four. So we felt safe, situated near the back of the restaurant. We were enjoying our meal and the band - it was soft classical, I remember.

“A man entered the restaurant and claimed he was meeting up with his friends but had been running a little behind. He walked past a number of tables until he neared ours. There was a group of three just behind Kara and he grabbed their one open chair and sat down. In the moment it took the people at the table to realize they had no idea who this guy was, he turned around, pulled out a small digital camera, and took eight photos.”

She takes a long sip of her tea. “I don’t regret my actions,” she says. “As soon as I got to my feet, he was trying to run away. I reached him in three steps, pulled the camera out of his hands, popped open the side compartment, ejected the SD card and snapped it in half. For good measure, I walked over and threw the pieces into the fireplace.

“He started yelling about how he was going to sue me, shouting for the manager to call the police, all manner of things. I told him I was just trying to enjoy a romantic dinner with my girlfriend and if he wouldn’t have intruded, he’d still have his memory card. He snatched his camera back, which, honestly, I wasn’t going to keep, but then he made a move as though he was going to grab me.”

She chuckles at whatever look I have on my face. “Mmhmm. Kara stopped him. She stepped between us and told him to back off, that she was already going to file a report with Catco and she could make sure he’d never get another job in National City or anywhere in northern California, but if he laid a hand on me, she’d let Cat Grant take care of his career.” She sighs, happily it seems, into her mug. “He turned around and walked out. The manager apologized for the interruption and we finished our dinner.”

“The next day, an ‘anonymous tip’ reported to the Enquirer that you and Kara were dating.”

“Yes. But there was no photographic evidence. It remained a rumor in the tabloids until we decided to announce our relationship a few months later, on our own terms.”

I’ve finished my tea and I sense that Lena’s willingness to share is perhaps nearing an end. Or perhaps it’s just that, once I leave, Kara will be here in ten minutes flat.

I shift my pen and ask the last question. “When did you first know you loved her?”

Lena smiles indulgently and rests her chin in her hand for a moment. “I didn't know. Not for a long time.” Her smile doesn't fade but she blinks a few times. “Growing up, my experiences with love weren't exactly warm family hugs and high school kisses under the bleachers. I dated in college, but it was more like a mutually-beneficial business partnership than a true relationship.”

I nod, but don't interrupt. While Lena has indeed become a friend to me in the past few years, I have learned that she opens up only rarely, and I am gratified by the responses she's given.

“When Kara and I first met, she was this tagalong for Clark Kent and then a new reporter, so it took a while before I realized she was also a friend. She supported me in a way I'd never seen before. And when we started dating, this woman who'd easily become my best friend managed to be an even bigger presence in my life and held a stronger belief in me than I had in myself.”

She shakes her head and falls silent and I'm afraid the moment is lost. But then: “We’d been dating for a little over five months when Kara first told me that she loved me. That she was in love with me. She rambled about all the things she loved about me, but insisted I didn't have to say it back, and, as if to reassure me, she listed the different ways I showed that I cared for her without ever speaking the words.”

I don't know what to say to that.

Seeing something in my expression, apparently, she laughs softly. “Was that sappy enough for you?”

“You don't have a specific moment?” I press, since she's still open to speaking.

“The moment we met. I've always loved her.”

----

And so, dear reader, if you’ve made it this far, I attribute that entirely to the remarkable women I interviewed as opposed to any talent in my writing, but I thank you nonetheless.

I would like to take a moment to wish my good friends the most heartfelt congratulations and best wishes on their marriage. I am honored to be invited to attend and even moreso to be asked to photograph the event, to capture the beautiful ceremony and preserve on film the joy and love of the day.

By the time you read this, the ceremony will be long over and they will be on their way to their honeymoon, the destination of which I can only guess, and you’ll find me once more where I belong.

Behind a camera.

#my fic #supercorp #supercorpweek2k17 #day one #gonna reblog this on my main

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