A Better Luthor-Danvers - happyle (2024)

Chapter 1: everyone freaked out

Chapter Text

CATCO

Kara Danvers is sitting behind her desk, working on last week’s alien attack article with some Supergirl quotes. The corner of her mouth twitches a little when she questions herself that dose quoting herself count as undermining journalism integrity? Having heard Lena saying a "Thank you" to her assistant, Eve Teschmacher, for bringing her some documents, she looks into Lena’s office. The sight that Lena, who is wearing a navy silk blouse and a black slit skirt that shows her leg perfectly, talking to Eve with a gleaming smile makes her heart skip a beat.

Lena Luthor is attractive as always.

I know that Ms.Grant is the Queen of Media who needs to keep a tap on everything, but does she have to make her office door transparent? It’s so distracting! (but we all know what’s really distracting is Lena Luthor, not the poor door.) Kara growls silently, then goes back to typing.

Lena sits on the couch, going through some CATCO documents. Sunlight shines into the office, making tiny dust dancing in the air visible. Lena closes her eye and sighs in relaxation, enjoying the warmth of sunlight. Having Sam take over for her at L-Corp as the CFO, her workload is significantly decreased, which gives her more time to learn ins and outs of CATCO and see one certain reporter more frequently. She opens her eyes and looks out the office, searching for Kara subconsciously. After finding that Kara, who is wearing a scarlet shirt and a black khaki with her hair swept back in a ponytail, is typing fiercely on the keyboard with her brows knitted, Lena finds the sight cute. Having noticed her heartbeat fastening a little, she looks away quickly and fixes her eyes stubbornly on the multiple televisions installed on the wall, but fails to pay attention to the content.

Lena chides herself, Focus, Luthor! You have two multi-billion companies to run. Now is not the time to drool over your best friend. Besides, she is still getting over her gone boyfriend.

THUMP!

Startled by the loud sound that comes from the balcony stretching outside her office, Lena turns her head abruptly, almost wrenches her neck in the process. When she sees a blonde girl, who is wearing an MIT hoodie and a pair of jeans, stand there, the first thought that crosses her mind is, Another assassination attempt?

“Mom!” The girl brightens up at the sight of her. “Thank god, you are here too!”

Mom? This opening line is new. Lena puts the documents down on the couch and stands up vigilantly with her body tightening. “What do you want?”

The girl throws her hands in the air to show that she doesn’t mean any harm. “Mom, please calm down. I’m not gonna hurt you.”

Lena snaps, “Why do you keep calling me that!”

“Let me explai—”

Before the girl finishes her sentence, Kara suddenly appears at the door and shouts, “Lena! Are you okay?” (Kara ran to the office at a slightly inhuman speed as soon as she heard Lena’s tense voice and racing heartbeat) She rushes to Lena and screens her protectively, then frowns at the girl. “Who are you?”

The girl cries out, “Jeju!”

Kara is stunned. “You-you know Kryptonese?”

“Let me explai—”

James bursts in. “What’s wrong?” Noticing the girl, he asks, “Who are you?”

“Uncle James!” The girl whines, “Is anyone else gonna come in? Can you guys just let me explain, at least?”

Lena asks confusedly, crinkling her forehead, “Wait, Kryptonese? Kara, how do you know Kryptonese?”

Kara exchanges a f*ck ME look with James. “Uh… I…”

James tries to save Kara’s ass. “Miss Luthor, I think we’d better focus on the threat first.”

The girl calls out, “What? Mom, you don’t know Jeju is Supergirl yet? What year is it?”

Kara answers, “Uh… 2017?”

The girl starts to pace back and forth. “This is bad, so bad.”

However, the room falls quiet. Lena is the one who breaks the silence first. “Kara, you're Supergirl?”

Kara turns to Lena and puts one hand on her forearm. “Yes, I am. Can we talk about it later, and,” gesturing to the anxious girl, “deal with this first?”

“Okay.”

“Thank you.” Kara turns to face the girl again. “Can you tell us why do you seem to know everyone and why do you call me Jeju, and call Lena mom?” Suddenly, the answer to her question hits her, so she scrutinizes the girl, and finds that the girl’s hair reflects a familiar luster in the sunlight, the frame of the girl’s face is similar to hers, and the girl is about her height, but her eyes are identical to Lena’s. Sinking it in, she starts shivering, unable to utter a word.

Seeing that Kara is useless now, the girl clams herself and enters the office. “Everyone, please sit down and allow me to explain.”

Kara nods to Lena and James wordlessly. Three of them take the couch on the left, and the girl takes the opposite one swiftly.

“My name is Lori Luthor-Danvers, and I’m from the future.” Lori pauses to give them some time to process this information.

Lena flinches at the last name. She knows the girl is telling the truth based on her Luthor instinct, let alone all the resemblances Lori bears to her and Kara, but the implication in Lori’s appearance that she will marry Kara Danvers, who is also Supergirl, and have a kid in the future? This is insane.

James is astonished. “Who? How?”

Lori says, “I’m the daughter of Kara Luthor-Danvers and Lena Luthor-Danvers. Mom researched into genetic engineering, so I was sophisticatedly cloned by fragmenting and manipulating the DNA of my moms.”

James turns to the alleged moms. “You’ll get married in the future? You’re not even dating now! And time travel? You can’t believe this girl.”

Lena retorts, “I do believe her.”

Kara also argues, “James, I believe her, too. I mean, look at her! She looks exactly like me and Lena. Besides, she knows my identity, and she flew in from the balcony, so apparently, she has superpowers like I do.”

James asks, “Wait, Kara, are you even gay?”

“I… I could be?”

One score for me. Lena gets excited but composes herself quickly. “Mrs. Olsen, presuming other people’s sexual orientation is rude. I expected better from you.”

Lori chimes in, “Yes, heteronormativity is ridiculous.”

Lena tilts her head to Lori, raising one eyebrow as praising—Attagirl.

James apologizes quickly, “Kara, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean—”

Kara waves her hand. “It’s okay. Let’s just focus on Lori.” Looking back at Lori, she asks solicitously, “Why are you here?”

Lori puffs out a breath. “Oh, it’s a long story.” She looks outside the office with hesitancy on her face. “And—”

Having comprehended Lori’s hesitation, Lena walks to Eve’s desk. “Eve, we are having an important meeting now, please make sure that no one would come and interrupt us.”

Eve replies in her shrill voice, “Yes, Ms. Luthor. And can I get you anything?”

Lori suddenly appears behind Lena. “Yes! One black coffee for Miss Luthor, two lattes with double caff, double foam with caramel and mocha for me and Miss Danvers, and one soy latte for Mrs. Olsen, thank you!”

Eve looks at Lena, inquisitively.

Lena nods. “Yes, Eve, please.”

“Okay, Miss Luthor. Be right back.”

Lena leads Lori back, sits down, and leans back to get herself comfortable. “So, where were we?”

OCTOBER 26TH, 2041, LENA LUTHOR’S PERSONAL LAB, NATIONAL CITY

It is just another normal day for Lori Luthor-Danvers.

She is at a round platform with a matter transformation portal set above, inputting commands to her tablet. Building a time machine? Just some science stuff at weekends, totally normal for her.

Leo stands in front of a monitor not far away, recording data. “I hope this optimized algorithm would actually work.”

Lori says blankly, “Hmm, I guess we’ll find out soon.” Soon, she looks away from the tablet to her brother. “But again, Leo, you don’t have to be stuck here with me. It’s the weekend, you can go out to have some fun, or spend time with moms.”

Leo gives Lori an assuring smile. “Hey, I am having some fun. I’ve learned a lot from this project, and I like to be your muscle here. Besides, I don’t want to be a third wheel at their weekly Saturday night date. You know how tactile they’ll get.” Wrinkling his nose, he adds, “Can you believe they are married for twenty years and are still disgustingly sweet?”

Lori laments, “Argh! Walking into their make-out session is my life-long trauma.”

“Yeah, I just can’t forget that day when we got home from school, found that Jeju lifted Mom—”

“Shut up!”

Leo chuckles. “And I’d like to help my little sister to get the girl she likes.”

Lori blushes, profoundly. “Becca is just a friend from college! It’s just her birthday is coming up, and she’s obsessed with an old movie called Portrait of a Lady on Fire recently and can’t stop talking about it. I just want to surprise her by taking her back to Paris in the 1760s and having dinner. That’s all.”

“Uhh, building a time machine as a birthday gift? You Luthor-Danvers women are incurably romantic.”

Lori flings a pen at Leo’s chest.

“Ouch! It hurts!” Leo feigns pain.

Lori pouts, “Oh, what are you gonna do? Tell moms that I bullied you, big brother?”

Leo laughs fondly at Lori’s childishness. Lori is always vigorous and enthusiastic, maybe a little impetuous sometimes, but she would do anything for people she loves. Even though Lori is a genius who studies two majors at MIT at the age of eighteen, people don’t find her unapproachable and are drawn to her naturally. Also inherited superpowers, she hasn’t figured out which path to take yet, but their moms are supportive enough to give her as much time as she needs to consider it. Thinking back to the present, he asks, “Ready to run the trail?”

“Yep! Fire it up.” Lori’s lower lip pops out at the ‘p’ sound. “Let me put in a random time-space coordinates first.”

BANG! An alien suddenly appears at the entrance, crashing the door into the ground. The siblings are startled by it, turn their heads simultaneously to the intruder.

Leo gulps. “A Parademon from Darkseid? I thought they were all sent home by Justice League.”

The Parademon lets out a deafening roar before launching at them.

Lori shouts, “Watch out!” She drops her tablet and pushes Leo aside instinctively. Leo falls to the ground on his back, groaning in pain.

The Parademon grips Lori by the waist and hurls her forward. They hit the concrete wall together, and the impact causes a huge crack. Then, the Parademon presses its shoulder against Lori’s abdomen, trapping her firmly.

“God, it shouldn’t be this strong!” Lori clenches her jaw, trying to push it away. Exerting herself, she manages to create a distance between them, then she kicks forcefully at its chest. The Parademon falls backward and lands on the edge of the platform. Lori Super Speeds to it and strides over its chest. Punching it on the head repeatedly, she shouts, “Visiting without a heads-up is rude!”.

The parademon is infuriated by Lori’s humiliation. It rolls over violently and pins Lori to the ground. Grabbing her neck with one hand, it growls directly at Lori’s face. Lori resists with her hands pressing against its head difficultly. Through the change of position, they are both on the platform now.

Seeing Lori’s dilemma, Leo struggles up, grabs a computer screen nearby, and smashes it down onto the Parademon’s back. The computer screen is cracked into two pieces, but no discernible harm is done to the object. Seemingly caring about Leo at all, the Parademon simply sweeps Leo away with its wing without looking. Leo falls again with his elbow bumping on Lori’s tablet discarded earlier.

THE SOUND OF THE MACHINE RUNNING

A purple beam shoots down from the portal.

“No, no, no, no!” Leo runs towards the platform, being all panicked. Just when he steps on the platform, the Parademon disappears, and Lori follows. Sinking in the situation, he mutters a “Shoot”, then disappears too.

Subsequently, the purple beam dies out.

CATCO

“After I landed, I found myself on a roof, so I searched Jeju’s heartbeat with my Super Hearing and located her at CATCO, and flew directly here. So, this is the story of how I ended up here.” Lori takes a sip of her excessively sweet latte, then looks at her moms. “So, Jeju, I need your help with catching the alien, and mom, I need your help with sending my current time and location coordinates to the future, so you…the future you can get me and my brother home.”

“An alien at large?” asks James.

“A brother?” asks Kara.

“A time machine?” asks Lena.

Lori’s eyes flit over three astounded faces successively, not sure about answering which question first.

Kara concedes, “Yeah, yeah, the alien at large. How can we track it?”

Lori answers, “We need help from DEO, so we need to contact Aunt Alex.”

Lena asks, “What’s DEO?” Normally, she wouldn’t be the one who raises questions in a dire situation, but not this time.

Lori purses her lips. “Jeju, seriously?”

Trying to save Kara’s ass, again, James says, “ DEO is the department of extra normal operations, a secret government facility that monitors extraterrestrial presence.”

Absorbing in the information, Lena says, “So, Alex is not an FBI agent, but a secret agent of a secret organization? That explains her badass swagger.”

Lori deadpans, “Jeju, seriously, you need to fix this. By the way, Mom, how can you be fooled by a pair of glasses? You are the genius who cured, or will cure cancer.”

Lena thinks, Maybe I am a fool when it comes to Kara Danvers.

Kara ducks her head, fiddling with her glasses in the exact way when she is embarrassed. “I’ll call Alex, to fill her in.” Looking up, she says, “No, we’d better go to DEO and explain the situation in person.” Then she stands up, ready to leave.

Lori says, “Jeju, we need to wait.”

“For what?”

“For Leo. I don’t know where he landed, but I think he would go to L-Corp to look for mom first. Since mom is here at CACTO, he would come here eventually.”

AT THE SAME TIME, GROUND FLOOR, L-CORP

“Please! I need to see Miss Luthor. It’s urgent!” pleads Leo.

The guard shakes his head. “I’m sorry, sir. I can’t let you in if you don’t have an appointment.”

“Miss Luthor knows me, I promise!”

The guard says indifferently, “If Ms. Luthor does know you, you can call her for access.” He has dealt with quite a few reporters who claimed knowing Miss Luthor personally for trying to get a quote. He thinks, It’s so unoriginal. Can they come up with a new excuse?

“Argh!” Leo whines frustratedly, tilting his head back. Then, he sees that Jess is walking towards the entrance in his peripheral vision. He exclaims surprisingly, running towards the secretary, “Jess!”

Jess stops and looks around, bewildered by the finding that a stranger, who is about 6’2’’ tall with black short hair, is running toward her with a smiley face. When the stranger stops in front of her, she sizes him up. “I’m sorry, but do I know you?”

“Oh, no, no, but you will.” Perceiving Jess’s confusion, Leo adds promptly, “I mean, uhh…I’m an intern of Kara Lu—Danvers. She mentioned you several times. Anyways, I have an important message for Miss Luthor regarding…CATCO, which is very urgent. Can you send me up, please?”

Jess is a very professional and loyal secretary, who would never leak any information about her boss, but this man, somehow, gives her a sense of familiarity, so she says instead, “Miss Luthor isn’t here. She’s at CATCO.”

“Thank you, Jess!” Leo immediately runs to the entrance and turns around to wave her goodbye at halfway.

Weird, thinks Jess.

CATCO

“Mom, Jeju, I have to say, it’s really exciting to see the younger versions of you and have an opportunity to hang out with you.” Lori crinkles her nose. “And it’s nice to see you two less tactile. You’re impossible back home.”

James stands up. “Oh-kay. I’m gonna go back to work now.” Then he walks out of the office.

Kara and Lena both blush, look in divergent directions synchronously.

Lori asks, “It’s not like you’ve told us how you got together like How I Met Your Mother, but how is it possible that you’re not dating yet?”

Kara fidgets. “Uhh, I am still getting over my last relationship.”

“Mon-el? That douchebag? I really don’t understand what you saw in him.”

Lena reprimands Lori softly, “Lori, you can’t tell people how to feel. No matter how wonderful or how terrible that person is, a relationship is a relationship. Separating from people you once loved hurts.”

Lori apologizes instantaneously, “Jeju, I’m sorry! It’s so inappropriate of me to say things like that. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay, Lori.” Kara smiles weakly. “I guess I just need some time to move on.”

In order to ease tension in the room, Lena says, “I see you’re wearing an MIT hoodie. So, you study there?”

“Yes, to follow your step. I major in theoretical physics and biological engineering.”

Shocked by Lori’s answer, Kara asks with her eyes wide open, “How old are you?”

Lori lifts her chin with a smug smile. “Eighteen. I’m pretty much a genius.”

Lena comments, “Not humble at all. I wonder where you got that from.”

Laughing fondly, Kara turns to Lena, who just turns to her. When their eyes meet, both of them hold it a little too long to be considered platonic.

Lori quivers, They are eye f*cking again!

Lena drags her eyes away first. “How about your brother? Is he hybrid too?”

“Nope, he is a human. You adopted him when he was five. Jeju saved him from a fire that killed his biological parents.”

“Oh.” Lena goes quiet, with tendrils of insecurity gnawing at her.

Lori knows that her mom is doubting herself right now. Adopted by Luthors at the age of four and grew up in the somber Luthor mansion, Lena hardly felt being loved. Lex morbidly took her as a possession; Lillian barely showed her affection as a mother, and Lionel didn’t seem to care about her at all. The worst is that she is traumatized by them with manipulation, even assassination, by people who should have loved and supported her the most. As a result, she is so afraid of letting people in, let alone raising kids and passing down the Luthor curse.

Lori moves to Lena’s side and holds her hand. “Mom, you and Jeju are the best parents in the world, and I mean it.”

Normally, Lena would balk at physical touches, but the warmth exuding from Lori’s hand is welcoming and soothing, so she stays unmoved. For Kara, the scene is a reminiscence of Krypton, which feels like home, and makes her heart melt a little.

“Sir! Sir! You can’t go inside!” Eve’s voice sounds, diverting their attention.

“I need to speak to Miss Luthor. Please let me in.”

“Leo!” Lori runs to Leo, who is stopped by Eve with extending arms, and wraps him into a hug. “Are you okay?”

“Wow, easy, easy.” Leo wriggles out of the hug that is a little tight for him. “I’m okay. Are you?”

“Yeah. What took you so long to get here?”

Before Leo makes a reply, Lena approaches them and says, “Eve, it’s okay. He’s my guest. You can go back to work now.”

“Yes, Miss Luthor.”

Leo beams at Lena. “Mo—Miss Luthor!”

Lena chuckles at the obvious change of address. “Let’s talk inside.”

Just stepped into the office, Leo cries out, “Jeju!”

Although finds it bizarre that a man around her age calls her Jeju, Kara responds warmly, “Hi, Leo.”

Leo asks Lori, “Have you told them everything?”

Lori answers, “Yep. But tell you what, they’re not dating yet.”

Leo is taken aback. “What? This is ridiculous.”

“You tell me.”

Kara thinks, Why do they keep saying that.

Lena thinks, They need to shut up.

Oblivious to the hostility from her moms, Lori continues, “Anyways, back to my question, what took you so long?”

Leo says, “I am a human. I can’t fly. I landed at an alley where I could see the L-Corp building, so I went there first. And I found out on my way there that we are in 2017, so I freaked out a little.”

Kara chimes in, “Believe me, we did.”

Lori rolls her eyes and asks, “What should we do now?”

Kara turns on her Supergirl mode and makes an arrangement, “Lori, you come to DEO with me. Leo, you stay with Lena.” Turning to Lena, she says, “And Lena, I’ll call you when we're done. Is it okay with you?”

Lena says impassively, “Yeah, yeah, sure.”

Damn. Kara asks gingerly, “Lena, can we talk later?”

Although overwhelmed by the unexpected reveal of Kara’s alter ego, Lena can’t bring herself to say no to Kara. “Okay.”

Kara lets out a sigh of relief. “Thank you.”

Hearing the awkwardly formal conversation, Lori finds that she would rather watch her moms making out than watch them act like this (not really, though), so she has to get herself out of this situation as soon as possible. “Jeju, c’mon, let’s move. We have an alien to catch.”

Kara says, smiling at the brunette, “I’ll see you.” After receiving a nod, she is about to set out but halts when she sees Lori walk in the direction of the balcony. She asks confusedly, “Where are you going?”

Lori says similarly confusedly, “Uhh, DEO?”

Realizing that Lori prepares to fly to DEO, Kara says, “No, we use the elevator, like a human.”

Chapter 2: we will happen

Chapter Text

Watching Kara’s receding silhouette, Lena feels that there are so many tangled emotions stirring up in her, which overloads her imaginary boxes. She stands uptight in a daze for a while before remembering that Leo is still in the office with her. After rebooting herself, she turns to the young man, but only finds an intense gaze.

She asks, “Have I got something on my face?”

“No, no, it’s just…you look different.”

“Younger?”

Leo chuckles. “Yeah, that, but also…lonelier?”

“Oh? Loneliness is visually measurable?”

Leo gasps exaggeratively. “Wow, scientist mode mom, huh? It’s more like a vibe.”

Lena hums playfully. “Vibe isn’t scientific and quantifiable, just sayin’.”

“You know, you’re only three years older than me right now, but you’re still trying to school me?”

“What can I say, never stop learning.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard that before.”

Lena and Leo grin at each other. The banter, apparently, is an icebreaker. Looking into Leo’s brown eyes, Lena only sees tenderness in them rather than disdain that she sees from people when they find out her last name. Much to her surprise, even though Leo is considerably higher and bigger than her, she doesn’t find him intimidating, but reliable.

Leo looks around and finds a drink bar at the wall. “I’m gonna go get a cup of water. Do you want one?”

Lena shakes her head, amusedly. Seeing Leo move in leisure, she asks, “Aren’t you worried?”

Leo asks while guzzling water, “About what?”

“Everything. The time travel thing, the alien.”

“Not really. Jeju and Aunt Alex will deal with the alien. You and Jeju in my timeline must’ve received an alarm of the intrusion, they’d rush to the lab to check. Plus, we got you here. You can figure out a way to contact the future you and get us back, so literally, I have nothing to worry about.”

Lena notices that the way Leo says these words is so casual like recounting what he had for lunch, which deliveries certainty. She can’t help but wonder what the future her has done to secure this sheer trust in this man. Shoveling her turbulent feeling down, she says, “So, how can I help with the contacting the future me part?”

“Maybe use tachyons or other space-shredding particles to tear a tiny crack in time-space to send a message? I don’t know, it’s not my major.”

“What is your major, then?”

“Mechanical Engineering.”

“You go to MIT, too?”

“Nah, I study at Caltech.” Leo pauses. “I’m not as intelligent as Lori, so I have to study hard to catch up with her.”

Lena’s heart clenches a little. She is fully aware of the sentiment in Leo’s words. Once, she was also the inferior child who wanted to live up to her brother, so she studied diligently to prove her worth. But now, she has come to the realization that she has nothing to prove to the Luthors, and that she is her own person, she can live her life in her own way. Empathizing this, she says, “Leo, you don’t need to prove yourself to anyone.”

Leo smiles softly. “Mom, I know that. You’d made sure of it.” In order to change the topic, he continues, “You know what, I’ve consumed a lot of energy from running back and forth,” making a grimace, “and I’m starving now. How about going out for lunch?”

Lena laughs at Leo’s funny look. “Okay, I guess it’s my treat then.”

“Mom, don’t be so petty. You’re a billionaire!” Leo opens the door and gestures Lena to follow. “Come on.”

Lena complies. “What do you want for lunch?”

“I don’t know, how about having some ice cream first?”

“Ice cream?”

“Yes, I wanna know what ice cream tastes like in 2017.”

“I guess they taste the same as the future.”

Leo deadpans, “Guess isn’t scientific.”

Lena lets out a roar of laughter.

DEO

This morning is abnormal for DEO because it is too quiet. No general alert, no alien emergency, nothing. Alex is sitting on a chair beside the central console with Maggie sitting on her right. Both of them are staring at their phones with intense frowns, while Winn is on the left, typing on the keyboard and updating the monitoring system.

Maggie says, tapping away on her phone, “Nope.”

Soon, Alex exclaims, “This is worse!”

Winn glances at them. “Are you texting each other while being in the same room?”

“Maggie has a terrible taste at wedding dresses.” Alex shows her phone screen to Winn. “Look!”

“Hey! You’re not better than me.” Maggie holds up her phone, too. Both women glare at Winn, waiting for him to make a verdict.

Winn raises his both hands and slides away from them. “I’m not getting involved in this again.”

“Alex!”

After hearing Kara’s voice, Alex signs. She knows this tone very well, which solely means emergency and fun time is over. She turns and sees Kara stride towards her with a strange girl following half a step behind. She and Maggie both stand up to receive the presumed emergency.

When they meet at the central console, Alex asks, “What happened?”

Kara says in her most comforting tone, “Please don't freak out at what I’m gonna tell you.”

Maggie quips, “Kara, you know that’s the exact sentence to make people freak out.”

Eavesdropping the conversation, Winn slides to them and expects the follow-up.

Kara gestures to Lori and says, “This is Lori, my future daughter.”

“Your what?” Alex, Maggie, and Winn shout at the same time, causing all agents on the floor to look at them.

Kara hisses, “Shhh, voice down! I said no freaking out.”

“Who?” asks Alex.

“How?” asks Winn.

“With whom?" asks Maggie.

They eye Lori with tangible shock.

It's Kara’s turn to be uncertain about which question to answer first.

Seeing her Jeju is useless again, Lori steps in and says, “Hi, Aunt Alex, Maggs, Uncle Winn. I’m Lori Luthor-Danvers. I’m here because a Parademon from Darkseid attacked us when my brother and I were working on a time machine, so we need your help to catch it.”

Not focusing on the alien attack at all, Alex shouts, “Luthor?”

Winn asks drawlingly, “Uhh…whi…which one?”

Kara groans. “Lena, Of course! Look, l will explain this part later. Can we focus on the alien first?”

Alex is still in shock. “You and Lena? How?“

J’onn shows up at the central console, “What’s happening?”

Lori greets excitedly, “GP J’onn!” Seeing J’onn’s questioning look, she adds with a shrug, “You can read my mind so that I don’t have to explain the whole thing again. You have my consent.”

J’onn stares at Lori for a while, then darts a sly look at Kara. After turning to the monitor wall, he commands, “Mr. Schott, please help Lori tracke the alien.”

Winn replies, sliding back to his desk, “Yes, Sir.”

Alex asks, “J’onn, are you sure about this?”

J’onn says in an assuring tone, “Yes, I am. Let’s help your niece and get her home.”

Alex exchanges a look with Maggie before walking to J’onn’s side. The wives-to-be turn on their work mode, adeptly.

Winn says, “So, Lori, how can we track the Parad—What’s its name again?”

Lori walks to Winn’s side. “Parademon. Darkseid attacked Metropolis several years ago, or several years later from now. I know the frequency of their boom tubes, so maybe we can track it by its signal,” gesturing to Winn’s computer, “may I?”

“Sure, by all means.”

Typing on the keyboard, Lori grumbles, “Hmm, your system is archaic. No wonder you didn’t pick up the time-space abnormality. I need to give it an upgrade first.”

Winn is offended, massively. “Excuse me? Archaic? You’re talking to the guy who built the system of—” Catching Lori’s maneuver, he trails off, amazed, “Wow, that’s pretty genius...”

Lori winks. “You’re pretty much a genius, too, Uncle Winn.”

Sensing the confidence and calmness exuding from Lori, Kara feels proud and relieved. Even though she has just met Lori for several hours, she does find that Lori is someone she can count on.

Alex walks to Kara and gives her a jab. “Hey, how are you taking all these?”

“I don’t know. Lori came to me at CATCO, and Lena was there too, so she knows that I’m Supergirl now, and that we’ll get married in the future. I…” Kara sighs. “You know, I’m still grieving over the loss of Mon-el, but seeing Lori and Leo made me realize that I have feelings for Lena. Everything is overwhelming. I don’t know what to do next.”

“Hey, Kara, listen.” Alex rounds her arm around Kara’s shoulder. “Take all the time you need, but do talk to Lena honestly, okay? And I’ll always be there for you.”

Kara smiles graciously. “Thank you.”

Lori says while hitting the return key, “All done. I think we’re good to go now.”

Winn says, without his eyes leaving the screen, “Okay, I’ll take it from here.”

J’onn says, “Lori, DEO will take over this case and keep Supergirl updated. You can go back to join your brother now.”

Lori nods. “Okay, GP J’onn.”

Winn asks, “What does GP mean?”

J’onn looks down at Winn with a proud grin. “Grandpa.”

After cavorting to her Jeju, Lori says, “Jeju, GP J’onn said that we can leave now. Can you call mom?”

“Oh, okay. Excuse me.” Kara takes out her phone and walks to the other side of the room to make the call.

Seeing Alex and Lori being left alone, Maggie walks to them and says with a cute smile that shows her dimples, “So, neither of the Danvers sisters is straight. And Luthor? I did sense a gay vibe from her.”

Lori laughs brightly. “Of course you did. You’re the gay detector in the family.”

Maggie refutes, “I’m a detective. Detecting is what I do. By the way, I detected that Alex is gay, too.”

Lori jokes, “Aunt Alex is the straightest gay in the family.”

Alex groans in exasperation, “Argh! I hate you two.”

Maggie is still showing her cute dimples. “No, babe, you love me.”

“That’s true.” Alex gives Maggie a peck on the lips.

Lori melts. “Aww, that’s sweet.”

After hanging up the phone, Kara walks back to the chattering group. “Hey, Lori, Lena and Leo are having lunch at Noonan’s. We can go—” A vibration from her phone cuts short her sentence, making her pause to check. “Oh, James needs me at CATCO.” Giving Lori an apologetic look, she continues, “I guess you have to go alone. I’ll catch you later.”

Lori says, “Yeah, okay. And Leo is having lunch with mom without me? He is so dead! Gotta go now. See ya!” Then, she tramps away.

Kara shouts, “No flying!”

Lori turns and raises two fingers to her temple in a solemn salute.

Looking at Lori’s retreating form, Maggie murmurs, “I think Lori is gay, too.”

The Danvers sisters look at each other, with their eyes popping out.

Noonan’s

Watching Lori digging into her fourth sticky bun, Lena concludes that she has the same appetite as Kara, then she asks, “So, how are things going at DEO?”

“No progress yet, but Aunt Alex and GP J’onn will keep an eye on it.” Squinting at Leo, Lori continues, “It’s an unacceptable behavior for a brother that you went for ice cream without me.”

Leo retorts, “Hey, we brought you one and it’s already in your stomach, drama queen.”

Amused by the banter between the siblings, Lena thinks of Lex. She used to wish that she could have had a brother, with whom she could talk freely. Poking her kale salad with her fork pensively, she says quietly, “I was thinking that maybe you can stay with me while you are here?”

The siblings beam at her.

“Yes!”

“I’d love to!”

LENA LUTHOR’S PENTHOUSE

After opening the door, Lena leads the siblings to the living room. Pointing in the direction of bedrooms, she says, “Lori you can take the room on the right, and Leo you can take the one on the left, and make yourself at home.”

Lori observes the penthouse. There is an open kitchen on the left of the living room and a spacious balcony stretching on the right. An ivory white couch and a glass coffee table set in the middle with a huge TV in front. Then, she says, “I’ve never been to your penthouse before. l might say it’s a little dull,” pointing at the TV, “I haven’t seen this kind of device since I was nine. The whole time travel thing is so cool.”

Lena raises an eyebrow. “This kind of device? Can I ask what kind of device you use in the future?”

Lori giggles. “Portable virtual reality devices that can be customized according to your preference. It can be a pair of glasses or lenses. Basically, anything you can think of.”

Leo says, “Which allows us to watch shows from any angle we want by walking around.”

Lena is amazed. “That sounds cool.”

Lori shrugs. “But we lost the fun of cuddling up and discussing the plot.” Her eyes light up. “Hey, can we watch a movie together later tonight?”

Lena curls up her lip. “I think that’s manageable.”

Lori throws her fists in the air. “Yes!”

Gesturing to the kitchen, Lena says, “I’ll make us some tea.” After putting the teakettle on the electric range, she turns to the siblings who just sit on the stools behind the bar table. Trying to be as casual as she can manage, she says, “So, a time machine, huh?”

Lori says with a triumphant smile. “I knew you can't help asking us about that. You’re a nerd after all.”

“Excuse me.” Lena puts a hand to her chest dramatically as being offended. “I’ve been called witch or… Luthor bitch, but never a nerd. Watch your language here.”

Frowning in disagreement, Leo jumps off the stool and walks to Lena. Taking Lena’s hand in his palm, he says, “Mom, you’re nothing but good.”

Fidgeting at the sudden affection, Lena restrains the urger to withdraw her hand. “Thank you, that’s very assuring.”

“Actually, good is an understatement. I wish I could’ve told you all the amazing things you’ve achieved in the future. The future is a better place because of you. You donate generously to alien shelters and orphanages every year.” Hugging Lena from the side, he says tenderly, “I’m so proud of you.”

Seeing the scene, Lori trots toward them while exclaiming “Luthor-Danvers sandwich time”. Hugging Lena from the other side, she whispers, “I’m so proud of you, too.”

Froze in the hug, Lena asks, “Both of you are proud of things I haven’t done yet?” For her, the siblings are basically strangers who showed up at her door unannounced, so all the affection shown to her seems to be out of nowhere. Raised by the Luthors, things she had achieved hardly concerned Lillian, whose eyes were always fixed on the golden boy—Lex. Sometimes, she wonders what she is to Lillian: a playmate for Lex, an adjunct of Lionel that she never wanted, or the irrelevant who lives under the same roof? One of the limited praises she obtained from Lillian was beating Lex in chess, and yes, everything has to be connected to Lex. When Lex eventually went mad and was locked up in prison, leaving her a tattered name, a name that predisposes people to disdain, a name that draws hostile glares, no one was proud of her, even when she contrived a device that expelled Daxam army. Deep down, she knows that people will always judge her by her cursed last name.

Sensing Lena’s stiffness, Leo leans back a little. “Of course we are, and I’m certain you’ll do them all in the future. I believe in you.”

I believe in you. Leo’s words echo what Supergirl said to her—“Kara Danvers believes in you”, which thaw her magically but also make her think of Kara again. She fails to comprehend the reason why Kara concealed her Supergirl identity but also was the only one who believed in her when everyone else thought she was just another Luthor. She repels at the duality.

Shaking off her multifarious thoughts, she mutters, “Thank you, both of you.”

Knowing that Lena is overwhelmed by the flood of information, Lori decides to cheer her up a little, so she announces mischievously, “Shake time!”.

Leo protests, loudly, “No! Lori, no!”

“What’s shake ti—”

Before Lena finishes her sentence, Lori secures the other two in her arms and floats up and down three times rapidly. After landing, she lifts the dizzy two up and gives them a squeeze. “Love you.”

“Oh god.” Lena is totally petrified. “Put me down.”

Lori complies with a chortle.

Leo flees to the living room immediately. “You promised that you wouldn’t shake me again. I’m gonna tell Jeju that you use your power on me when we got back!”

“Oh, you little snitch.” Widening her eyes, Lori threatens, “I’m gonna give you more shakes.”

“No!” Leo hides behind the couch and crosses her arms to a no sign.

Lori launches to Leo. "Come here, big brother.” Two children (adults, actually) round the couch several times, which makes Lena burst out laughing.

Leo shouts, “Mom, Mayday! Mayday!”

Lena steps in dutifully, “Both of you, stop. Come help me with the tea, and we’ll talk about the time machine.”

Lori stops the chase game, throwing both hands up innocently as a sign of peace. “Truce.” After Lena turns to fix the tea, she exchanges a look with Leo, satisfied with the antic making Lena laugh. Then, she walks to Leo and gives him a nudge. “Mom always comes to your rescue. I still think you’re her favorite.”

Leo puts an arm around Lori’s shoulder. “You know it’s not true. Jeju is her favorite.” As a matter of fact, he knows what Lori said is partly true. Sometimes, Lena does show partiality to him because he is a normal human in the family without superpowers. When he was little, Lori had trouble controlling her powers, so she might pat him a little too hard, or push him to the ground accidentally. When this kind of thing happened, Lena would always run to him and wrap him in a warm hug, and stroke his back until he was fine. Lena has never made him feel like he doesn’t belong in the family. He thinks that maybe the way he was treated was the way that Lena wanted to be treated when she was young.

Lori chuckles. “Yeah, I can’t argue with that.”

Lena knows that the siblings put on a show for her, and she is grateful for it. The way Lori and Leo interact makes her heart fill with warmth, with which she is quite unfamiliar. She almost doesn’t want this to end. Dismissing the odd feeling, she shouts, “Slackers! To the kitchen, now.”

Lori answers, “Coming!” She raises one eyebrow at her brother challengingly before Super Speeding to the kitchen. “Race ya.”

Leo comments, “Show off.”

After settling down on the couch with a cup of tea in hand, Lena takes a sip of the tea, complacent at the flavor, then she starts, “So, how does the time machine work?”

Lori says, “With you and Leo’s help. But technically, exotic matter and a transport portal.”

Lena hums. “So exotic matter with negative energy density dose can be captured and be utilized to stabilize traversable wormholes. I thought that’s just theoretically feasible.”

Lori quips, “Miracle exists. Look at me.”

Lena says matter-of-factly, “I’m a scientist. I believe in data, not in miracles. And from data I’ve gathered, it requires tremendous genius to build a time machine.”

Lori tilts her head and beams at Lena. “I got my genius gene from you.”

Lena rolls her eyes, fondly. “What’s the reason for building the time machine?”

Leo says indifferently, “To impress her girlfriend by taking her back to1760s for a dinner.”

“She’s not my girlfriend!”

“Yet.”

Lori growls, “Argh! Why do you keep saying that!”

“Because you two are idiots.”

Lena takes another sip of the tea and smiles knowingly into the cup. “Building a time machine for a not-yet-girlfriend friend definitely counts as a grand gesture.”

Lori retorts, “I also got this from you. Buying CATCO for your not-dating friend also counts as a grand gesture.”

“Good one!” Leo gives Lori a high five.

Busted! Lena chocks a little and hides her blush with another sip of the tea. “I don’t know what are you talking about.”

Squinting at Lena, Lori says, “You admitted that in your wedding speech, and we have a video as proof at home, so please don’t embarrass yourself with this kind of contradiction.”

Lena clears her throat. “Speaking of contradiction, won’t two of you being here lead to any violation of causality?”

“Not really.” Leo explains, “Time has a tendency to keep its own consistency. For instance, a person travels back in time to change an incident in their life. But they can’t change the final result, but only the approach to the result. It’s like a river being divided into two branches by a rock, no matter how huge the rock is, those two branches will always flow in the same direction and join at one point eventually. Macroscopically speaking, there will be no effect on time-space continuity. Even if that person managed to change a major event in their life somehow, it only would be a tiny glitch to time-space continuity, which is totally negligible. It means, what happened happened. There is no point in changing the past. It is what happened that makes us who we are today. It also means, we can always learn from the past and fight to choose a better path for ourselves in the future, even some pain and regret are inevitable in the process.”

“Wow, that’s surprisingly wise from a 21-year-old,” says Lena.

Scratching his neck, Leo says bashfully, “Actually, I paraphrased the last part from your words.”

Lori says, “It also means, what will happen will happen. No matter how far you and Jeju have gone separately, you will always be led back together. You two being together is what means to happen.”

Lena stays in silence, sinking in those words, which she finds scientifically romantic.

Leo says solemnly, “But still, playing with time is extremely dangerous. We don’t know what will happen in a different approach.”

Lori says, “Yes, that’s why l also made a memory wipe device as a safeguard. We have to wipe your memory that involves us when we got back. I need to make sure that things will go exactly as they should, so no worries. Or we can simply ask GP J’onn to help. His telepathy ability is pretty handy.”

Lena mutters under her breath, “So, I’ll forget about you?” Thinking of it now, she is a little reluctant to relinquish this glimpse of her future. She wants to hold it as long as possible.

Leo says, “Mom, what will happen will happen. We will happen.”

Lori says, “Yes, we will.”

Lena’s eyes flit over the siblings’ faces, and she feels a sense of pride pang in her chest. She supposes that the future her and Kara must have done an amazing job at parenting, which is unreal to her. She has never allowed herself to picture forming a loving family, let alone marrying Supergirl. In retrospect, it is hilarious that Supergirl dragged Morgan Edge out of her office since underneath that girl of steel poise is a bubbly but sometimes goofy Kara.

Interrupting Lena’s reverie, Lori says, “Mom, I have to give you credit for taking these pretty well.

“What can I say, I’m a Luthor after all, not a stranger to family drama.”

Ding! The doorbell rings.

Lori looks to the door, using her X-ray vision, and says, “It’s Jeju!

Chapter 3: family rule

Chapter Text

Standing outside the door of Lena’s penthouse, Kara raises a hand, preparing to ring the doorbell.

“Buying CATCO for your not-dating friend also counts as a grand gesture.”

After hearing Lori’s voice, she freezes on the spot with her hand still up.

“You admitted that in your wedding speech, and we have a video as proof at home, so please don’t embarrass yourself……”

The rest of the conversation is a blur to her. She vaguely hears some phrases like “mean to happen” and “memory wipe”, but nothing actually sticks. She is in her own state of mind now. The insinuation of Lena having feelings for her makes her brain swirl in her skull. Suddenly, she recalls that when they were talking about the alien detection device in Lena’s office, the vibe of Lena’s “Do tell” was flirty, and that the overflowing flowers Lena sent to her were not simply a platonic thank you gesture, let alone all the lip bitings. Can I be more oblivious? She literally wants to throw herself into space right now.

Noticing that the conversation has died down, she organizes her thoughts quickly and rings the doorbell. Lori is the one who answers the door with a heartening “Jeju”. Before she can give a proper response, Lori grabs her by the wrist and drags her into the living room. Clenching her fist nervously, she greets the two on the couch with a timid smile, “Hi, Lena, Leo."

Lena smiles tenderly in response. “Hi, Kara.” Then, there comes silence.

“How were things—”

“How are you—”

Lena and Kara stop at the same time. Silence shrouds them, again.

This is worse than the time that mom ignored Jeju for four minutes and twenty-six seconds at home because Supergirl was oblivious to the unnecessary handsy grip on her bicep from a woman who she rescued from a landslide, which mom saw on live news, Leo thinks silently. (Yes, Leo was counting because he wanted to know how long can his mom insist on ignoring Jeju for scientific reasons, and the conclusion was that ignoring would never last for more than five minutes. You can’t blame Lena for her weakness, because no one can survive from Kara’s pout, literally no one.) In order to leave them some space to talk freely, he says, “Mom, I was thinking since Lori and I are gonna stay here for a while, can we have your credit card to buy some clothes now and pick up some take-out for dinner on our way home?”

“Yeah, sure.” Lena takes the credit card out from her purse and hands it to Leo.

Comprehended Leo’s intention, Lori hastily grabs Leo’s hand and drags him toward the door. “Let’s go, then.”

“Ouch, slow down.” Leo winces at the forced action.

Lori suddenly stops and turns to look at Kara after they just took a few steps. “Jeju, stay for dinner?”

“Uhh…” Kara looks at Lena questioningly, asking for permission. After receiving an affirmative nod, she says with a bright smile, “Sure.”

Brightened up at the answer, Lori’s frivolous nature emerges. “How about we go to buy a manual car that you always wanna try?” she says to Leo loudly enough for her moms to hear on their way out.

Leo says defensively, “It’s you who wants to try it. Don’t take me as an excuse.”

Lena shakes her head, fondly. “No buying cars!”

“Yes, ma’am!” Lori exclaims delightfully before closing the door.

Realizing being left alone, Kara panics. She begs herself, Say something, anything! “I…hmm…overheard your conversation earlier. I didn’t mean to, though! It’s the Super Hear thing. I’m sorry.”

“Which part did you hear?” asks Lena. In the meanwhile, she prays internally, Please not the CATCO part.

“From the CATCO part.”

Lena scoffs, Great. She sighs and comes up to the blonde. “Kara, I don’t wanna burden you with my feelings for you. We can pretend that nothing happened or will happen between us, and just focus on helping Leo and Lori.”

Kara looks into Lena’s emerald eyes. “I…I have feelings for you, too! I only realized it this morning and I feel so stupid right now. I wish I could’ve realized it sooner,” frustration thick in her throat, “and about Supergirl, I didn’t tell you not because I don’t trust you. You saved my life at the cost of Jack’s, for Rao’s sake! Everything happened in a blink last year, the Cadmus, Mon-el, Jack’s death, and the Daxam invasion, then I was drowned in the sorrow of Mon-el’s departure. Please believe me that I didn’t mean to deceive you. I guess it’s just, there was never a good timing. I’m so sorry.”

Taken aback by Kara’s confession, Lena takes a moment to reflect on her words. “To be honest, I didn’t know how to feel about your Supergirl identity this morning. Maybe I was a little shocked and angry, but the fact that you’ve saved my life so many times made me rethink the situation. I guess I really shouldn’t hold any grudge against you. Besides, I’m incapable of staying mad at you,” looking into the blonde’s eyes with sincereness, “but I don’t think now is a good time to pursue anything between us.”

“Oh.” Kara darts her eyes to the floor, struggling to make herself functional.

Lena reaches out to Kara’s hand. Trying to smooth the stiffness crawling on the blonde’s body, she continues, “Kara, I’m not turning you down. It’s just the situation. You heard what Lori said, we won’t remember any of these when they are gone and I won’t remember that you’re Supergirl, which is unfair to me, and to you,” getting the blonde to look at her again, “Can we just let things play themselves out?”

Kara smiles appreciatively and gives her hand a gentle squeeze. “Yeah, what will happen will happen, right?”

Softened at Kara’s words, Lena takes one step forward, wraps the blonde into her arms. “I really hope so.”

Kara rounds her arms around the brunette’s waist. Resting her cheek against the brunette’s ear, she whispers tenderly, “We will.”

They stay in each other’s arms as if they are the only people who matter at the moment.

The phone in Kara’s pocket vibrates untimely, interrupting the two’s intimacy. She groans in chagrin and lets Lena go to check her phone. “Alex’s asking if you’re still up to the girls’ night at my place tomorrow night.”

Lena says, quirking up an eyebrow, “Yes, I am. Can’t wait to meet my future sister-in-law. Now I’m gonna make you a cup of tea. Please get yourself comfortable.” Then, she walks away, swaying her ass a little deliberately, leaving Kara blushing a deep red and praising Rao’s name again.

Two hours later, the Luthor-Danvers family sit around the dining table, with take-out food laid on it. There are six boxes of potstickers, four boxes of chicken chow mein, one box of beef with broccoli that provides the sole vitamin, one Pepperoni pizza, and one Hawaii pizza (the one and half Kryptonians need calories). Lena watches the other three wolfing down the meal in amazement, and three boxes of potstickers are already gone. She makes a mental note, I need to stock more food in here.

Noticing Lena being in a daze, Leo says with a chunk of pizza in his mouth, “Mom, dig in before Jeju and Lori consume everything.”

“Oh, yeah.” Lena starts to work on her normal portion of food. A moment later, she stops as if something is bothering her. Looking at the siblings, she says, “Any idea why the Parademon attacked you?”

Lori shakes her head. “Dunno. I guess it’s for the future us to find out.” She frowns. “But it was much stronger than Uncle Clark described. He said it was easy to subdue a parademon, so I think it was enhanced somehow.”

Leo adds, “Yes. I noticed there was a metal implant on its back.”

Lena hums. Soon, she gasps. “Clark Kent is Superman? I should’ve thought of it.”

Kara chokes on her chow mein and coughs.

Lori hands Kara a cup of water, looking at her with sympathy.

Kara says after composing herself, “Lena, I didn’t—”

Lena waves her hand. “Kara, it’s okay, I know it’s not your secret to tell.” In order to prove that she is absolutely fine with it, she adds in a flirtatious tone, “So, there indeed is some steel under that Kansas wheat. I think it’s hot.”

“Eww!” the siblings whine at the same time.

“Lena…” Kara grimaces painfully.

Lena says with a lopsided smirk, “What, It’s just a friendly compliment.”

“As friendly as you leering at Supergirl?” Lori arches one eyebrow.

Lena hurriedly defends herself, with a faint pink flush coloring her cheeks, “I did not leer at Supergirl!”

Leo says, “You did and you will.”

Lena stammers, “I… I…” She glances at Kara, who is also blushing. Both of them duck their heads when their eyes meet, and stare down at their plates like the food is more delicious than each other.

The siblings exchange a complacent look, laughing up their sleeves, because they hardly have had any chance like this to tease their moms at home, so they’re gonna make the most of it.

Then, they continue to eat in comfortable silence.

“Not this again!” Leo laments when there is only one potsticker left.

Lori says nonchalantly, “You know the drill.”

Kara asks, “What drill?”

Leo pinches the bridge of his nose. “We need to rock-paper-scissors for the last potsticker. It’s a Luthor-Danvers family rule.” It is a compulsive game (even though he doesn’t want it at all) that started from the time when Lori and Kara both pouted at Lena, wanting her to make a verdict on the ownership of the last potsticker.

“Count me in!” Kara rubs her hands in delight at the challenge.

Lori queries, “Mom?”

Lena purses her lips. “Count me out.”

“Okay.” Lori claps her hands together. “Ready?”

Kara and Leo nod in reply. Stretching out one arm, three of them shout simultaneously, “Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!”

“Yes!” Kara celebrates her victory spontaneously, then reaches out to claim her trophy and puts it in her mouth slowly, just to put on a show.

Watching Kara chewing the last potsticker, Lori says to Lena, “Mom, sometimes I can’t help wondering what you saw in Jeju.”

Lena beams. “Just finish your meal and we can watch a movie as you requested.”

After cleaning the table, Lori sits cross-legged on the white fluff carpet in front of the TV, scrolling through a movie list, being picky about her choice. Leo comes to join her and hands her a cup of hot chocolate. “Can you just choose a random one? You haven’t watched most of them.”

“Thanks.” Lori takes the mug and places it on the floor. “But all those movies are produced earlier than me and most of them are about heterosexual couples, so boring.”

“Can’t agree more.” Leo nods affirmatively. Then, the siblings go back to their mission, eyeing the screen concentratedly.

Seeing that the siblings are indecisive on movie choice, Kara sits at Lori’s the other side and takes the remote from her. “New rule, the potsticker winner got to call the shots.” Her announcement causes the siblings to squint at her, but without complaint. She scrolls down and chooses Toy Story 3. Pressing play, she mutters, “Here we go.”

“A cartoon?” Lena queries from the couch with a woolen blanket on her lap and a massive tea mug in her hands, who just changed to a comfy black cashmere sweater with its sleeves covering her palms and a pair of jeans, with her hair cascading over her shoulders.

Kara gasps, apparently being offended by Lena’s remark. Looking at Lena and making air quotes with her fingers, she says with a pout, “It’s not just a cartoon. This series always makes me cry. You take that back.”

Lena says in an indulgent tone. “Okay, I take it back, I’m sorry for hurting your feelings.”

Satisfied with the brunette’s apology, Kara turns back to the TV and settles down to enjoy the movie.

Lori elbows Kara’s side. “Jeju, you can’t sit here with us. Only children can sit on the floor, it’s a Luthor-Danvers family rule,” gesturing to the couch, “you have to sit on the couch.”

“Okay.” Kara complies absentmindedly. She gets up and walks to sit beside Lena without her eyes leaving the screen.

Lena, however, sincerely doubts that Lori just made up the rule, but she says nothing for she would never turn down a chance like this to be in Kara’s proximity. Both women miss out on Leo giving Lori a thumb-up.

As the movie plays on the screen, Leo bumps Lori’s shoulder with his. “I think you’re Mr. Potato Head, garrulous but reliable in a weird way.”

Lori retorts, “Blah! Apparently, I’m Buzz Lightyear, and you’re Rex the dinosaur who freaks out on everything.”

Leo says, “Nope, Mom is Buzz Lightyear, and you’re still Mr. Potato Head.”

After tucking Leo’s neck with her arm and pulling him to her lap, Lori threatens, “Take that back, or I’ll tickle you.”

Leo yells, “Never surrender to powers!”

Both women simmer with laughter at the scene. Lena turns to look at Kara. “I think you’re Woody, who is caring and passionate but always acts before thinking.”

Kara grins. “I can live with Woody, and I do agree with you being Buzz Lightyear,” tilting her head, “you should watch the first movie. Buzz Lightyear was so hilarious at the beginning.”

“Maybe next time together?”

“Yeah, next time.” Kara puts her hand atop Lena’s, smiling with tenderness. The two hold hands for the rest of the movie. Only Rao knows whether they pay attention to the movie or not.

When the credits start to roll, Lori stretches her arms in the air.

Kara hastily lets go of Lena’s hand and stands up. “It’s getting late and I should head back to my place now. See you tomorrow at girls' night?”

Lena withdraws her hand to massage her neck, smiling bashfully. “Yeah, see you.”

Excited by the conversation, Lori straightens her neck to look at Kara. “Can I come to the girls’ night, too? I’ve never been to one because I was a minor before,” adding a pout, “please?”

“Can I come, too? I’ve never been to a girls’ night neither because I’m a boy, please?” Leo mirrors Lori’s pout.

Not immune to the siblings’ pouts and not knowing what is ahead of her yet, Kara agrees, “Yeah, why not, the more the merrier. I guess I’ll see you all tomorrow.”

“Yes!” Lori cheers while rushing to Kara. “See you, Jeju.” She hugs Kara, then leans down to give Lena a peck on the cheek. “Good night, Mom.” Then, she shoots Leo a ‘you know what to do’ look before retreating to her bedroom.

Leo quickly feigns an exaggerated yawn. “Time travel is so exhausting. I gotta go to sleep now. Good night, Mom and Jeju.” Then, he disappears into his bedroom, too.

They certainly can read the room, Kara thinks. Being left alone with Lena again, she rambles, “I’ll inform Alex about their attendance and have her bring more food. Maybe I should order more pizza—”

“Kara.” Lena stands up and puts a hand on the blonde’s arm. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll bring food.” Then, she tiptoes a little to land a kiss on the blonde’s cheek that lingers a little too long. “Good night.”

Kara is totally struck by the kiss. “I… good you, see night. No! I mean, good night.” After receiving the brunette’s amused snort, she turns to leave, mechanically. Her body self-navigates her back home, but her mind is drifting to her future family along the way.

It’s a lovely morning. Lena stands barefooted in the kitchen, only wearing a shirt that Kara hastily took off and discarded on the bedroom floor last night, watching her morning coffee brewing in the coffee machine. Morning sunshine touches her bare legs softly, making her glow luminously. Her finger slides up and down against a spot behind her ear after running her hand through her hair, recalling how much good care it was taken by Kara’s lips last night. The coffee machine beeps, announcing that the coffee is ready. After dragging herself back from her reverie into the present, she pours herself a good amount of black coffee, intending to dispel fogginess and exhaustion from the last night. She takes a sip and signs in relaxation. Then, she feels two perfectly toned arms around her waist and a beefy chest against her back. Leaning back to the warm embrace, she says, “Did I wake you?”

“No, you didn’t. I just can’t wait to start a new day with you,” Kara whispers to her ear, who is wearing a black tank top and grey shorts.

With Kara dropping a train of kisses on her neck, she titters and tilts her head to give her wife more access. Kara’s kisses go all the way down to her collarbone, making her breath hot and short. After putting the coffee mug on the countertop, she turns and puts her arms around her wife’s neck. Eyeing her wife’s lips, she says, “You know, I have a board meeting later and I can’t be late,”

Kara leans in. “You’re the boss, so you’re allowed to be late.”

She slides a hand to Kara’s chest to stop her from going further. “I just had black coffee, which you deem unbearably bitter. You might taste it.”

Kara gazes at the emerald eyes intensely. “But you’re sweet.”

She bursts into laughter. “You really know how to sweet talk,” she says while stroking her wife’s earlobe.

Pulling her closer and leaning in again, Kara says, “Only to you.”

She lifts her chin to meet the kiss, just when she can feel Kara’s breath on her lips, she hears—“Mom!”

She tries to ignore it.

“Mom!”

She suddenly opens her eyes and sits up. With memory about yesterday flooding into her brain, she remembers that she is not alone in her penthouse.

“Mom, you have nothing in your fridge except coffee and tea. Can we go out for breakfast?” Lori exclaims by her bedroom door.

Lena stays quiet.

“Mom! I heard that you’re awake.”

Lena responds, blankly, “Yeah, yeah, sure.”

“Okay, Leo and I will wait in the living room. Take your time.”

Lena falls back into bed. Throwing an arm over her face, she mutters under her breath, “I hate coffee.”

CATCO

Kara Danvers is extremely abnormal today, is what every employee in CATCO thinks. Everyone knows Kara is sunny and cheerful and smiles a lot, but never like this. The smile on her face and the titter she lets out from time to time imply that she is in her happy bubble this whole morning.

Three gossipy people gather around a desk, watching Kara humming a song, suspiciously.

One of them says, “I think she banged Supergirl.” His conclusion makes the other two stare at him unbelievably. “C’mon, how else can she always get a quote from Supergirl?”

“No, I think it’s Miss Luthor who she banged. I heard that they hugged tightly in the middle of the office,” another one offers her perspective, “and we all witnessed that Miss Luthor came to CATCO to have lunch with her last year. I think it was a date.”

The third one suggests, “Maybe she won a lottery?”

“Hmm…” Three of them calculate the possibility of their own theory separately. Seeing James Olsen approach Kara’s desk, they scatter immediately, pretending to run errands.

James stops at Kara’s desk. “Hey, Kara, how did things go yesterday?”

“Oh!” Kara startles. “Sorry, I didn’t hear you coming. What did you say?”

“Are you okay? You seem distracted.”

Kara fidgets her glasses. “Me? Distracted? Never.”

James frowns. “Okay… How did things go yesterday.”

“Oh, Lena and I talked, so everything was fine.”

James frowns deeper. “I was talking about the alien.”

“Phew.” Kara ducks her head embarrassedly. “Yeah, that, of course. DEO is dealing with it and Winn’ll keep me updated.”

“Do you need Guardian’s help on this?”

“Nah, it won’t be necessary, but thanks for offering.”

“But—” James is interrupted by Kara’s ringtone.

Kara picks up her phone from the desk. “Winn got a lead that might track down the alien. Gotta go.” She promptly marches to the elevator, leaving James standing still with his mouth agape.

After coming out of the restaurant with their stomachs filled, Leo and Lori walk by Lena’s each side, continuing to share their own suggestions on a prototype that Lena has been building.

“I could use brains like yours in L-Corp. I’d like to poach you two from the future. You know I can pay you properly,” jokes Lena.

Lori takes it as praise. “I’m flattered. I’d like to work for you for free.”

Leo beams. “I’d like that, too, but one day at a time, Mom.”

Here it is again—warmth bubbles up in Lena’s chest. She only gets along with the siblings for one day, but the affection that has been shown to her and the conversation unfolding between them, even the physical contact, feels so natural. Being around them feels like breathing in the smell of the grass after a rain, which is relaxing.

She asks expectantly, “I’m going to the lab to work on sending a message to the future. You two wanna tag along?”

Lori grins from ear to ear. “Lucky for you, we don’t have anywhere else to be.”

“Lena, what a surprise.” A man’s voice holds back Lena’s forming comment on Lori’s smug attitude.

Lena recognizes this voice, which is from Morgan Edge, so she puts on her business mask and greets him with a hint of antipathy, “Morgan.”

Edge comes up to Lena. “How are you settling at CATCO? How rude of me forgetting to send you a gift for your crowning as the new queen of media. Ha, how about a pink name tag that says The Good Luthor?”

Lena crosses her arms, schooling her face not to show any emotion. “I don’t need anything from you.”

“How about some advice, then. Why don’t you have the media to kiss your ass as much as you want and propagate your good deeds since you own CATCO. You know, just to make the most of your capital.”

Lena smirks. “Apparently, you don’t understand the significance of free press. You should’ve been thanking me for buying a company that you don’t know how to run.”

Edge smacks his lips disapprovingly. “You women are so sentimental. It’s bad for business.”

Leo takes one step forward to shield Lena protectively. Squaring his shoulders, he says to Edge in a domineering tone, “I need you to back off.”

Lori steps forward too, standing right beside her brother with her hands on her hips. “Leave before I throw you into the middle of the road.”

Edge takes a step back, raising his both hands. Glancing at two human shields, he says disapprovingly, “Wow, no need for violence,” looking over their shoulders to stare at Lena, “I see you hired two bodyguards since it’s not safe to walk on the street with the Luthor logo over your head. Good for you.”

Anger flares in Lori’s chest. Grinding her teeth and clenching her fists, she takes one more step, invading Edge’s personal space. “I dare you to say that again.”

Leo grabs his sister’s wrist in time, preventing her from doing anything reckless. “Lori, he’s not worth it.”

Stepping in to ease the hostile tension, Lena says to Edge, “Let’s not make a scene here. Just leave.”

Edge stares at Lena for a moment and nods. Smoothing non-existent creases out of his suit, he says before walking away, “Good day.”

Lori deflates while watching Edge disappear into the crowd. She turns to Lena and says frustratedly, “Mom, I’m sorry. I know you’re totally capable of handling assholes. I just can’t stand him disrespecting you.”

Lena says, “You have nothing to be sorry for. You were trying to protect me. I should thank you both for standing up for me.”

Leo puts one arm around Lena’s shoulder. “That’s exactly what family for. Besides, that man is such a sexist, we would do the same even it wasn’t you.”

Lori puts on a ‘yikes’ look. “Yes, and do people really talk like that in 2017? It sucks.”

Proud of the siblings’ righteousness, Lena asks out of curiosity, “So feminism is normalized in the future?”

Lori shrugs. “Not really. Some people just won’t change.”

Lena’s phone rings at this time. she fetches it from her purse and finds a text from Kara. “Lori, Kara needs you at DEO. Can you—”

“Yes! I can! See ya!” Lori runs away before Lena looks up.

Lena shakes her head. Looking at Leo, she says, “I guess it’s just you and me, then.”

Chapter 4: bonding part Ⅰ

Chapter Text

LENA LUTHOR’S PERSONAL LABORATORY, L-CORP

Leo stands in the middle of the lab, looking around with curiosity. The lab is so different from the future one that they’re using. There are several white tables placed around the concrete columns, only equipped with necessary instruments and apparatuses, no couch in the corner for them to sit on for a break. The laboratory is bright and tidy, but monotonous. He says, “Wow, this looks like a museum.”

Lena stops her forward steps, turns around to look at Leo, frowning but smiling. “Did you just call my technology backward?”

Leo hastily waves both his hands in denial. “No, no, no, what I’m saying is that this,” gesturing around him, “is educational It’s like witnessing history.” He walks to a table that has some prototypes on it and picks up a sphere one. “If I'm not mistaken, this is a prototype that can collect marine debris, and that,” pointing at a cuboid one, “is a search and rescue drone.”

“Yes, those are just some gadgets I’m working on.”

“Gadgets? These are innovative and life-changing technology. You really should start to give yourself some credit, Mom.”

Lena chuckles. “So, lucky for you, I’m here to save your ass.”

Leo beams with satisfaction. “co*cky, but it’s the attitude I’m familiar with. Keep it up.” He walks to Lena’s side and pushes her to a table that has two computers on it. Giving her shoulders a squeeze, he says, “Please start to save my ass.” Then, he drops down on a lab stool next to Lena.

Lena shakes her head with a grin on her face and starts to work. With The sound of typing on the keyboard echoing in the lab, she mutters with her eyes fixing on the screen concentratedly, “Hope I’ll still use the same communication frequency in the future, which will make my work much easier.” After a while, she notices that Leo is spinning on the stool, so she stops to glare at him. “Are you just gonna sit there and spin?”

Leo halts his circumference movement. “Do you want me to get you a cup of coffee?” Seeing his mom raise one eyebrow, he asks tentatively, “Or a cup of tea?”

Lena is amused. “What I’m trying to say is, aren’t you gonna help me with this?”

“Ha!” Leo puffs out a breath, a little embarrassed at the misunderstanding. Scratching his neck, he says, “But you are the genius and the parent here. You don’t need my help. My job here is to keep you company.”

Squinting at him, Lena says, “I think you’re just being lazy.”

Leo raises both hands in surrender but shows no regret at all. “You got me.”

Seeing the expression on Leo’s face, Lena can’t help but reach out to ruffle his hair. “Smart-ass.” Leo’s hair feels so soft under her palm, she can’t resist the urge to rub his shaggy hair a few more times, then she feels a strip bulge just above his ear when her fingers brush through his temple. She pauses. “Is that a scar?”

Leo quickly raises one hand to fix his hair. “Oh, yes, I got it a long time ago.”

Lena withdraws her hand and shifts her weight to the other leg. “How did you get it?” Noticing Leo’s body stiffened, she promptly adds, “It’s okay if you don’t wanna talk about it.”

“No, there is nothing that I can’t tell you about.” Leo touches the scar, looking at Lena nervously. “It..it was Lillian.”

Lena frowns. Crossing her arms, she asks with indignation in her voice, “What did she do?”

“There was one time that Jeju got seriously injured firm an alien invasion, and everyone was in the field, so you had to ask Lillian to babysit Lori and I so that you could go to DEO to look after her. Lillian thought that I didn’t deserve the Luthor name because I was just a normal kid, without high intelligence or superpowers, so she was kinda harsh on me back then. She asked me to make her a cup of tea to prove myself useful after she came to our house. I was eight at that time. I couldn’t reach the cupboard, so I moved a chair to stand on, but I accidentally fell and my head hit a piece of debris of broken tableware on the floor. Lillian was terrified when she saw me bleed. She picked me up, and stitched me up, so that’s how I got the scar,” putting on a faint smile, “but that was the first time she hugged me properly, so it’s not that bad.”

“I’m sor—”

Leo interrupts, “Mom, it wasn’t your fault. You don’t need to apologize for other people’s mistakes. Besides, you were furious at her when you got home, and you forbade her from visiting us for two years. She is civil now, and she is always nice to Lori, so no worries.”

Lena sighs. She knows that Lillian morbidly takes the Luthor name seriously and intends to show obvious favoritism, but still, what Lillian did to an eight-year-old was so f*cked up. She genuinely hopes this cycle ends with her. Putting one hand on Leo’s shoulder, she says, “I’m so sorry you’ve gone through that. No one should be treated like that. It’s her loss that she couldn’t see what I see in you, and had a chance to watch you grow up.”

Leo puts his hand on Lena’s. “You and Jeju are always here for me. I can’t express how grateful I am to you. I love you so much.”

Touched by Leo’s words, Lena shoves his shoulder and jokes, “You’re making me cry, but I can’t afford words of me crying spreading out, so I have to imprison you here.”

“C'mon!” Leo leans back a little. “You’re the crybaby in the family. You cried for the birthday present Lori and I secretly prepared for you for the first time.”

Lena quirks up an eyebrow. “You’re grounded for saying that.”

Leo quickly jumps up. “I’m an adult now. You can’t ground me anymore!”

Lena says indulgently, “Okay, adult. How about you go get us some coffee and I continue doing the genius stuff?”

Leo makes a deep bow. “It’ll be my honor to serve you.”

Laughs at Leo’s antic, Lena hands him a credit card. “Off you go, adult.”

Leo takes over the credit card and nods solemnly before retreating. “My Queen.”

Lena diverts her attention back to work after watching Leo hopping out of the laboratory, but the smile on her face never fades.

DEO

Kara is in her Supergirl attire, waiting for Lori at the terrace of the briefing room, from where she usually flies in as the entrance. She puts her body weight on her forearms that are resting on the railing with her hands clasping loosely together, watching the city being busy. This is her favorite spot in DEO, and she usually comes here to think over something or think about nothing, just staring into space and trying to recognize stars with astronomy that she knows. She always wishes that she could share the knowledge she learned in Krypton with someone who knows her for who she really is, and now she is a little overwhelmed that this wish will come true in the near future.

Now, she needs Lori’s help to capture the alien with more information, but this is a dilemma for her. On the one hand, no matter how selfless Supergirl is, Kara Danvers can’t resist the temptation to spend more time with her future family. On the other hand, she knows that being out in the field can be detrimental, and she doesn’t want to put Lori in any kind of danger. Hearing Alex’s footsteps, she straightens up.

Alex is on the phone while approaching Kara. “Okay, see you later. Love you.” She hangs up the phone and walks to Kara. “Hey, Maggie just called. She told me that she’s still working on a case right now, so she might be late for the girls’ night, but she’ll come right after finishing her work.” Noticing her sister is in a trance, she says concernedly, “Hey, are you okay?”

Kara says, “I’m fine. I was just thinking about Lori. I’m a little worried about her going out on a mission with me. What if she gets hurt?”

Alex chuckles. “It’s good to see that you finally understand the feeling of me watching you being a superhero out there,” nudging her sister’s arm playfully, “you’re a mom now, huh?”

Kara frowns. “Alex, I’m serious.”

“I know.” Alex smiles. “You know, when you decided to come out as Supergirl, I was worried sick about you getting hurt or your identity getting exposed, but look where it has taken us,” gesturing to the city beneath them, “you’ve helped lots of people and you’ve become the symbol of hope. So, maybe you should leave the decision to Lori and let her choose the path she wants. Besides, I know you’ll do everything in your power to protect her.”

Kara smiles gratefully at her sister for she always knows exactly what to say to comfort her. “Yeah, thank you.”

Lori’s voice comes from a few steps away at this time, “Aunt Alex, thanks for not forgetting to give me clearance to DEO.”

The Danvers sisters turn simultaneously. Alex nudges her sister’s side and whispers, “Speaking of the devil—”

Lori purses her lips. “You know I can hear you, right?”

Alex laughs and continues, “Good luck with your temporary responsibility.” Then, she gestures to the other two to follow her. “I’ll have Winn give you a brief,” she says to Lori while walking towards the central console.

Lori nods in response, then says to Kara, “Jeju, it’s really cool seeing you in your old dress suit, but I have to say, it’s no match for the future one Mom designed for you.”

At the mention of Lena, the corners of Kara’s mouth curl up unconsciously. She asks out of curiosity, “What’s the future one like?”

Lori says in a mysterious tone, “Let’s not spoil the surprise.”

Kara pouts. Putting on her best puppy eyes, she pleads, “I won’t remember it, anyway.”

Lori waves one hand. “Nope, your doggy eyes trick only works for Mom.” She makes a grimace at Kara before running to catch up with the her aunt, leaving the superhero pout harder.

Alex signals Winn, who is standing next to her, to brief with a nod when Lori arrives.

Winn always finds Alex intimidating even without her special agent gear on, so he hurriedly zooms in the map displayed on the main screen with his tablet and puts a ping on the last location of the Parademon he detected. Pointing at the ping, he says, “I picked up a signal from a desert 35 miles away from the city. The Parademon’s been keeping heading west, which leads to a forest, but the signal was interrupted for unknown reason three hours ago,” looking at Kara who just joined them, “I think it’s time for Supergirl to go on a tour.”

Kara says, “Lori, can you try to track the alien again?”

“Yeah.” Lori immediately taps away on the tablet that Winn handed to her, and frowns when she fails to recapture the signal, which incurs Winn tilting his head to peep at her maneuver. She shakes her head. “There is something wrong with the signal receiving hardware. It’s not stable enough to receive the signal continuously.”

Kara nods. “I’ll go search for it. And Winn, send me the coordinates.”

“Right away.” Winn salutes in response.

Lori cranes her neck. “Jeju! Can I come with you?” adding the so-called doggy trick she learned over the years, “I just want to help.”

Surprised by Lori’s enthusiasm, Kara sighs after exchanging a look with Alex. “Okay, but you have to do exa—”

“Do exactly what you say,” Lori finishes Kara’s sentence with a grin, “it’s the ground rule of going on a mission with you, I know.”

Kara beams at Lori, wondering Lori has a devotion to protect the city as she does or she is just thrilled at the chance to hang out with the younger version of Supergirl, but either way, she is content with having Lori around, and she definitely doesn’t want to put pressure on Lori by asking about her life plan, so she says, “I hope you can fly as fast as me.”

Lori takes it as a challenge pleasantly. Walking to the terrace while locking her eyes on Kara, she says, “Just for you know, I learned from the best.”

Kara says noncommittally while striding behind Lori, “I guess we’ll find out soon. But, remember to fly high enough to avoid unnecessary attention to you, and don’t break the sound barrier.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Lori answers before taking off.

The wind stirred up by Lori makes Kara’s hair and cape sway in the air. Kara looks up and shouts, “You cheated!” Then, she promptly takes off to catch up with Lori after Super Hearing Lori shouting back a “Hurry up”.

Kara touches down first, and Lori is only two seconds slower than her. Watching Lori fixing her wind-blown hair with her fingers, she says smugly, “I guess I haven’t taught you how to keep hair neat while flying?”

Lori retorts, “I was distracted by your mini-skirt.” Sensing Kara is about to ask about her future suit again, she says, miming Kara’s smug attitude, “I’ll never tell you that.”

Kara has nothing to say in reply for forgetting that she is also dealing with the daughter of Lena Luthor, who can make people shiver with a simple stare. Thinking of Lena now, Lena’s exquisite face suddenly springs to her mind—the delicate nose, the soft lips. Wait, how do I know her lips are soft? I haven’t touched them yet. Wait, what do I mean by yet? But it’s not like I don’t want to touch them. Wait, I’m on a mission now, focus! Kara rebukes herself.

Shaking her untimely thoughts away, she says while looking around, “This is an extensive area, so we‘d better split up.”

“Sure.”

Kara continues to deploy, “I’ll cover the west since it might be tricky to search the forest. You go cover the east, and we’ll meet up here in two hours if we don’t find anything.” Part of her still worries about Lori’s safety, so she adds, “If you find it, call out for me and wait. Don’t go after it alone.”

“Got it,” Lori answers with a reassuring smile before flying away.

Kara keeps watching Lori as if she can keep her safe by doing this until her figure becomes a black dot in the sky. She eventually drags her eyes away and heads to her assigned area.

When she hears Lori calling out for her, she is still in the air, using her X-ray vision to search the forest. She immediately heads in the direction of Lori’s voice, hoping Lori would stay put until she arrives. After landing beside Lori in the desert, she asks eagerly, “Did you find anything?”

“Nah. But I’ve covered the east, the north, and the south, no trace of the Parademon.” Seeing Kara’s eyes widen, Lori shrugs. “Told you I’m fast. And I’m hungry, can we go back now?”

Kara sighs in relief. Agreeing with Lori’s no hungry stomach principle, she says, “How about we head back to DEO first so that we can go to my apartment with Alex? And we can pick up some pizza on the way home.”

Brightened up at the mention of food, Lori mounts a challenge, “The first one arrives DEO gets to choose pizza topping!”

Kara grins. “Only if you don’t cheat.”

Lori huffs, “I can beat you with my eyes closed,” quirking up one eyebrow, “on the count of three, two, one—” She takes off while counting one, making Kara yell a “Hey” before keeping up with her.

KARA DANVERS’S APARTMENT

“So, Maggie and I will get an Alaskan Malamute?” Alex asks Lori, who is sitting between her and Kara on the couch. Her arm drapes casually on the top of the back cushion while holding a bottle of beer in the other hand, being curious about her own future.

Lori teases, extending one hand to her aunt, “Is this 21 questions? Five dollars for one question.”

Alex slaps Lori’s palm loudly and gives her a glare. “Such a miser.” Then, she tilts her head to the side and looks at Kara with her eyes wide open. “Discipline your daughter.”

Leaning on Kara for moral support, Lori says with a lopsided smirk that is similar to the way Lena would do, “Mom said that information is profitable, and I’m just making money with the information I got.”

Kara snorts delightfully, “I agree with her.”

Taking a side already? Alex rolls her eyes internally. “Traitor,” she comments and takes a swig of her beer. A glimmer of delight naturally shows in her eyes. She is not a gullible person. She keeps her guard up high for her loved ones, but talking with Lori feels like sneaking out of their bedroom to the roof with Kara for stargazing in Midvale, which is bonding and comforting. The way Lori gloats at the food on the coffee table in front of them and the way she lifts her chin when she is being triumphant give Alex a sense of deja vu of teenager Kara. Somehow, Lori dashes into her heart easily like it’s where she belongs.

“His name is Hugo and he’s so sweet. He always lies at my feet when I sleep at your house.” Lori gives Alex a wink. “Don’t worry, I’ll charge the future you when I got back.”

Alex shoves Lori’s shoulder. “You little cheap-ass.” Her comment makes both blondes explode with laughter. Wondering how close they are in the future, she continues, “How often do you come to my place?”

“We have family gatherings on weekly basis and I slept at your house…” Lori drawls the last syllable, trying to search for an accurate word, “regularly before I went to college.”

Alex expects more than this. “What do you mean by regularly?”

The question makes Lori visibly cringe. She gives Kara a quick glance, then back to Alex. “You really wanna know?”

“Yeah?” Alex frowns a little, unsure why Lori acts like this.

Okay, you ask for it, Lori sighs. “Okay. You know, I also have Super Hearing like Jeju, so when my moms are…” taking a deep breath, “having sex, it’s unbearably inappropriate and embarrassing for me to stay at home, so basically, your house is my sanctuary.”

A sip of beer squirts from Alex’s mouth and drips onto her grey henley shirt. “I need more alcohol for this, and I also need to clean myself.” Then, she gets up and walks to the kitchen.

After hearing the answer, Kara bends down to bury her face in the pillow on her lap ashamedly, grumbling and pondering the most famous philosophical question—Why am I here. Obviously, she fails to take the fact that she is at her own apartment into consideration before raising this question.

Lori pats Kara’s back rhythmically as a gesture of consolation while being complacent about her little vengeance. This time travel is so worth it, she thinks. When the murmur of Lena and Leo’s voices reaches her ears from the hallway outside the door, she nudges Kara’s shoulder to raise attention to their arrival. “Mom and Leo are here. Do you need me to answer the door or—”

Kara sits upright rapidly. “Nope!” She pushes herself to her feet with a pink flush still on her cheek. “I…I’ll get it.” She adjusts her askew glasses before striding to the door.

Reaching the door, she reminds herself to act natural while smoothing her printed blouse with both hands before opening the door with an overexcited “Hi”.

The opened door reveals Lena raising one hand, apparently is about to knock, with a tote bag in the other hand, and Leo holding a massive bag of take-out in his chest.

“That was quick.” Lena looks at Kara with adoration. “I guess I need to get used to your Super Speed ASAP.”

Kara grins. “I have other skill sets you might also need to get used to.”

Leo’s eyes pop out. Did you hear what you just said? he screams inwardly. He clears his throat and says in an I’ve had enough of it tone, “I’m gonna go put this bag down, and leave you to…whatever this is.” Then, he walks straight through the door and heads towards the kitchen, leaving Kara being confused and Lena blushing at the realization of the sexual implication in their previous conversation.

Looking at Lena, Kara says, “How is the contacting the future going?”

“No progress yet. How is the alien searching going?”

Kara shrugs. “No progress yet.”

Lena chuckles at the same answer. Looking over the blonde’s shoulder, she teases, “Aren’t you gonna let me in?”

“Oh! Come in!” Kara instantly steps back to let Lena in, being not natural at all.

Having put the bag on the countertop, Leo sees Alex clean her shirt by the sink. “Hi, Aunt Alex.”

Alex turns. “Hi! You’re Leo, right?”

“Guilty.” Leo smiles. “I’ve kept wondering whether you’re cooler when you’re younger. Now, I guess I finally have a chance to find it out.”

Alex feigns being offended. “Hey, I’m always the coolest in the family, no matter my age.”

“Not as cool as Maggs.”

Alex laughs. “Hmm. I can’t argue with that.” The way that Leo says Maggie’s name with admiration makes her warm up to the young man immediately, and the way he talks to her makes her firmly believe that they are close in the future. The idea of expanding the Danvers family is exceedingly exhilarating.

Leo asks, “What happened to your shirt?”

“Oh, we were talking about why Lori slept at my place re…regularly.”

“Ugh, say no more please,” pleads Leo. “Lori and I suffered a lot before we went to college. I’m blessed that I don’t have superpowers, but not the same for Lori,” shaking his head sympathetically, “poor Lori.” Noticing that his moms have walked to him and Lena is taking out two scotch bottles from her bag, he decides to play a little payback. He says to Alex, “Can you believe they moved their bedroom from the second floor to the first floor only because the second floor is far too inconvenient to go up for their one certain activity, on the premise that Jeju can actually fly?”

Alex winces in pain.

“Leo!” Lori shouts from the couch, expressing her grievance.

Kara ducks her head with the color on her cheek reddened deeper.

Lena only freezes for a moment, then thinks silently, being efficient is my style. “Unfortunately, I won’t be ashamed of my healthy sexual behavior and something I haven’t done yet.” Pushing one scotch bottle towards Alex, she says with a smirk, “You might need it tonight.”

Chapter 5: bonding part Ⅱ

Chapter Text

Alex picks up the bottle and pours herself a solid amount of liquor to get through the night. She thinks, Fortunately, there is someone in the family who appreciates the good stuff. Glaring at Lena, she mocks, “I didn’t pay for it anyway, and you owe me this, Mrs. Luthor-Danvers.”

The hyphenated name makes Lena look at Kara subconsciously. Putting jokes aside, the Luthor-Danvers last name is growing on her since she has been spending time with the two unexpected visitors, which feels surprisingly right like a puzzle is completed by finding the last missing piece out of nowhere. Lena bites her lower lip at the prospect of having a loving family and an energetic wife.

Most part of Kara’s brain stops functioning at the sight of the brunette biting her lip, and the remaining part that is still working tenaciously controls her facial muscles to a bashful smile while praising, She is so cute. I mean, look at those lips… (If Kara’s thought could be visualized, there would be tons of placards with LIPS written on them appearing successively around her head.)

Sensing hormone emitting in the air, the corner of Alex’s mouth twitches a little. She titles the bottle harder for more liquor while praying that Maggie would be here soon to keep the gayness in the room under control. Then, Lori exclaims, holding up her phone, “Aunt Alex, Maggs just sent you a text.”

Alex reckons that the text is just Maggie informing her about her upcoming arrival. Additionally, having no energy for a detour without alcohol in her system first, she says, “Can you read it for me?”

“Okay, what’s your pin?”

“0329.”

“Aww, it’s Maggs’s birthday.” Lori unlocks the phone and goes through the text. “Are you sure that you want me to read it?”

“Yep.” Alex dismisses the unrestrained amusem*nt in Lori’s voice.

Lori clears her throat dramatically. “Okay, here it goes. Look into your eyes, glinting with starlight. You and I, how about having sex tonight? Eye emoji, peach emoji. Oh, and she is downstairs now.”

There is a two seconds dead silence after Lori finishes, then everyone except Alex bursts into laughter. Leo even bends over in tears. Trying his best to piece together his words coherently, he says, “I can’t believe I just heard Maggs’s sext. It’s so hilarious. I’m gonna tell her about it when I got back!”

Lori can’t stop her chortle, and she even makes a sound like hog grunt at one point. “She’s gonna throw you into jail!”

Leo shouts back, “Totally worth it!”

“sh*t.” Embarrassment thick in Alex’s throat. The sext thing is a method Maggie recently came up to reduce the stress triggered by their wedding planning, and it works perfectly. She drops the bottle and rushes to her phone. She snatches her phone out of Lori’s hand, but the impact of running knocks her off balance and has her end up lying on her stomach on Lori’s lap.

Lori pats Alex’s shoulder blade amusedly while thinking, Watching Aunt Alex being flustered is a bonus. Hearing her aunt grunting, she says delightfully, “Gay down.”

Alex pushes herself up and slumps beside Lori. “It’s a good thing that I won’t remember this.” No one knows it is a statement of fact or an attempt to console herself.

Lori hums, knowingly.

There is a knock on the door. Instantly, everyone knows that it’s the poet of the night.

Getting hyped-up about meeting Maggie, Leo asks Kara expectantly, “Can I go get the door?” After receiving a nod from Kara, he marches to the door straightaway and opens it with an enthusiastic “Hi! Glinting eyes!”

Maggie is startled by the strange man who grins broadly at her at first, then the realization of who this man is suddenly dawns on her. “Hey, finally got the honor to meet the famous son of Luth—” Another realization hits her like a bolt of lightning before she finishes her sentence, What did he call me? Tilting her body to look into the apartment with her eyes widened, she shouts with a blush, voice full of warning, “Danvers!”

Alex thought that hearing about her sister’s sex life is terrible enough, but hearing her fiancee’s you are in trouble tone is worse. She promptly defends herself, “I swear it was an accident!”

Content with the fun of teasing Maggie, Leo says, “I testify that it really was,” gesturing behind him, “Come in, let me grab you a beer.”

Maggie shrugs nonchalantly and follows Leo. She takes a swig of the beer Leo just handed her while eyeing Kara and Lena getting their own wine, who are avoiding eye contact in a deliberate way. Detecting the lingering chemistry between Kara and Lena, she says, raising her bottle, “Congrats to our future newlyweds.”

Looking up at Maggie without an idea of how to respond, Kara’s mouth opens and closes repeatedly. “Uh, ah, thanks?”

Hearing Kara’s response, Lena rejoices at the observation that Lori and Leo don’t seem to inherit the Kryptonian’s clumsiness. She looks at Maggie with her lips curving up in a soft grin. “You and Alex are the future newlyweds we should celebrate today.” A glimmer of retaliation flashing in her eyes, she raises her glass too. “To our gay detector.”

The awareness of no messing with the Luthors comes to Maggie’s mind. She should have known that this Luthor would sting back before you knew it. But the sincere blessing in Lena’s voice and happiness showing on Lena’s face for her marriage warms her, so she decides to play along. She turns to look at Lori and shouts, pretending to be upset, “Hey! Hybrid Danvers, can’t you keep my family title a secret.”

“Sorry, no secret in this family,” retorts Lori. “Since everyone is here, can we please start eating now?” The hunger in her voice is tangible, which sounds like she hasn't eaten all day.

Leo quickly grabs a beer for himself and a can of cola for Lori in one hand, and the bag of take-out in the other hand before opening his arms to motion for three women in the kitchen to move towards the living room. He urges, “Everyone grab your drink before Lori gets whiny. Hurry up!” Three women comply at the threat. The whole scene looks like a shepherd dog supervises a herd of sheep moving towards the fence.

Seeing the herd coming, Lori gets up to leave the seat to Maggie and goes to sit on the floor between two club chairs beside the couch. Turning to her two moms and patting the cushions of two club chairs, she says, “Mom, Jeju, come here!”

Normally, Lena won’t be bossed around by anyone but the glitter in Lori’s eyes makes her unable to refuse the request. She takes the club chair to Lori’s left obediently with a smile and leans forward to put her glass on the coffee table. Looking at Lori with raising one eyebrow, she jokes, “You do realize that I’m not a dog, right?”

Lori shrugs. “You did what I said, anyway.”

Lena giggles. Pinching Lori’s cheek fondly, she says with unstrained affection twinkling in her eyes, “I like your taunting skill.”

Lori leans to bump Lena’s calf with her shoulder. “Again, I got it from you.”

Kara’s eyes are trained on Lena and Lori with pure adoration while settling down on the other chair.

Leo sits at Lori’s right after putting take-out on the coffee table. Shoving Lori away from the center with his shoulder, he says, “It’s not fair you occupying them like this!” After Struggling to get the position that he regards as fair against Lori’s feeble resistance, he sighs contentedly. “Much better.”

Kara couldn’t resist the urge to join the fight-for-justice game. She moves to Leo’s and starts to shove the siblings aside easily with her Super Strength, which elicits grouchy grumbles from them.

Leo protests, “Jeju, you’re crushing me!”

Kara keeps moving. “Knock it off. I know how to control my power.”

Lori knows to ask for foreign aid. Looking at Lena with indignation on her face, she complains, “Mom, Jeju is bullying us!”

Lena knows better than to take a side. She picks up her glass to drink, essentially, to keep this mess out of sight. She murmurs, “At least they didn’t get this from me.”

Looking at the Luthor-Danverses messing around with a dimple-showing smile, Maggie comments, “They’re a family for sure.”

Alex is nursing her scotch. “Emm-hmm.”

Maggie turns to Alex, and her attention is drawn by the water stain on Alex’s shirt. Pointing at the stain, she asks, “What happened?”

The question almost makes Alex choke on her Scotch. She avoids answering the question by coughing, hoping someone would come to her rescue. After a fruitless attempt, she says with a grimace, “It was another accident.”

Maggie’s detective instinct tells her that once is coincidental but twice is intentional. She darts a suspicious look at the Luthor-Danverses, who buries their heads into their plates simultaneously, then she has an epiphany. After deciding to start with the weak link, she calls out, “Hey, Boy Danvers.”

Leo looks up blankly from his food like a deer caught in the headlight. “Yeah?”

Maggie asks casually, “When will Lena and Kara get married?”

“2021,” answers Leo. “It was a small wedding only with close friends and families. Everyone at the wedding cried,” looking at Kara, “especially you, Jeju. You barely finished your vow while sobbing, but I think mom found you cute even when you were crying ungracefully. She kissed you with a bright smile that could power the whole National City.”

Kara shoots Lena a discreet glance, who is concentrating on Leo’s narrating. Leo’s voice becomes a background sound after she hears the word kissed. Her eyes voluntarily trace from Lena’s eyes to her perfectly curved lips, down to her slender neck. She regretfully looks away when her view is blocked by Lena’s inopportunely presented button on her blouse and goes back to feed her stomach after feeding her eyes.

Lena, of course, has caught Kara staring at her (in fact, everyone has caught Kara staring. Leo and Lori are used to it a long time ago so they wouldn’t even bother to point it out; Alex doesn’t want to suffer anymore, so she ignores it; Maggie is having fun watching Kara lusting over Lena), but she doesn’t intend to expose the blonde’s non-platonic behavior. Conversely, she pretends to fix her collar and tags it apart a bit to show more skin. A little flirt won’t hurt, right?

Leo continues, “If you could make through their wedding video to the dance part,” rolling his eyes, “you would find they get…handsy.”

Lori is impervious to Leo’s words for her focus is on the food.

Lena and Kara act like they are not the protagonists of the story. Both hide their faces in their glasses.

Alex looks at Maggie helplessly with a painful expression that conveys her emotion accurately.

Maggie immediately understands how the accident happened. One case solved, one more to go. “Lori, are you seeing anyone?”

Lori looks at Maggie with a mouthful of food in her mouth, swallowing food mechanically. “No—” hearing Leo clearing his throat, she modifies her answer, “No-not exactly? We’re…friends for now.”

An ambiguous testimony. Maggie makes an attempt, “How did you meet her?”

Lori answers, “We’re in the same class.”

Maggie lifts her chin at Alex triumphantly, sending a message—Told you so.

Alex gives out a respectful look.

Kara says, “Tell us more!”

Lori blushes.

Lena cuts in, shooting a CEO glance at Kara and Maggie, “You two leave her alone.”

Raising her hands in surrender playfully, Maggie changes her target, “Leo, how about you? Seeing anyone?”

Leo knows Maggie well enough to understand Maggie’s true intention. Grinning from ear to ear, he says, “I’m bisexual, if that’s what you’re asking.”

Maggie locks her gaze on Leo and deepens her smile. “Well, I’d like to make a toast,” raising her bottle, “to the rainbow.”

Leo chuckles and raises his bottle to level with Maggie’s. “To us.”

The rest of the group raises their drink at Leo’s toast, and says in unison, “To us.”

As the night unfolds merrily, everyone gets tipsy except for Kara and Lori, because of Kara’s inhuman metabolism and Lori’s distaste for alcohol.

Lori picks up Lena’s glass to try the wine in it and ends up with a disgusted grimace. She says to Lena, “I really don’t understand why you like it. It tastes awful. I’ll stick to my cola.”

But the rest of the family does enjoy alcohol. Take Leo and Maggie as an example, who are totally wasted now, they would giggle unstoppably even someone tells them that the sun is round. This is the result of Leo moving to Maggie’s side after stuffing himself and starting to play the Never Have I Ever drinking game. Leo has unequally more information, but Maggie is tactful enough to trick Leo, so they have been tied in this game, and this also has something to do with the fact that both of them are competitive in games.

Alex quits the game after a few rounds because someone has to be sober to get them home. She has moved to Lori on the floor and has been asking about things in the future that interest her. She even gives Lori some advice on how to get a girl, about which Lori is skeptical, based on the first advice is that kiss the girl before she says no. Besides, without a shadow of a doubt, Lori knows that Lena is the best one to ask for advice.

Kara has dragged Lena to the TV, settling on the floor, watching the first movie of Toy Story. The space between them is normally friendly at the beginning, but Lena has gradually closed it owing to the fact that the heat radiating from the blonde is too warm to decline and she is too drunk to think straight. After positioning herself against the blonde, she rests her head on her shoulder.

Siting with her legs splayed on the floor and propping herself on her palms, Kara mimics Buzz Lightyear on the screen, “To infinity and beyond!”

“This is nice,” mutters Lena softly. Not sure she is referring to the movie or their intimacy, or both.

Kara says, “Told you it’s funny.” Of course, she thought Lena was talking about the movie, being oblivious as always.

Lena tilts her head back to look at those sapphire eyes without leaving the blonde’s shoulder. “Yeah, it is.”

Kara feels the brunette’s breath wafting through her face, carrying the aroma of her perfume mixed with alcohol, which is achingly intoxicating. She has never observed her eyes in this kind of close proximity, and she is absorbed in them. The longer she stares, the more affirmative she is that there is irresistible gravitation in them that is attracting her, so she leans in naturally. With keeping zooming in those emerald eyes, she forgets breathing. Sensing that Lena doesn’t flinch away, she flickers her eyes to the brunette’s lips, then keeps leaning in. Just when the tip of her nose touches Lena’s breath, she hears, “Kara…”

“I don’t think now is a good time to pursue anything between us.”

With Lena's words echoing ostentatiously in her head, she stops. Leaning back in a fluster, she says, “I..I’ll go get you more wine.” Then, she moves up.

Lena briskly presses a hand on Kara’s thigh. “No, I didn’t mean—” evening out her breath, “I—I don’t want more wine.” Looking at Kara frustratedly and knowing the moment has passed, she says, “Can we stay like this?”

Kara relaxes and nods. She wraps one arm around Lena’s waist and pulls her closer. “Is this okay?”

Lena snuggles into Kara’s chest and mumbles, “It’s more than okay.”

Kara sighs in relief and rests her head on top of Lena’s, immersing in the brunette’s companion.

Lori groans in disbelief. Gesturing at her moms, she says to Alex exasperatedly, “I can’t believe it! How come Jeju didn’t kiss Mom! Normally, they looking at each other for more than five seconds is my cue to leave.”

“Ha! I win!” Alex slaps Lori’s thigh excitedly. “I knew that Kara doesn’t have the nerve to kiss Lena.” Pointing at a cup on the coffee table with a sip of beer in it, she demands, “Drink!”Apparently, they take Kara’s abortive attempt at kissing Lena as a romantic drama and have made a bet on it.

Lori reluctantly picks up the cup and drinks the beer in one gulp with a frown. “This is no fun.”

“I’ve decided!” Maggie exclaims on the couch, drawing everyone’s attention. Pointing a finger against Leo’s chest, she says in a drawling tone, “From now on, you’re my bro!” patting her own chest, “and I’ve got your back.”

Leo is deeply moved by Maggie’s words. He stumbles to hug Maggie. Hanging his head over her shoulder, he feels like crying. “Bro!”

Hugging the man tightly, she reiterates, “Bro.”

Watching the two’s antics, Alex says, “How much have they drunk?”

Counting the piles of empty beer bottles around the bros, Lori says, “They’re gonna have a terrible hangover tomorrow.”

Lena jokes, amusem*nt gleaming in her eyes, “Looks like Leo fits in just fine. He made a new friend in no time.”

Kara laughs and shakes her head. “Looks like you got a drunk child to deal with.”

Feigning indignation, Lena shoves Kara’s side. “He’s your child, too. You can’t run away from the responsibility.”

Kara laughs. “Okay, I will fly him to your place.”

Lena hums approvingly and makes a gesture of Please at Kara.

Kara walks to the drunk bros, who are still clinging to each other and don’t seem to want to be torn apart. Patting Leo’s shoulder to get his attention, she coaxes, “Leo, can you let your bro go?”

Leo turns and finds that Kara is at his side. “Jeju!”

“Good to see you still know who I’m.”

Leo giggles. Wrapping his arms around Kara’s wrist and resting his chin on her abdomen, he pleads, “Can you be my bro, too?”

Kara is stunned by Leo’s action at first, then she softens up. Ruffling his hair, she says with an indulgent smile, “I’d love to.” Seeing a giddy smile appear on his face, she continues, “I’m gonna pick you up, okay?”

“Yes! Please!”

Kara bends down and scoops Leo up. After securing him safely in her arms, she whispers, “Let’s go home.”

Leo tucks his head on Kara’s shoulder and mumbles, “I am home.” Then, he falls asleep.

Watching the scene intently, Lena fails to notice Lori coming to her.

“Earth to mom.”

‘Yes?”

“Need a lift home?”

“You mean by flying?”

Lori shrugs. “It’s the fastest way.”

Lena hates flying, even on a plane, but the invitation to fly with Lori is too appealing to decline, so she comes up to Lori and puts one arm around her neck. “Don’t drop me.”

“Never.” Lori cradles Lena in her arms before walking toward the open floor-to-ceiling window to catch up with Kara.

Standing by the window and seeing that Alex is struggling with supporting Maggie with one arm fixing around her waist, Kara says, “Alex, I’ll come back soon—”

Alex waves Kara off. “I got this. You go ahead.”

Kara nods. Having noticed Lori carrying Lena, she cautions, again, “Don’t draw any unnecessary attention.”

Lori says nonchalantly, “It’s late, no one would notice us.”

“Nonetheless—”

“Race ya!” Lori challenges before swooshing out of the window.

“NO!” Lena and Kara shout at the same time.

LENA LUTHOR’S PENTHOUSE

After settling Leo in bed and Lori going back to her room, Kara walks toward Lena, who is waiting for her on the balcony. Having stopped at the brunette, she says, “I’ll come to check on Leo tomorrow morning.”

Lena nods with a tender smile. She takes a step closer, and reaches out to tuck a loose strand of the blonde’s hair behind her ear, then cups her cheek. “Fly safe.”

Kara says nothing, but only titles her head to feel more of the touch.

Lena withdraws her hand first. “Good night.”

“Good night.” After taking off, Kara makes some aerial stunts on her way home spontaneously.

Chapter 6: mom is missing

Chapter Text

Lens wakes up before her alarm goes off out of habit. Lying on her king-size bed, she stretches lazily. Everything around her seems lighter, even knowing that there are amounts of monotonous paperwork waiting for her on her desk. Life is more alluring, somehow. She gets out of bed without procrastination and puts on a black silk robe before stepping out of her room.

Walking toward the living room, she brushes out the hair tucked under the robe with the back of her hand, then she hears Lori’s voice—

“On a scale of one to ten, how do you think of my pancake?”

“You’re making pancakes? I have to—” Lena halts her words at the sight that Kara is sitting on a stool by the kitchen island, holding cutlery, looking at her with her mouth agape. She didn't expect Kara to come this early but she isn’t complaining. Meeting the blonde’s eyes, she says, “Hi, Kara.”

Kara finds that Lena is glowing breathtakingly in the morning light. Her eyes flick up and down at Lena at their own will. “Mo… morning,” she stutters.

Lori waves the spatula in her hand at Lena excitedly. “Mom! Come and try my special pancake.”

Lena darts a fond look at Lori, whose hair is tied in a loose bun with her sleeves rolled up. After taking the stool next to Kara, she says, “How special it is?”

Lori says nothing, only gives out a noncommittal shrug that sends the message of you’ll see before serving Lena a plate of pancakes.

Looking at Kara again, Lena asks, “So, how do you think of the pancake?”

“Huh?” Kara doesn’t seem to follow the question at first. After reviewing the question in her head assiduously, she says solemnly, “Oh, a big ten.” No one knows that she is talking about the pancake or Lena.

Lena hums, “Intriguing.” After taking a bite, she looks at Lori with an awestruck look. Pointing at her plate with her fork, she says, “It’s utterly good! I’d give you a one hundred! What’s in it?”

Lori says, mysteriously, “It’s confidential.”

Lena quirks up an eyebrow, challengingly.

Lori knows the look so well because Lena would use it on Leo and her every time they got into mischief, which was initiated mostly by her when they were little, and they would scramble to come clean. There were some disgraceful finger-pointing and shirking culpability, which would only vex their mom further, but they had found a way to placate their mom through multiple experiments, which was to act cute and apologize while hugging her. A pang of nostalgia washes over her. Pretending to be reluctant to leak her special recipe, she says, “Okay, coconut oil and chocolate chip.”

Lena is content with the answer, then she says in confusion, “But I have neither of them in my penthouse.”

Lori explains, staring at Lena intensely, “Jeju and I went to the grocery store earlier. You need to start taking care of yourself by eating regularly, so we stuffed your fridge. And, I made you this,” handing a mug to Lena, “pour-over coffee.”

“Thank you.” Lena takes over the mug while looking over Lori’s shoulder. After seeing a ceramic dripper and a range server glass pot sitting on the countertop, which she bought in Japan but left in the cabinet untouched, she says, “I see, you really have a passion for food.”

Lori says, “You told me that if you really love something, be good at doing it.”

“You know that mom was referring to Jeju, right? She was drunk when she said that on their anniversary.” Leo appears on the far end of the kitchen island with his wet hair matted together, only wrapped in a bath towel around his waist.

Lori scratches her forehead, feeling dejected for forgetting that Leo plus alcohol equals suffering. Glaring at her brother, she sneers, “Great, you’ve totally ruined it for me. And, can’t you put a shirt on?”

Leo shoots back, “Not before I show them my tattoo!” He quickly turns around, pointing at his lower back, “Mom, Jeju, look.”

Lena sees that the tattoo is a line of black-inked symbols arranged closely that is almost as wide as his waist, and she immediately recognizes that those symbols are Kryptonese thanks to Lex’s previous obsessive research on Superman, but she can’t understand it. She asks Kara, “What does it mean?”

Kara smiles as soon as she lays her eyes on the tattoo. She is staggered at seeing her future child having a tattoo inked in her first language. “It can be roughly translated into family member.”

Leo turns around. “Mom, you and I got this identical tattoo on the same spot on my eighteenth birthday,” tilting his head towards Lori and smiling smugly, “someone is jealous of it all the time.”

Lori refuses to admit the disadvantage of her invincibility. She says, stubbornly, “I told you, I’m not jealous.”

Lena chimes in, “I guess it’s one of the perks of being a human in the family.”

“Exactly!” Leo steps forward and raises his hand to high-five Lena.

Lena cooperates, cheerfully.

Kara also raises her hand, waiting expectantly. “I want one, too, bring it in!” She pulls him closer after clapping his hand. “I love it. It’s super cool.”

Leo puts on a smug smile.

Squinting at Leo, Lori comments, “It’s low, even for you.”

Leo says, “You made your special pancake for them, so I have to play dirty to compete with you.” He leans in to lay a kiss on Kara’s temple while looking at his sister provocatively. “Thanks for bringing me aspirin, Jeju.”

Lori seems to be irritated, but the truth is, Leo and she are bickering on purpose. They aren’t around their moms after they went to college, so they would put on a show of competing for attention tacitly to entertain their moms when they get home, and their squabbles would quickly turn sentiment into laughter. Somehow, they can’t help doing it now.

Seeing that Lori is at a disadvantage, Kara has a sudden urge to show her some support, so she teases, “I think having a hangover definitely isn’t one of the perks of being a human in the family.”

“Right on! I knew you’re on my side.” Lori leans forward to give Kara a high-five. Apparently, the Kryptonian alliance is forming.

Lena shakes her head amusedly for Kara’s words have resulted in fanning the flames, but she thinks that why not add fuel to the fire to have more fun? She shifts the focus to the previous topic that is beneficial to the human alliance, “I think that tattoo would look good on me.”

The image of Lena having a tattoo on her lower back emerges vividly in Kara’s mind right now, and it hits different, like life-changing different. She takes Lena’s side willingly, “For the record, I would use the word great.”

Kara’s compliment earns herself a lopsided smile and a "Thank you” from Lena. Unsurprisingly, the Kryptonian alliance collapses before it is consolidated.

Lori rolls her eyes at the blatant betrayal, then she goes back to flip her pancakes. She directs Leo, “Go get dressed. I’ll make some pancakes for you.”

Succumbed to the temptation of Lori’s pancake, which he hasn’t had for a long time, Leo says before sashaying away, “You’re the best!”

Bathing in the pleasure of their company, Lena perceives that joy has taken up residence in her heart. She wishes that this peep of her future hovering before her eyes isn’t just something that can only be seen but never can be reached like a mirage of an oasis in a desert. Furthermore, she had so much fun spending time with Leo in the lab yesterday. They had coffee and pastry, even had small talk during the break which she used to deem as unnecessary and a waste of time, and the best part was that they made some gizmos together. Thinking of this, she gets up from the stool before disappearing into her bedroom. “I made something for you two. Wait here.”

Kara looks at Lori expectantly like a child waiting to open a Christmas present. “What do you think it will be?” planting her head on her hand, “a weapon?”

Lori assumes, “An upgrade to your suit?”

“An emergency notification device?”

“A robot that can fold clothes?”

Kara straightens up. “Ha! I just thought of something better!” She lowers her voice, “A year’s supply of potstickers.”

Lori stands there, wordlessly. She doesn’t understand how Kara has been enthusiastic about the same food for decades. Leaning in to get close to her, she says, “Spoil alert, you got that for your thirtieth birthday. As a matter of fact, you got yourself a lifetime supply of potstickers by marry—”

“Are you plotting something?” Leo’s voice sounds. After walking to Kara, he says, “Whatever you’re planning, count me in.”

Kara says, “No, we’re not plotting anything. We’re just talking.”

“About?”

“Something Lena made for us.”

Leo deflates at the nonexistence of conspiracy. “Oh, they’re just some gadgets mom and I made yesterday, no biggie.”

Lena returns with two leather strap watches in her hands. She hands Lori and Kara one respectively. “Since you don’t have phones and Leo insisted on having fun with doing some handicrafts, so we made these watches as a temporary communication tool.”

Leo makes a demonstration. “It’s equipped with GPS. You can use it for calls and texts through voice control, and it also can project holograms if you want to make a video call. It’s solar-powered like Jeju so no need for a recharge. And I,” raising his hand to show off his watch, “am gonna take it back as a souvenir.”

After putting on the watch, Kara marvels at the symbol of The House of El lighting up in the center. “Wow, this is amazing.” She looks up at Lena, “You’re amazing. Thank you.”

A flash of pink climbs up Lena’s cheeks. “It’s nothing. The symbol was Leo’s idea. I’m glad you like it.”

Lori fiddles with her watch, scrutinizing it with interest. After done with her observation, she pokes fun at Leo, “Given that you helped with the watch, I hope it would actually work.”

Lena is the first one to respond. “Are you questioning my technology?” Feigning a scowl, she continues, “Theoretically, it’ll work perfectly even on the moon.”

Leo whoops, “How dare you!”

“You take it back.” Kara defends Lena’s reputation at any cost.

Lori widens her eyes at the whole family turning against her, incredibility showing on her face. Knowing that arguing with Lena is a losing battle, she takes off her imaginary hat, puts it on her chest, and makes a bow. “Miss Luthor, my sincere apologies.”

Lena bursts into laughter at Lori’s parody. She finds that she does enjoy having someone indulge her, which she shamelessly doesn’t mind experiencing more. After composing herself, she asks, “So, we still split up like yesterday?”

Lori says in haste, “Yes, Aunt Alex and I agreed on a spar. Since she’s always been claiming that she was more flexible when she was younger, I’d like to test it out.”

Kara chuckles. “I appreciate your enthusiasm. But I’m warning you, she kicked my butt once, so you’d better not underestimate her.”

Lori crosses her arms. “Huh, just once? That’s not what I heard.”

Lori’s remark arouses competitiveness in Kara, so she says nonchalantly, “In that case, I can teach you a move or two after you finish with Alex.”

“Oh, Supergirl, game on.” Can’t wait to show off her combat skill, Lori urges, “C’mon, Jeju, let’s go.”

Kara says, “I see, you’re as impatient as Alex.” Nevertheless, she follows Lori out.

Lori exclaims at the door, “Mom, put on your watch. I might give you a call later. And see you guys at dinner.”

Lena replies, “Will do.”

Leo grumbles, “I guess I have to make pancake by myself.”

Lena chuckles. “It’s just you and me again. What’s in your mind today?”

Leo slumps his shoulders. “Actually, I’m still a little dizzy. Can I meet you up for lunch?”

“You really can’t skip a meal, can you?”

“Hey! I’m living my life.”

TRAINING ROOM, DEO

Kryptonite emitters are activated, green light gleaming faintly on the wall. Kara is leaning against the frame of the entrance with her arms crossed. The frown on her face suggests that she is more nervous than Alex and Lori who are stretching and warming up on the octagon ring.

Twisting her neck, Alex says, “You know, I can lower the intensity of Kryptonite emitter to make it a fair fight for you,” staring at Lori provocatively, “I don't want you to complain that I took advantage of you later.”

Lori says, making a derisive grimace, “Nah, that would be unnecessary. I don’t wanna hurt you or make you cry.”

Alex raises an eyebrow. “Ha, I hope your punches are as good as your big talk.”

“You’ll see.”

Kara laughs heartily. Her nerve is calmed by the banter, which seems to be more enthralling than the following spar. She steps in, “Okay, no more talks,” glaring at the two, “this is just training, okay? You win by ringing out your opponent or your opponent throwing in the towel, got it?”

Lori grins. “Got it.”

Alex says, “Don’t worry. I’ll go easy on her.”

Lori says, “Give me your best.”

“Okay, if you insist.”

Lori raises her hands to fist position. “Bring it!”

Alex squares away, too.

Lori bobs up and down while approaching Alex. When she is close enough, she throws a tentative straight right punch, which Alex dodges easily with nimble footwork.

Circling in a decoy movement, Alex comments, “Your blow is okay.”

Lori snorts, “Just okay? You should see my kick, then.” She rotates her body rapidly and jumps up on one foot, utilizing the inertia to strike a powerful roundhouse kick.

Alex instinctively raises her arms to parry the kick, but the impact makes her stumble back a few steps.

Lori says smugly, “How do you think of that?”

Alex recovers speedily. Stretching her shoulder, she answers, “Better than I expected.”

“I hope you’re not using the rope-a-dope strategy. Just a heads-up for you, I can do this all day even with Kryptonite emitter on.”

Alex shoots back, “Not after I knock you to the ground!” Then, she jerks forward to deliver a flat hook.

Lori ducks to avoid it but Alex has already predicted her action so a solar plexus punch follows successively. Lori blocks the punch with her and promptly returns a combination facer.

Alex sways back, guarding with her forearms up while observing the way her opponent fights. Having accurately seized a pause between Lori's punches, she stabilizes her body with core muscle strength, grabs Lori’s oncoming fist with both hands firmly, and twists Lori’s wrist outwards forcefully.

Lori gets down on her knee at the sharp pain. Enduring the pain, she reaches out to grab the front of Alex’s sports jacket, falls backward, and hurls Alex up in the air. The movement sends both of them sprawling to the ground, panting raggedly.

Alex rolls over and props herself up. Regaining defensive posture, she sounds out, “Yield?”

Lori huffs in exasperation. “Not even close.” She immediately gets up and dashes forward, then makes a jumping front kick when Alex is within attack range, which forces Alex to defend herself with cross parry. Subsequently, she makes a back spinning kick and successfully hits Alex in the waist.

Alex collapses to the ground, being fully aware that Lori is stronger than her. Knowing that she needs to play it smart to win, she develops a strategy instantaneously owing to her years of practical experience. After pushing herself to her feet, she nears Lori swiftly, pretending to lunch a close-quarter fight.

Taking the bait, Lori steps up to confront Alex’s attack head-on with a round-arm blow, which is only a miss blow because Alex makes a body feint and dodges the attack in time.

To implement her counterattack, Alex squats down, makes a sweep leg, and manages to trip Lori up face-down. Seizing the well-planned opportunity, she briskly straddles Lori’s back, threads her arm around Lori’s neck, and adds in her other arm to form a stranglehold. After clamping Lori’s body with her legs, she rolls over swimmingly and completes the rare naked choke.

Having difficulty in breathing, Lori struggles for wriggling out of Alex’s grip.

“There is no way you can get away from it. It’s time to yield.” Alex gloats over her success.

Lori groans out a replay, “Not necessarily.” She closes her eyes, trying to concentrate on the energy in her body. After feeling energy flowing in her body, she shouts, “Take this!” Then, she adopts a measured wave of energy and creates a blast wave.

The energy wave radiating from Lori’s body sends Alex flying out of the platform. Alex hits the wall on her back and falls to the ground, engulfed in pain.

Kara rushes to Alex and she squats down. “Alex, are you okay?”

Alex responds weakly, “Ahh, not dead yet.”

Lori hurries to her aunt’s side, “Aunt Alex, I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

Alex grumbles, “Can you guys help me up first?”

Kara and Lori take Alex’s arms and help the physically-and-emotionally-wounded redhead to her feet.

Leaning against Kara, Alex looks at Lori. “What’s that? I’ve never seen Kara do anything like that before.”

Lori gestures to the edge of the platform. “Let me help you sit down first.” After settling Alex down, she continues, “I call it Super Blast. It’s a simplified version of Super Flare, but apparently, I have to practice it more to master it.”

Kara asks, “What’s Super Flare? How to use it?”

“Super Flare is using all the yellow sun radiation within cells at once to create a gigantic heat blast. You used it once in a battle.” Seeing Kara itch for a try, Lori adds, “But it will drain all stored solar energy in your cells and leave solar flared. It’ll take you twenty-four hours to recharge your cells with solar energy, so don’t try it unless it’s urgent.”

Kara deflates.

“But I can show you how to do Super Blast. It won’t drain your energy. We can find an open space to practice it if you bring donuts and coffee.”

Kara beams. “Deal!”

Alex says sullenly, “It’s rude to make a plan in front of me but not to invent me.”

Lori titters, “Of course, you’re invented,” putting on a teasing smile, “loser.”

Alex defends herself at once, “Hey! We agreed on a fair spar but you cheated with your superpowers, so I’m the winner.”

“Okay, if it would make you feel better.”

Kara says, being in stitches, “I have to say, you did pretty good up here. Who taught you how to fight?”

“Aunt Alex mostly, you and Maggs occasionally.”

Kara says, “Wanna exchange some blows with me?”

Lori accepts the challenge with pleasure. “Sure, what’s the rule?”

Agent Vasquez cuts in at this time, approaching them with a tablet in hand, “Agent Danvers!”

Alex stands up, “Yes?”

Agent Vasquez says, “We detained a man who was looking for you and Supergirl downstairs, but we can’t identify him with our facial recognition system,” handing Alex the tablet, “so I figured that I should report this to you.”

After seeing the mugshot displayed on the tablet, Alex mutters, “Leo?”

Kara sees it, too. She asks in disbelief, “Where did you detain him?”

Agent Vasquez says, “In block D.”

“C’mon, Alex. We need to get him out.” Kara grabs Alex’s wrist and leads her (basically drags) to free her son.

Alex winces. “Let me go. I can walk by myself.”

When they reach the cell and see Leo pace back and forth in anxiety, Lori exclaims, “Leo! What happened?”

After hearing Lori’s voice, Leo turns, suddenly. Banging the transparent shield wall with his fist loudly, he shouts, “Jeju! Mom is missing!”

Chapter 7: searching part Ⅰ

Chapter Text

Alex hurries to the control panel on the wall and taps on it quickly to unlock the cell door. As soon as the door slides open, she strides to Leo who looks pale and obviously is in panic. Trying to calm Leo down first, she puts her hands on each side of his neck and says, “Hey, hey kiddo, focus on me and breath with me, okay?”

Leo takes in a large gulp of air and nods, then closes his eyes to focus on Alex’s breath.

Alex instructs softly, “Yes, in and out slowly. Try to stay at the present.”

Feeling his heartbeat gradually stabilizing, Leo puts his hands on Alex’s and gives them a squeeze. “Thank you.”

“Anytime.” Alex gives him an assuring smile. “What do you mean by Lena is missing?”

Lori cuts it, “aren’t you supposed to be with her? How come she went missing?”

Leo says frustratedly, “I…I don’t know! I didn’t follow her to the lab because I was still a little dizzy. We agreed to meet at lunch, but she wasn’t there and I couldn’t get in touch with her.”

Kara says, “Is it possible that she went somewhere but forgot to tell you?”

Leo shakes his head. “That’s what I thought at first. I waited for her in the lab for half an hour before realizing something was off. I tried to call her but her phone was off, so I went to Jess to ask about her whereabouts,” looking at Lori and hoping that she would get his point, “even Jess didn’t know where she was.”

Lori bites her knuckle, which is her perennial habit when she is nervous. “Mom would never leave L-Corp without telling Jess first during working hours. This might be a Two-Zero-Seven. We have to track her.”

Kara asks, “Wait, what is Two-Zero-Seven?”

Leo explains, “It’s a Hundred Code for kidnapping. Maggs taught us for fun.”

Waking up to the seriousness of the situation, Alex asks in a deep voice, “Are you sure?”

Lori nods solemnly. “Statistically speaking, every time Mom was out of reach, she got kidnapped.”

Alex says immediately, “I’ll have Winn get a ping on her.”

Kara heads to the hallway that leads to the briefing room and gestures for everyone to follow. “No time to lose.”Striding ahead, she is furious at the way fate teases her. First, Krypton exploded after she got into the Science Guild. Then, when she was just accustomed to life on Earth, Jeremiah had to work for DEO in exchange for her having a normal life, not to mention that she found out that her parents were the culprit of Krypton’s annihilation the first year she came out as Supergirl. As for Supergirl, she had to make the call to send Mon-el away. And now, Lena. The idea that her best friend, who she has feelings for, might get kidnapped appalls her tremendously. She can’t afford to lose Lena, too, not on her watch.

Sensing Kara growing irritated, Alex trots to her side and consoles her, “I’ll make searching for Lena a top priority,” putting her hand on her sister’s shoulder, “we’ll find her but I need you to keep your head clear, okay?”

Kara nods, intensely.

Winn is looking down at his tablet when he bumps into the proceeding group at the end of the hallway. He is startled at first, almost drops his tablet. After seeing Leo, who he failed to ID, is among the group, he suddenly wraps his mind around the situation. Pointing at Leo, he says excitedly, “You’re Kara’s future son, right? That’s why I can’t ID you!” breathing a sigh of relief, “thank God there is nothing wrong with my tech. And I have to say that the time travel thing is so cool. Nice to—”

Kara interrupts, “Not now, Winn. Now I need you to track Lena.”

“Emm?” Winn darts an inquiring look at Alex.

Alex nods. “Now.”

“On it!” Winn hurries to his seat and gets down to the assignment immediately. Eyeing the computer screen, he mutters with his forehead crinkling, “Looks like Lena has upgraded her mobile security since the last time I hacked her.”

Lori says, a little impatiently, “Can you track her or not?”

Winn turns. Looking at the fretting four people, he stutters, “It…it might take a while.”

An approach flashed into Kara’s mind. “How about trying tracking the watch Lena made instead?”

Leo pinches the bridge of his nose. “Negative. Mom specifically made it untraceable by making its signal bypass all base stations.”

“Let me try.” Lori jostles to Winn’s side and stoops down to snatch the keyboard from Winn, brainstorming different approaches that she regards as feasible.

The sound of typing on the keyboard strikes Kara mercilessly and gradually gets on her nerves. Just when she is about to speak up to break the deadlock, Lori exclaims, “I got something!”

Everyone congregates around the screen.

“I did it in an old-fashion way. Sometimes old tricks work better than advanced ones.” Lori keeps tapping away at the keyboard. “I accessed footage from surveillance cameras installed around L-Corp as many as possible while running facial recognition system, and I got one showing mom arriving at L-Corp at 8: 49.”

A video window pops out on the top-right corner of the screen, showing Lena getting off from the car and bidding her driver goodbye, and it’s clear enough to see that she was wearing a black suit and a red blouse with hair swept back in a ponytail. Then, she walked into L-Corp.

“And she went out at 11: 16 to get coffee.”

Another video window pops out in the middle, which is from the city surveillance system and happens to cover the whole block, showing that Lena walked into a coffee shop near L-Corp and came out with a tray holding two cups of coffee and a paper bag eight minutes later, and that she held the door for a man who was holding a baby before walking away.

Leo says, anxiously, “Mom went to buy coffee for me? I should’ve been with her. If anything happened to her, I—”

Kara interrupts, “Leo, calm down. Get your head in the game. Let’s locate Lena first, okay?”

Leo takes a deep breath. “Okay."

Lori frowns. “But there was no footage showing mom going back to L-Corp. This is not good. I need to dig deeper.”

Winn says, “Maybe I can help with that. I can hack every device connected to the internet at the drop of a hat.” After taking back the control of his computer from Lori, he adds embarrassedly, “Except for Lena Luthor’s tech.”

Alex warns, “Less talking, more working.”

Winn pouts in chagrin but doesn’t dare to rebut.

Standing with her hands on her hips, Kara shifts her body weight to the other leg. Harassed ceaselessly by the powerlessness of not being able to act right away, she is getting frustrated.

Winn shouts in no time, “Guys, check this out!”

Another video is displayed in the middle of the screen, which comes from a dashcam installed in a car parked by the roadside, showing that Lena was passing by a black van parked ahead, and a woman, who came out of nowhere, ran into her and spilled her coffee. The woman immediately offered her a pack of tissues to clean her stained clothes, naturally pressed her towards the black van in the process. Suddenly, the door of the van slid open and she was dragged into the van. The woman got in the van after looking around to make sure no attention was drawn, then the van drove away.

Everyone gasps.

Alex commands, “Track the car!”

It doesn't take long before Winn replies, “Dead end, no license plate on the car.”

Alex mutters a curse.

Kara’s patience runs out. “That’s it. I’m gonna go search for her. The kidnap happened less than two hours ago. They won’t get far.” Walking towards the terrace, she directs Winn, “You keep trying to track her and keep me updated. I’ll stay on the comm.”

Winn salutes in response.

“Jeju, wait!” Lori rushes to Kara’s side. “I wanna go with you.”

“No, I can’t take the risk of you being spotted in broad daylight. You stay put here to help Winn.”

“But mom got kidnapped! The search would be more efficient with me being out there!”

Kara keeps walking without sparing Lori a look. “No.”

“Please!” Lori follows Kara up the stairs.

Kara stops and says in an irrefutable tone, “I said no!”

Lori freezes. Kara scarcely speaks to her like this but when Kara does, she knows that it means no objection is allowed. She slumps her shoulders and says, “Okay, but please find mom and be safe.”

Softened at Lori’s words, Kara puts a hand on Lori’s shoulder, “I’m sorry. I shouldn't have talked to you like that. I just don’t want unnecessary media exposure that we can’t control. Just trust me on this, okay?”

“I do trust you.”

A tender smile spreads over Kara's face.

Loosened up a little, Lori says, gesturing at Supergirl’s exclusive entrance, “Chop-chop, go find your girl.”

Kara ducks her head bashfully at the address but composes herself quickly. She gives Lori an assuring smile before taking off.

Lori watches Kara flying away in a daze, failing to notice that Leo has walked up to her.

Leo says, “A skirt, huh?”

Lori says in disbelief, “I know, right?”

Leo wraps an arm around Lori’s shoulder and leads her back to the central console. “C’mon, let’s go help Uncle Winn with hacking mom. I don’t think he can pull it off alone.”

Snorting with laughter, Lori nudges Leo’s side and whispers, “You bet.”

ABOUT TWO HOURS AGO, LENA LUTHOR’S PERSONAL LAB, L-CORP

Normally, Lena would engross herself in work alone, but not today, not without Leo talking non-stop and telling terrible jokes to distract her by her side. She hasn’t made any progress in her assignment in the past two hours because she is a little absent-minded and has been checking her watch every fifteen minutes with the expectation that the watch would tell her it’s lunchtime already.

She checks her watch, again. The electronic hour hand finally points to eleven, so she stops her work willingly and decides to take a coffee break, which has never happened before. Without a personal errand boy at her disposal, she has to make the trip by herself, which she gladly takes as a stress release.

After getting to the ground floor, she is amused at the sight that a guard is enjoying his donut behind the reception desk like nothing else matters at the moment, which reminds her of Lori, so she stops and decides to engage in a small chat. After walking to the reception desk, she starts, “What flavor is that?”

The guard startles, dropping from his donut paradise to reality, and looks up. Surprised at seeing his boss smile at him, he says, “Miss Luthor! What can I do for you?”

“I was asking what’s the flavor of your donut. It seems good.”

Looking down at his donut that is not much left and pinched in his fingers, the guard answers, “Oh, it’s chocolate with caramel sauce.” Looking back at his boss, encouraged by the delight in her eyes, he continues, “It’s my daughter’s favorite flavor, and she managed to make it my favorite so that we would have more chocolate-flavored donuts in one box. Just for you to know, kids are really good at bending us to their will.”

Lena laughs. “Well, no kids can resist the temptation of chocolate, and you can’t blame her for that.” Meanwhile, she makes a mental note to buy Leo a chocolate donut.

The guard laughs along. “Kids do have their own way of doing things.” The incident that happened the other day springs to his mind, so he says, “Miss Luthor, I’m sorry for stopping your guest the other day. I didn’t know he has full access.”

“Please don’t be. You were just doing your job, and I appreciate that. I’d better get going now. My brain is screaming for caffeine ingestion. Nice talking to you, Jerry.”

Jerry is more surprised at his boss knowing his name. He says, craning his neck to Lena’s receding figure, “You too, Miss Luthor.”

After coming out of the coffee shop, Lena is still content with her whim of buying two donuts of different flavors so that she can share with Leo and taste two flavors at once, and she takes it as a perk of having a coffee buddy. Immersed in her thoughts, she fails to pay attention to the surroundings until she bumps into something.

“Oops!” The thing turns out to be a woman.

Lena takes a step back reflexively at the splashing coffee.

“I’m sorry!” The woman frantically fetches a pack of tissues from her bag and hands it to Lena. “God, I hope I didn’t ruin your suit. I’m so sorry!”

“Thank you.” Lena takes over the tissues and starts to clean her clothes. Thinking that she does have spare clothes in her office, she says placidly, “It’s okay. Don’t worry about it.”

The woman steps closer and puts a hand on Lena’s forearm, then says sincerely, “At least let me buy you a coffee since I spilled yours.”

“That won’t be necessary. I got—”

Lena’s words are intercepted by an unexpected force from behind. The next thing she knows is that she falls on her back heavily. Before the pain spreading from her back mitigates, a man pulls her up roughly by the collar and presses her into a seat firmly with a hand covering her mouth to muffle her voice, then she realizes that she is kidnapped, again. She curses inwardly, Lunch crasher.

Then, she hears a slam of the door and a kind of familiar voice that says, “Hello, Miss Luthor, welcome aboard.” She turns and finds that the voice belongs to the woman who she just bumped into. She widens her eyes and shoots the woman an angry stare since she is unable to verbalize her indignation.

The woman says with a smirk, “Looks like you got a tirade to deliver, but unfortunately, I ain’t got paid for that kind of crap. So, why don’t you save all of us some trouble by staying quiet, huh?” Then, she nods at her goon.

Lena sees a flash of black, and the last thought across her mind before she blacks out is—quarterly assassination attempt, check.

A WAREHOUSE, UNKNOWN LOCATION

Lena vaguely feels that something feels like a feather is sweeping her face constantly, which is itchy, but she doesn’t feel like opening her eyes because she is still in a stupor and the back of her head is throbbing like hell.

“Psst! Wake up!” She hears a deep voice.

“Her eyes are moving. Try harder!” Another voice comes in.

“Easier said than done. Why don’t you come and have a try!”

“I don’t have a tail! You stupid Avatar!”

“Call me Avatar one more time. I’m gonna f*cking end you!”

“Hey, language! You really should learn your manner.”

“We’re about to die. Manner my ass!”

What the hell is happening here? Lena is trying to comprehend what she just heard.

“Psssst! Wake up!”

She feels that the feather-feeling-like thing has burrowed into her nose, which is getting her restless, so opens her eyes but stays lying on her back, staring blankly at the circuitous ventilating ducts above and regaining physical sensation.

“She's waked up. Stop poking her with your tail.”

She groans, A tail? Am I being tortured?

After a dull metal colliding sound, she hears the deep again, “Hey! Human, get up! We’re in big trouble. Now is not a good time to stare off into space!”

She struggles to sit up. When the surroundings come into her view, she is shocked. “What the—” after pushing herself to her feet abruptly, a fit of dizziness washes over her, forcing her to screw her eyes shut. She revives what she just saw and tries to connect the dots while waiting for the dizziness to wear off. She recalls that she is kidnapped and clearly, she is in a spacious room now. Light from the dysprosium lamps placed around the corners illuminates the layout of the interior. There is a row of cages in front of her. A green stout alien with pointy ears is locked on the left not far away, and a slim blue alien with a tail is locked right in front of her. Thinking of her current plight and knowing she has to pull herself together to survive, she strives to recover and opens her eyes. Drifting her eyes between the two aliens, she says, “What do you mean by we’re about to die?”

The blue one quickly responds, reaching out an arm from a gap between two bars and pointing over her shoulder, “The bombs!”

She turns around and gives the room a once-over, transfixed with shock at what she saw. A well-equipped laboratory area enclosed by transparent curtains imposes itself on her, which is easy to see through. An operating table in the middle is highlighted by a shadowless lamp placed beside, conspicuously presenting an alien lying on it. Just as the blue alien said, there are four bombs attached to four pillars that sustain the roof of the room respectively. The worst of all, all the timers read 8: 46 and are keeping counting down.

She runs into the laboratory area to check the alien lying on the operating table without hesitation. She picks up a stethoscope from the instrument table and checks the alien’s heartbeat with it while hoping that the alien does have a heart like humans.

The blue alien shouts, “Don’t waste time on that dude. He hasn’t moved a finger since he was brought in, and I can’t sense any emotion from him. I think he is dead.”

The green alien refutes, “How do you know he is a he? What if he is a non-binary?”

“Seriously? You still care about pronouns right now?”

“Gender is only a social construct on Earth. There is no such thing on my planet.”

The blue alien throws one hand over his face, “f*ck me! The time I’ve been locked up with you is the worst in my life! Worse than the time when I was on my savage planet! You suck, Earth suck!”

“Don't make it sound like I enjoy spending time with you!”

Lena snaps, “Shut up!” She tosses the stethoscope aside, frustrated at the fact that the lying alien has no vital signs. Since she woke up, she has been plagued by confusion about the presence of these aliens. She can understand that there are quite a few people out there who want her dead, but why brother capturing them? It doesn’t click.

She walks out of the laboratory and goes to the only closed door to try her luck, but just as she predicted, luck isn’t on her side as always. The door doesn’t move an inch no matter how hard she pulls. What adds insult to injury is that the kidnappers are seasoned enough to take her phone and her watch away, so she is utterly left helpless. She thinks sarcastically, They are really conscientious in their job.

The blue alien shouts, “FYI, we’ve tried to open the cage. Physical strength isn’t a way out.”

Agreeing with the aline’s words, Lena reacts quickly by running to the pillar next to the door to check the bomb.

The timer reads 6: 38 now.

Chapter 8: searching part Ⅱ

Chapter Text

Realizing it won't be long before the bombs explode and bury her under reinforced concrete, Lena knows that the slim chance of surviving is to defuse as many bombs as she can. Although the time left is tight, she is not the kind of person who awaits a miracle. She immediately takes action to examine the bomb thoroughly, after which she has a certain degree of confidence that she can stop the countdown, then runs back to the laboratory to search for tools.

The blue alien asks, “Hey, what are you doing?”

“I’m looking for tools to deactivate the bomb,” Lena answers while rummaging through all drawers.

The green alien almost squeezes its head out of a gap between two bars and says in surprise, “You can do that?”

Lena answers calmly, “Maybe, it’s worth a shot, isn’t it?”

The possibility of surviving bucks the green alien up. “I’m rooting for you, spiritually, due to the restriction of my action. Anyway, go get it! Miss—?”

Lena hesitates a moment before answering, “Luthor, Lena Luthor,” looking back at two aliens, “given that we’re inmates now, Lena would be fine.”

The blue alien wides its eyes at the name. “You’re the one who made the device that expelled Daxam army? You’re a godsend!” looking at the green aline, “We might get out of here in one piece, man!”

The green aline says in excitement, “I knew she looks familiar!”

The blue aline says, indifferently, “Afterthought.”

The banter exchanged between the two aliens loosens Lena up a bit, but the contents in the last drawer she pulls open make her frown in confusion again, which is a stash of files with an L-Corp logo printed on the front cover. She snatches the files out and looks through them quickly. After catching some words like alien experiment, elimination, and cooperation with Cadmus, she has an epiphany that what this is about. This is an elaborately planned set-up. Someone wants her death to align with the alien-hating Luthor name and is planning to broadcast it with an arresting explosion.

Simmering with rage, she throws the file to the ground and takes a deep breath to calm herself down. She is determined to find out who is the mastermind behind this, but now, her top priority is to pull through. She picks up a scalpel and a tweezer from the instrument table since she didn’t find anything more suitable, and runs to a pillar close to the cages to defuse her first bomb, maximizing the possibility of two aliens’ surviving the imminent explosion.

The timer reads 4: 48.

After dismantling the bomb’s panel, its inner structure is exposed. She steadies her hands and starts to ravel wires out.

She thinks, Not today. Not after I know that I have a wonderful life ahead of me.

The scene of Lena fiddling with the bomb interests the green alien tremendously, who is a movie fan. It asks out of curiosity, “Is defusing a bomb the same as in a movie? Like the protagonist has to decide to cut off the red wire or the blue wire? Is it a fifty-fifty?”

The blue aline retorts, “Not everything is like a movie. Stop bothering her!”

Lena says without stopping what she is doing, “Movies are fictional and I’m not someone who counts on probability. Not to mention that the probability of our survival is dreadfully lowered by four bombs.”

The green aline mumbles, “Some characters are more realistic than actual people to me.”

Lena hums. “I haven’t caught your name yet. Care to introduce yourself?”

The green aline responds energetically, “My Earth name is Dorky. Nice to meet you, Lena!”

The blue aline says, “I told you, no one would call themself Dorky on Earth,” looking at Lena, “Lena, have you seen what I’m dealing with all the time?”.

Lena says, “I think Dorky is a cute name.”

“Thank you, Lena.” Dorky says, giving the blue aline a defiant look, “Your point?”

The blue aline raises a hand to Dorky. “Talk to my hand, dork,” looking back at Lena’s busy figure, “and my name is Sofosanthropos. My friends call me Sofy.”

Dorky mimics Sofy’s previous tone, “I told you your name is too long and too difficult to pronounce, so I’ll stick to Avatar.”

“One done,” Lena announces in time, preventing another fierce verbal battle. Looking at Dorky and Sofy while running past the cages to the next pillar, she says, “Nice to meet you, too.”

Standing by the second bomb, she sees that the timer reads 2:14. She repeats the previous procedure while calculating that the remaining time might barely be enough to deactivate this bomb since she’s gotten the hang of it already but clearly isn’t sufficient for two more. Having no idea about the impact of the remaining two bombs, she says, “I don’t have enough time to stop all the bombs, so you’d better curl up in the corner now.”

Dorky recoils in horror. “But what about you?”

“I have to deactivate this bomb first, to increase the probability of our survival.” Lena stops to glare at them. “Do what I said.” Her voice is calm and steady, succeeding in hiding a stab of fear that is gnawing at her.

The timer keeps counting down provocatively.

Sofy follows Lena’s instruction and says, “Lena, I can feel you’re much more sacred than you look, and I just wanna say thank you for trying to save us. It’s rare these days that a human being nice to alines.”

Dorky says, “For the first time, I agree with you.”

Lena says, “My best friend is an alien and I love her, but I haven’t told her that so I—” A realization strikes her suddenly, she pauses to look at Sofy, “Wait, you’re a telepathist?”

Sofy answers, “Yes, I thought I made it clear by telling you that I can’t sense any emotion from the dude lying on that table at the beginning.”

Lena asks, hope blinking in her eyes, “Can you use your telepathy to reach out to Supergirl? And tell her that we’re trapped in here?”

Sofy says, hesitantly, “I don’t know. I’ve never sent a message to a specific person before.”

Lena proceeds with her work and says, “Give it a try. It’s now or never.”

“Okay.” Sofy closes its eyes to concentrate.

Dorky gulps nervously, holds up its hands, and crosses two fingers. “Fingers crossed.”

DEO

They haven't got any further about Lena’s location, and everyone is fretted by Kara, who has been repeatedly asking about the progress through the comm. Alex feels the weight on her shoulders heavier, not only because J’onn has gone to Mars and left her being in charge of DEO, but also because Kara’s restrained tone indicates that she is on the verge of lashing out. So, a failed mission and a devastated Kryptonian aren’t the consequences she can take.

Leo and Winn sit side by side, exchanging ideas quietly for they subconsciously fear igniting the tension in the room. After assessing the situation, Agent Vasquez discreetly instructs all agents on the floor not to disturb them. The agents without assignments are walking on eggshells, don’t even dare to be around them.

After seeing SIGNAL TRACING FAILED appear obstinately on her tablet screen for the fourth time, Lori tosses it onto the console table, going paralyzed. Her composure has been slowly eroded away by repeating failures. Supporting herself with her hands on the console table, she thinks over the time travel, which has already exceeded her expectation. She can’t help but suspect that her advent has changed the original timeline and led them to the current situation, so she is in deep self-accusation that Lena might get hurt, or the worst, be dead, because of her, and she definitely doesn’t want to test out the grandfather paradox. The urge to do something, anything, is roaring in her head and occupies all her attention, muting everything around her, until Alex grabs her wrist.

“Easy. You’re bending the table,” says Alex.

Lori withdraws her hands and takes a step back. After seeing two conspicuous pits at the edge of the table, she says embarrassedly, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to.”

“Don’t worry about it. What's in your head, though? You look quite intense.”

Lori looks down at her feet, being hesitant to vocalize her worry because she fears it might come true.

“It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it, but I need you to focus. You’re literally the smartest person in the room.” Putting a hand on Lori’s shoulder, Alex continues, “I’m counting on you. Kara is counting on you.”

Alex’s words actually make Lori feel more guilty. Jerking her head up and shaking Alex’s hand off, Lori says, agitatedly, “What if me being here changed the timeline? What if mom is kidnapped because of me? What if we can’t find her in time? What if—”

Alex interrupts in a firm tone, “Lori, I don’t why this is happening, but I do know that we can’t trap ourselves in what ifs. And I really, really need you to get it together and keep trying. Do it for Lena.”

Although unduly perturbed, Lori makes an effort to compose herself, “Yeah, sure.” Then, she retrieves the tablet and makes another attempt to track Lena, intentionally ignoring the pits she created.

Looking at the muscles in Lori’s neck bulging out of tension, Alex frowns. In her eyes, Lori is as impatient as Kara, even more reckless to a certain degree. Frankly, the fact that Lori is still here and hasn’t flown out of DEO yet rocks her slightly. Content with seemingly having talked some sense into Lori, she goes to check Winn and Leo’s progress.

“Lena should’ve been a consultant in cybersecurity at DEO. She’s really good,” says Winn.

Typing codes at a high rate of speed without glancing at the keyboard, Leo says, “Uh-huh, she will be.” Can’t hold back his tongue anymore, he says, “Your firewall is too outdated. Frankly speaking, I can hack DEO with my watch.”

Winn chocks his riposte down for knowing that what Leo said is likely true. He thinks bitterly that Lori and Leo just have the advantage of time, then feels a cold wind blowing behind his back. Intuitively, he knows that Alex is behind him, so he refocuses on work and tries out another approach. Soon, his computer sounds out an alarm. “Guys! I’ve got something!”

“What is it?” Lori hurries over.

“I accessed GCPD’s database and identified the woman who kidnapped Lena.” Winn presents a personal profile on the screen. “Her name is Elaine Marsh-Morton, aka Lady Vic, a mercenary.”

Alex comments, “Took you long enough.”

Winn grumbles, “It just occurred to me,” sliding aside on his chair to give everyone a better view, “and I’ve found a surveillance footage of her coming out a building three days ago.”

Catching a peculiar logo on the building, Alex squints her eyes mutters, “Morgan Edge.”

Recognizing the name, Leo turns to Lori. “The man we met yesterday!”

Assimilating the new information, Alex says, “You encountered Morgan Edge yeste—” Her sentence is cut short by a roar from Lori, then a familiar whoosh that flutters her red hair—Lori has Super Speeded out.

Leo stands up, looking at Alex anxiously, “Aunt Alex, we need to follow Lori and stop her before she does anything irretrievable.”

Alex reacts quickly. “Winn, keep tracking Lena and keep me posted. Agent Vasquez, assemble a team and follow me to Morgan Edge’s office.”

Hovering above National City, Kara has been searching the entire city with her X-ray version. She’s even searched the sea vaguely, but still no trace of Lena. She is getting more and more disturbed as time goes by. Deep down, she knows that no matter how fast she can round the city, her search would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack without a specific coordinate provided by her team.

After having ascended high enough to get close to the Sun, she closes her eyes and absorbs in the the sun, gaining the strength she needs to go through this darkness, both physically and mentally.

Suddenly, a strange voice that is calling Supergirl repeatedly comes to her mind. It is lowish at first like a distant whisper, which she considers as a hallucination, then gets more and more distinct. When she perceives a note of urgency in it, she knows right away that someone is trying to communicate with her by telepathy.

She responds immediately, It’s Supergirl here.

I did it! Kara hears the voice again, coming along with a burst of ecstasy. We’re locked up here, and the bombs are about to explode. Come to save us!

Kara freezes. Where?

I’ll show you!

An image of a dim room emerges in her mind, which is from a perspective inside a cage, presenting Lena fiddling with something on a pillar with her jaw clenched. Then, the image fades into fuzziness from the periphery and concentrates on a humanoid silhouette that is shimmering blue light. The silhouette keeps growing concrete until blazes, lighting up the way like a lighthouse.

Kara flies towards the glistening silhouette promptly and follows its guide. When the silhouette becomes a clear image of a blue alien, she is just above a one-story warehouse located on the outskirt. After knowing that she is at the right place, she uses her X-ray vision to scan the warehouse before dashing down and breaking in from the roof.

Lena has scarcely deactivated the second bomb and stopped the timer at 00: 18 when she hears a loud crack of stones breaking, followed by a familiar thump that announces Supergirl’s arrival.

Dorky cries out, “Supergirl!”

Before letting relief reside in her, Lena points in the direction of the other two bombs and says, “Supergirl, take those two bombs out, now!”

Kara Super Speeds to the bombs and takes them out through the hole on the roof she created after collecting them. The bombs explode right after she hurls them up to the sky, the sound of which has her flinch instinctively.

Seeing Supergirl return, Dorky says to Sofy, avidly, “Supergirl saved us! Can you sense how happy I am? I can give you a kiss right now!”

Sofy says, “Don’t you dare lay a finger on me. Besides, your brain is blanker than a piece of paper. I can’t sense anything from you at all.”

“Oh.” Dorky shudders, failing to realize that Sofy is just teasing.

Kara doesn’t stop to greet Dorky and Sofy but runs directly to Lena and wraps her into a tight hug. “Thank Rao, you’re okay. I think I finally understand the phrase that you give me a heart attack. It’s awful.” She tightens her arms as if worrying that Lena would disappear somehow. “That was a close call.”

Kara smells smoky, which is the result of the explosion, but Lena doesn’t mind at all. She clenches onto the superhero’s cape, indulging in the comfort that the superhero brings. With her heartbeat stabilizing, she mellows out. “You saved me, again.”

Kara jokes, “Well, lucky for you, I don’t charge.”

Lena lets out a peal of muffled laughter because she has buried her head into the crook of the superhero’s neck with her lips touching her warm skin ghostly.

Kara finds Lena’s breath itchy, but she doesn’t move.

Looking at the two with its eyes widening almost as big as its ears, Dorky says, “Are they a thing?”

Sofy confirms, “They’re definitely f*cking.”

Remembering that they are not alone, Kara runs her hands along Lena’s back to her shoulders and pushes the brunette apart gently. Tilting her head at the two still locked-up aliens, she says, “I need to get them out first. You know, duty calls. Maybe resume the hug later, like in private?”

Dorky’s big ears apparently give it a sharp auditory sense. It exclaims, “I’m good here! I don't have an errand to run so I don't mind staying here a little longer. Take your time with Lena.”

Lena chuckles, being perfectly aware that she and Kara have been way too absorbed in themselves. “Okay, later.”

Kara puts on an unstrained smile. “Okay, later.” Then, she walks to the cages and plucks the doors open. Stepping back, she says to her fellow alines, “I see you’re on a first-name basis now.”

Sofy steps out of the cage and says, “Given that she saved us heedless of her own safety, we’re friends now, so don’t forget to invite me to your wedding, and please stop thinking about how good Lena smells and how soft she feels. Your mind is too loud to ignore.”

Dorky chimes in, eagerly, “Don't forget me!”

Having no intention to deny the fact that she and Lena indeed will get married but being shy of her non-platonic thoughts being exposed, Kara stutters, “I—emm, I—I don’t know when will—”

Lena comes to the superhero’s rescue. “Sofy, you’re making Supergirl crash from system overload,” concern condensing in her eyes, “can you—”

Sensing Lena’s hesitation, Sofy promises, “You have nothing to worry about. We’ll keep our mouths shut about you and Supergirl,” jabbing Dorky with its elbow, “right, dork?”

Dorky assures Lena, “Of course,” elbowing back at Sofy, “Avatar.”

Kara reactivates her Supergirl mode and says, “Is it okay for you to make a detailed account of how you were brought here in a government facility? It might help us find the one behind this.”

Dorky takes helping Supergirl as an obligation. “Yeah! Let’s find the bastard who did this to us. I want him, her, or them to have a taste of being locked in a cage!”

Sofy resists the urge to roll its eyes at Dorky’s persistence of pronouns.

Kara nods and checks in through her comm, “Alex, I found Lena and she’s safe now. I need you to send a team to my current location. There are also two kidnapped aliens. You might need some statements from them.”

“Good, I’ll have Winn make an arrangement for it.” Alex’s strained voice comes from the other end, which makes Kara know something is off instantly.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s Lori. I’m on my way up to Morgan Edge’s office. I’ll explain everything, later.” Then, Alex cuts off the comm.

MORGAN EDGE’S OFFICE

Looking at his watch, Edge glories in his upcoming success in taking down another rival. He gloats over Lena’s death, I’ll give that Luthor bitch a dramatic ending that is in accord with her family style.

Suddenly, the sound of glass smashing resonates behind him. Before he turns his head, he is hauled up by the collar and smashed onto a wall violently, and the impact makes his head dizzy and his eyes blurry.

“Where did you take Lena Luthor!” He hears a furious voice.

After the dizziness wears off, he recognizes the person who is pressing him against the wall. “Hey, aren’t you Lena’s bodyguard? Looks like you did a terrible job at protecting her.”

Lori shouts, “Cut the crap! Where is she!”

Edge says, “Lena is missing? I have nothing to do with it,” feigning indignation, “you’re insane, you know that?”

“Nice try.” Lori slams the man onto the wall in anger. Grinding her teeth, she says, “Last chance, where is Lena Luthor?”

Edge takes Lori’s wrists, struggling to loosen her grip, but Lori is totally unaffected. “How come you’re so strong?” Then, a realization strikes him. Widening his eyes in horror, he says, “You’re an alien!”

“Not too late for you to realize it.” Lifting Edge along the wall, Lori demands, contemptuously, “Answer my question!”

Edge panics. “Put me down and I’ll tell you.”

Lori throws him to the ground, reluctantly. “Spit it out!”

Edge says in stress, “Even if I told you, it would be too late.”

“What do you mean?”

Edge gulps, nervously. “Bombs. The bombs I put in the warehouse are gonna go off at any moment. It’s too late.”

Lori completely loses control after hearing Edge’s words. She rushes to him and pins him down to the ground by grabbing his neck. She doesn’t know what she is doing or what she is planning to do; she is just reacting.

Edge’s face turns red from the lack of oxygen. Patting Lori’s arm repeatedly, he pleads, “Let me go! I can’t breathe!”

All Lori can think about right now is Lena. Some clips about her and Lena flash across her mind. She thinks of the time that Lena showed up at her dormitory in MIT at 8:30 in the morning with coffee and pastry to check up on her because she was exhausted from a project that she had been working on for two days endlessly and Lena clearly saw it through the video call the night before. Lena insisted on skipping classes to have a mother-daughter day, who said, “C’mon, I haven’t been here for ages. Can you show me around? Besides, you’re already at the top of your class. Missing some classes won’t hurt.” So, she succumbed. Their tour ended up with Lena being the guide. Lena took her to her own favorite places: the coffee shop where she spent most afternoons reading books at, the restaurant that served the best smoothie in town (according to Lena), and the pub that she occasionally visited (which Lori was suspected about in the term of occasionally). Unsurprisingly, Lena got drunk at the end of the day, so she had to call Kara. Lena shouted at the sight of Kara, “Hey! That’s my wife!” Watching Kara holding Lena in her arms with an indulgent smile, Lori quirked up the corners of her mouth spontaneously. She knew that her mom canceled a busy schedule and came to her, just to make sure that she took some rest.

There is one time that when she was about 10 years old, Lena saw her stare intently at a documentary about penguins on TV one night. The next day, Lena took her and Leo on a private jet to see penguins in Antarctica. Lena’s nose was red from the cold but still watched her chasing penguins and Leo being chased by penguins in amusem*nt.

Another one is that whenever she woke up in the middle of the night and climbed into her moms' bed when she was little, Lena would always welcome her with a warm hug and a kiss on her head.

For her, no matter a trivial gesture or a grand gesture from Lena, there isn’t a single day that she doesn’t feel blessed. Thinking of this, a flicker of red and blue flashes in her eyes. She doesn’t care about the consequence; she just wants this man to pay for what he took from her.

The sound of the door being bursting open and a series of hasty footsteps come to her ears, then she feels that someone is dragging from behind and Alex’s voice sounds, “Lori! Let him go! Supergirl has found Lena. She’s safe now.”

Distracted by Alex’s words, she withdraws her hands and asks blankly, “Really?”

Alex pulls Lori from the ground. “Yes, I promise.”

Lori sighs in relief, starting to even out her breath.

Alex darts a fortunately-we-arrived-in-time look at Leo, but he keeps a straight face and fixes his eyes on Lori disapprovingly. Her heart sinks, silence is bad. In order to give the siblings some space, she instructs Agent Vasquez to clear up the mess.

Agent Vasquez cuffs Edge and escorts him out of the office while reciting Miranda warning, “You’re under arrest for abetting a felon and attempted homicide. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can be used against you in court. You have the right to…”

As Agent Vasquez’s voice fades away, Alex signals all agents to leave and wait in the cars downstairs.

After everyone except Alex has left the office, Leo walks to Lori and starts in an accusatory tone, “You almost killed that man! What were you thinking? Jeju specifically told you not to fly around.”

Lori knows that she almost made a horrible mistake, but the surge of adrenaline is still running wildly in her vein. Additionally, Leo’s tone feels like a slap on her face, so she gives his chest a shovel and says, “Don’t you tell me what to do or not.”

However, Leo falls to the ground as the result of Lori failing in controlling her strength.

Alex gasps, but still not sure about whether she should step into the quarrel between the siblings.

Lori feels terrible for her behavior but also is obstinate at the moment. She crosses her arms and turns her head to the side, avoiding eye contact with Leo.

Enduring the pain spreading from his waist, Leo props himself up, “You’re always like this! You always use your powers whenever you feel like it. Can’t you just think before acting for once! What do you want me to tell Mom and Jeju if anything happens to you!”

The feeling of being misunderstood gets the better of Lori, filling her with ungovernable rage. She snaps, “What do you know about my powers and my feelings? You’re not even a real Luthor-Danvers!”

The room falls quiet.

Chapter 9: a heart of the House of El

Chapter Text

Silence reigns.

Leo freezes on the spot like someone has cast a spell that can stop the world from revolving, gaping at Lori in disbelief. He thinks he heard Lori wrong for a moment for a moment, but he heard her, loud and clear. Astonishment clutches his heart tightly. He opens his mouth, trying to let out a syllable but fails. In fact, this isn’t the first time other people mock him that he is not a real Luthor-Danvers because he is not good enough, but he has never expected to hear it from his family, especially not from Lori who he grew up with and shared everything first with.

Words bite.

He looks away and fixes his eyes at the mess on the carpet caused by Lori’s previous recklessness, with his expression morphing into sadness.

Lori feels a sudden surge of regret as soon as she finishes her sentence. Knowing that what she said is a fatal blow to her brother, she wants to take it back literally this time. Filling with remorse, she hurries to Leo and reaches out tentatively to hold his hand. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it that way. I—”

Leo flinches away. Still refusing to look at Lori, he whispers, “I…I need some air.” Then, he leaves the room.

“Leo!” Lori follows her brother but is stopped by Alex at the door.

Alex says in a gentle tone, “Give him some space.”

“But I—”

“No buts,” Alex interrupts firmly, “I’ll ask Kara to find him. Let’s go back to DEO. And you might also need some time to reflect on this.”

Lori balks at the idea of telling Lena and Kara about this. It is disappointment on their faces that she dreads to see instead of any reprimand she might receive, but she isn’t the one who hides away from admitting her mistakes. “Okay,” she says, finally relenting, “Hope my moms will go easy on me since technically, they aren’t my moms yet.”

Alex narrows her eyes. “I’ll make sure they won’t.”

Lori groans in pain.

“You deserve it.” Alex shrugs and leads the way.

MEDICAL BAY, DEO

Sitting on the small bed and waiting for her brain scan result in the room with Kara alone, Lena notices that the superhero has been keeping looking towards the door restlessly. She starts, “Supergirl, I’m fine. I’m just feeling a little dizzy. I think it’s just a mild concussion, tops.”

“Just?” Kara’s eyes go wild. “Lena, concussion is serious. How come you’re so cool with it?”

Tilting her head, Lena wrinkles up her nose. “I’m a Luthor.”

Kara frowns, disapprovingly. “Lena.”

Lena gets up from the bed and walks up to Kara. Holding the superhero’s hand, she says, “I’m strong and smart. I can handle bombs without proper tools, so I definitely can handle myself and a concussion.”

“You’re one of the strongest and smartest women I know,” says Kara, genuinely.

Lena smiles, fondly. “And you are the most caring, protective, and kind person I know. And that’s one of the things that I love about you.” Stroking the back of Kara’s hand affectionately, she adds, “I’m very grateful to have you as my best friend in my life.” And as my partner in the future, is what she leaves out intentionally.

Kara whispers, “I’m grateful to have you, too.”

Looking at Kara’s eyes, Lena is lost in the moment. She is a scientist who believes in data and facts, not in magic, but being around Kara does blow her scientific mind every day. It seems that there is a higher power that draws her to the blonde, which is irresistible and magical.

They stay unmoved, being content with the way they are until a doctor comes with the result and knocks on the door.

Watching the two separate hastily, the doctor thinks to herself, I’m working for a clandestine organization that monitors aliens. I’ve seen lots of spectacles, so a Super and a Luthor aren’t something out of the ordinary at all. She maintains her professionalism and enters the room. “Miss Luthor, the result of your CT scan has come out. It shows that there is no injury in your brain. I think you’re good to go.” Seeing Supergirl heave a sigh of relief instead of Lena Luthor herself, her lips curl up in amusem*nt.

After hearing the doctor's diagnosis, Lena shoots Kara a look of I told you so.

Having captured the silent interaction between the two, the doctor adds, “But with the symptoms you described, it’s highly recommended that you should get plenty of rest and have someone to stay with you for forty-eight hours in case you have other complications,” looking at Supergirl playfully, “which I assume that you would take as a bounden duty to look after a fellow citizen, right? Supergirl?”

“Of course,” says Kara, solemnly.

“Good.” The doctor nods to the two before retreating. It’s clear that, wittingly or unwittingly, she has taken the role of a wingwoman.

Lena says, half-heartedly, “Supergirl, you don’t have to babysit me when you have more important things to do. Besides, I have two competent—”

“Oh, one more medical advice,” the doctor stops at the door and says, “please avoid any vigorous exercise.” Then, she slopes off for good.

Lena chuckles at catching the sexual innuendo in the doctor’s words, to which Kara is oblivious as always.

Kara asks with her brows knitted together, “Mmmm, what’s so funny?”

Lena says, trying her best to restrain her laughter, “Just something silly. Anyway, back to what I was saying, I have Leo and Lori staying with me. They can keep an eye on me, so there is no need in… Speaking of which, have you heard from Alex yet?”

“No, I haven’t. I have no idea what’s going on with them.”

“Aunt Alex, can you let me do the talk?”

“Sure.”

After Super Hearing Lori and Alex’s voice, Kara says, “Here they are.”

Lena nods and turns to the door, waiting.

Kara does the same, automatically.

Lori cracks up under the two questioning gazes that pierce through the glass wall and land on her. After entering the room, she shudders, and the faculty of speaking eludes her.

Alex stands beside Lori and stays silent, offering her a chance to take the initiative in starting the conversation, just like she promised.

Kara doesn’t like the tension creeping in the room, so she starts, “What happened?”

Lori answers in a low voice, “I did something terrible.”

Lena quirks up an eyebrow. “Which is?”

“I flew to Morgan Edge’s office and almost killed him, and the reason why he is still alive is that Aunt Alex stopped me in time.”

Kara is astounded, processing the information assiduously.

Lena connects all the dots when she hears the name. She sneers, “Of course, it was him,” looking at Lori in all earnestness, “trust me, you’re not alone on this. I feel like killing him right now.”

Lori lets out a shriek of awkward laughter because she knows that Lena’s words aren’t just figurative speaking.

“And?” says Alex.

Lori gulps, nervously. “And I upset Leo by shouting at him that he wasn’t a real Luthor-Danvers. I swear I didn’t mean it. It totally came out of nowhere. I’m sorry…”

Alex comments, “Upset is an understatement.”

Lena crosses her arms, looking at Lori impassively.

“Oh…” Kara recalls that she said something similar to Alex when she was under the effect of Red Kryptonite. Although she didn’t mean it, the hurt in Alex’s eyes still haunted her for a while. She sighs. “Where is he now?”

Lori shakes her head, fighting back the urge to cry.

Sensing that she might have muddled the situation, Alex intervenes, “I figured that he might need some space, so I let him go. But I had an agent follow him. He’s in the National City Central Park. You’d better go check on him.”

Kara says to Lena, “I’ll take him back to your penthouse. See you then?”

“Okay.” Lena nods with a weak smile.

Kara shoots Lori a meaningful look before striding away. Her departure brings another layer of tension into the room.

Alex jokes, “Phew, parenting is hard, huh?” Her joke fails to encourage a response from the other two, so she immediately realizes that it’s her cue to leave them to talk alone. “I’m gonna go follow up Morgan Edge’s interrogation, and I’ll have someone to drive you home when you’re ready.”

“Thank you,” says Lena.

Alex pats Lori’s shoulder before leaving.

Lori’s eyes follow Alex until Alex suddenly turns around in the corridor and mouths a “Say something” to her. She plucks up her courage and says, “Mom, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t.” Lena holds up a hand. “Don’t apologize to me. I’m not the one who you should apologize to. Actually, I’m not even sure whether I’m entitled to be angry with you.”

“Of course, you can be angry with me. I totally deserve it.”

Lena jeers, “Frankly, I fully understand why you said it. You said it because deep down you know it would hurt Leo the most, am I right?” putting on a sarcastic smile, “hurting people with harsh words is something a Luthor would do. I give you credit for being a real Luthor, which unsurprisingly you also got from me.”

“Mom…” The self-loathing way of Lena saying the Luthor name stings Lori, making her eyes brim with tears.

Being caught up in the moment, Lena makes a lousy choice of words, “You know, Lillian made me feel like an outsider throughout my childhood, then she told me that I was a true Luthor by blood. And you basically did the same to Leo in a reverse. So, if Lillian was able to fool me with her bullsh*t that she loved me and wanted a second chance with me, I believe that you can also use the same bullsh*t to make Leo forgive you.”

Tears stream down Lori’s cheeks, blurring her eyes. Her mom has never talked to her in this satiric and cold way. Feeling deeply wronged and unwanted, she starts to sob and then cries out.

Watching Lori weep sadly like a child, Lena realizes that she has gone a little too far and has done exactly what she accused Lori of doing—hurting people with words, at which she apparently excels. With her sense coming back, she walks gingerly to Lori who is wiping her tears with her sleeve, and says, “Lori, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. It’s too mean and too insensitive. God, I’m horrible. I—”

Lori says with intermittent sobs, “Mom, it’s okay. I think I understand what I did to Leo. And,” giving out an uncoordinated smile, “I love you too much to be mad at you. I wish Leo would feel the same about me.”

Lena smiles. “Although I’ve known you for three days, I know for sure that Leo loves you. And according to my observation, he’s much more considerate and sweet than you, so I think you stand a great chance that he would forgive you.”

“Mom!” Lori exclaims, “you’re showing partiality. It’s bad parenting.”

Lena shrugs. “I’m still getting the hang of it.”

Lori finally cracks a smile.

Lena says after Lori composes herself, “I think both of us should work on improving our wording when we get angry.”

“Yeah.” Lori lifts her chin. “But mostly you. You know the adage, children are what the mothers are.”

“How aggressive.”

“Like mother, like daughter.”

“Stop it. You’re being annoying.”

Lori snorts with laughter. “Shall we go home now?”

“Yes, we shall.”

NATIONAL CITY CENTRAL PARK

Kara watches Leo from behind, who is sitting on a bench and deep in meditation, not sure whether now is a good time to disturb him.

Leo turns around and asks amusingly, “Jeju, how long do you plan to stand there?”

“How do you—”

Leo jerks a thumb at the nearby bush. “I heard you land in the bush. You’re not as discreet as you think. Also, changing clothes in a bush is so lame.”

Kara fidgets her glasses, embarrassedly.

“Care to join me?” Leo moves aside to leave some space for Kara.

“Yeah.” Kara walks over and sits down.

Both of them look ahead, watching people with dogs and joggers pass by.

Leo starts after a while, “This was my favorite place when I was a kid. You used to bring me and Lori a lot.”

Kara stays quiet, waiting for Leo to continue.

“Felix.” Leo turns to look at Kara. “Felix was my late parents’ last name. Actually, there was a funny story about it. You and Mom had a fight about changing my last name to Luthor-Danvers. You insisted that I should keep my original last name for you wanted me to remember where I came from, to hold my legacy, but Mom wanted to include me in the family in every way possible.” He chuckles. “I guess you know how the fight ended. Mom won, as usual.”

Kara grins because that does sound like something she would do. Wanting to know more about Leo, she asks tentatively, “Lori told us that your parents died from a fire. Can you tell me more about them?”

Leo looks away, uncomfortably.

“Oh—I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry. I just—”

“Jeju, relax. It's not like that. It’s just…I don’t remember them very well. I can hardly remember their faces.” Sorrow spreads over Leo’s face. “Am I a terrible son?”

“No, no, Leo, you aren’t. You were just a kid.” After sinking in Leo’s words, Kara asks, “So, you don’t have anything about them left?” At least she has a holography in her mother’s image at DEO that she can talk to.

“No, the fire destroyed everything. But I do remember that the fire in the building was scorching hot and everyone was screaming. And when you came to our apartment, my mother handed me to you and begged you to take me out first, then she ran back to help my father who was trapped in the bedroom, but it was too late. The fire swallowed them before you came back for them.”

“I’m sorry.”

“But the fire brought you to me. You told me that I wouldn’t let you go when you tried to hand me to the medical staff, and that I held your neck so tightly that you almost thought I had Super Strength or something. You couldn’t stop thinking about me after you went home. So the next thing you knew, you and Mom had adopted me officially.” Leo’s eyes gleam up. “As you said, Rao binds us to those we love.”

Kara is surprised at Leo saying Rao’s prayer. “You’ve mentioned legacy, I don’t think legacy is a fortune or a bloodline, but the faith and spirit that we pass on. Although I don’t know you and Lori, like really know you, I think it's safe to say that Lori might have my power and Lena’s intelligence, but you have a heart of the House of El.” She takes Leo’s hand in her palm. “You hold the true legacy of our family, and that’s what really matters. I’m so proud of you for this.”

Smiling at Kara, Leo whispers, “El Mayarah.”

“El Mayarah.”

The evening wind breezes through them, bringing along the warmth of the Sun that hasn’t dissipated yet.

“Okay.” Leo stands up. “Let’s go. I have an apology to accept.”

Kara follows him and teases, “How come you’re so sure that Lori would apologize to you? You seem to have great faith in her.”

“C’mon, I know she didn’t mean what she said. She just never thinks before she speaks when she gets carried away. So, me coming here is just to give her some space to calm herself down.”

“You mean, calm yourself down?”

Leo waves one hand. “Meh, tomayto-tomahto. Furthermore, I think that Mom must’ve done me justice by biting her head off since you’re the one who came to me. So, I have nothing to complain about.”

Kara laughs. “Lena could be intimidating when she wants to be, I’ll give you that.”

Leo says before running away, “Ha! I’m gonna report you to Mom that you talked about her behind her back!”

Astonished, Kara runs after him (at a normal human speed). “Stop! Where is your stronger together spirit?”

Leo shouts back, “Sorry not sorry, I prefer to stan Mom!”

LENA LUTHOR’S PENTHOUSE

Standing at Lori’s side in the kitchen, Lena says, “You use chopped dark chocolate for hot chocolate? Normally, I only use chocolate mix powder and hot milk.”

“Well, this isn’t a normal hot chocolate,” Lori says while measuring sugar, “it’s an Italian style hot chocolate,” making the famous Italian gesture, “it’s an art, and Leo’s favorite.”

“Decent gesture of apology.” Watching Lori put ingredients into a small saucepan in a flowing movement, Lena adds, “Wait, do you often piss Leo off?”

Lori halts her stirring hand and looks at Lena with an offended expression. “Of course not! It’s also my favorite, and Jeju’s.” Then, she resumes the delicate process. “You don’t really like it, though. You think it’s too thick.”

“Hmm, sounds like a presupposition to me.” Lena tilts her head. “I can’t make a conclusion without concrete practice. So, can you make me one, too?”

Lori lets out a hearty burst of laughter. “Sure.” After adding the rest milk into the saucepan, she leans towards Lena and says in a conspiratorial tone, “But like later, this one is for Leo. I want to make him feel special.”

“What’s low.”

“Yes, but it would work brilliantly.” Lori makes a grimace, shamelessly.

Lena rolls her eyes.

Lori pours the brown thick liquid into a mug and piles up five marshmallows, then starts to grind a bar of chocolate onto the top.

The doorbell rings at this time.

Lori inhales nervously. “Right on time.”

Lena says, “I’ll go get the door. You keep wrapping up your art.”

After opening the door, she says to Leo, “Lori’s waiting for you in the kitchen.”

“I see.” Leo grins. “I forgive her for making me hot chocolate .”

Surprised by the accurate assumption, Lena asks, “How did you know?”

“Well, let’s say she has a tendency to make an apology with food, which occasionally I would take advantage of just to earn myself a treat. Don’t tell her that, though.”

Lena comments, “You’re not that sweet and vanilla after all.”

“I learned this move from Jeju.”

Kara says, “Keep me out of it,” holding up a finger, “but I don’t oppose the idea of treating yourself with food.”

Leo says, “Jeju, you basically don’t oppose any idea related to food.”

Lena hums in agreement and invites them in.

When they reach the kitchen, Lena sees that Lori is holding the mug in her hands, so she says, “I guess you two have something to say to each other.” looking at Kara, “So, Kara and I will go to my bedroom and leave you to it?”

Kara agrees, “Sure,” glaring at the siblings, “Don’t come to us before you sort it out.” Then, she follows Lena away without sparing them a glance.

After leading the blonde to her bedroom, Lena says, “How is Leo taking this?”

Kara answers, “Pretty good. He’s really something How about Lori?”

“Not gracefully, I would say. I made her cry.”

“Lena—”

“Don’t look at me like that.” Lena quotes Alex, “Parenting is hard, harder than creating tachyons.”

Kara snorts with laughter.

Lena continues, “To tell the truth, I’m kinda jealous of what they have.”

“You have me.”

Lena can’t tell Kara’s words are a promise or a statement of fact, so she wants to test it out, to hold onto it.

“Do you wanna stay the night?”

“Do you want me to stay?”

They ask at the same time.

“Yes.”

“Yes.”

Then, they respond at the same time.

Kara says hastily, “Only to keep an eye on you, doctor’s order.” Thinking of the doctor’s order, she adds, “The doctor said you should have more rest, so you’d better take at least two days off, and I can stay here with you if you want.”

Being in a familiar and private setting, Lena finds every fiber in her being is screaming YES, so she says, “Well, luckily, I’m well acquainted with your boss, so I guess I can pull some strings to have you take some paid leave.”

“Mom, that’s nepotism,” Leo’s voice sounds at the bedroom door.

Appearing at Leo’s side, Lori says, “As far as I know, the sequelae of a concussion can be anywhere from minor to significant. So Jeju, you’d better keep a very close eye on Mom.”

Leo looks at Lori and asks, “Like share-one-bed close?”

“Of course.” Lori rounds her arm around Leo’s torso. “Hugging-close is better.”

Leo hugs his sister back. “The best.”

Watching the siblings sing the duet, Kara is bewildered, How long have they been eavesdropping on our conversation?

Lena reacts quickly, “Why can’t either of you be share-one-bed close with me?”

Leo says, “Mom, I love you, but it’s a little inappropriate for me to share a bed with you. And Lori? She snores, so Jeju is your best choice.”

Detaching herself from Leo, Lori protests, “Hey! I don’t sno-” Her sentence is intercepted by a jab from Leo, which knocks a sense into her. “Yep, I do snore, like a lot.”

Leo hums contently. “How about we stop disturbing them and leave them to rest?”

Lori agrees, “That's exactly what I’m thinking.” Then, she drops a “Good night” before pulling Leo away.

Lena thinks, The accommodation has been settled without consulting me? “We really should think about having kids more seriously,” she says to Kara, knowing that Lori would hear her clearly.

“Do you know what’s even better than hugging-close?” Lori’s voice sounds, again.

Leo asks, loudly, “What?”

“Kissing-close!”

Lena murmurs with a smile, “Assholes.” Looking at Kara, whose face is tinted with pink, she gestures to the attached bathroom and says, “How about you go get ready for bed first, and I’ll go grab some clothes for you.”

“Oh-Okay,” Kara stutters, looking forward to the night inwardly.

Chapter 10: the night

Chapter Text

Lying on her king-size bed with Kara by her side, Lena stares at the ceiling absentmindedly for her mind is still whirling from what happened in the kitchen earlier. Both of them stay in awkward silence.

Lena doesn’t see Kara in the bedroom as she expected after coming out of her shower, so she walks out of the bedroom to check out what Kara is doing (to retrieve Kara actually). Unsurprisingly, she finds that the volunteer guardian is in the kitchen with Lori and almost sticks her nose into a mug that is held in her hands.

She stops at the kitchen island and says, “Kara, slow down before you choke yourself.”

“Mom!” Lori beams and hands Lena a mug. “Here’s the hot chocolate you ordered earlier.” Lowing her voice, she adds furtively, “Jeju almost cried when I told her there weren’t enough ingredients to make her one because Leo asked me to make him another one before he went to bed, so I had to spare her a small portion from your cup.”

Kara defends herself at once, “Hey! I didn’t cry!”

Lori says, “That’s why I said almost.”

Kara pouts while putting her mug on the countertop, not merely because she can’t find a potent retort, but also because her mug is empty now due to her frantic inhalation (in her defense, Lori only poured her a sip of hot chocolate by her standard).

“Thank you.” Lena laughs heartily and takes the mug. “If I do recall correctly, there are more than enough ingredients in the fridge.”

Kara inhales dramatically. “I can’t believe you lied to me. You’re such a meanie.”

Lori snorts with laughter. Looking at Lena, she says, “I wouldn’t miss poking fun at the young Jeju for the world, plus,” gesturing at the mug in Lena’s hand, “that will end up in Jeju’s stomach eventually. I’m just looking out for Jeju in case she gets a sugar rush.” Clearly, her true intention is to trick them into sharing the same mug.

Holding up a finger, Kara says smugly, “FYI, I’ll never get a sugar rush.” Apparently, she has ignored the bread crumbs Lori dropped.

Lori rolls her eyes. Of course, she knows that the Kryptonian won’t get a sugar rush on Earth thanks to their super metabolism. She has just miscalculated how oblivious and insensitive Kara could be when it comes to a romantic relationship. In order to promote the development of the plot as she planned, she rests her last hope on Lena. “Anyways, Mom, go ahead and test out my hot chocolate.”

Lena takes a sip. Wrinkling her nose, she says, “Okay, your theory is confirmed. The texture is too thick for me.”

Looking at Lena like she just said something blasphemous, Kara makes air quotes with her fingers and says, “That thick hot chocolate was the best drink I’ve ever had. I respect Lori for it alone.”

Lena hands Kara the mug and says, “Why don’t you show Lori your respect by finishing this cup for me, then?”

Kara smiles and takes the mug. “With pleasure.”

Lena smiles back at Kara softly.

Watching the scene, Lori immediately realizes that it’s her cue to evacuate. So, she clears her throat and says, “It’s quite late now. I’d better go to bed now, so I guess… good night?”

“Good night,” Lena says without her eyes leaving Kara.

Kara’s response is worse—she only lets out a hum for her mouth is occupied with the content that deserves respect.

Luckily, Lori is accustomed to this, so she walks away with her feelings intact.

Amused by the exaggerated sound of admiration Kara lets out continually, Lena’s smile widens spontaneously. She finds the scene so cute that she almost wants to snap a photo of it. With her eyes tracing Kara’s face, she notices that Kara’s eyes seem more limpid somehow. It takes her a while to realize that this is the first time she sees Kara without glasses, without disguise, this is the first time Kara shows herself unreservedly in front of her.

Kara pauses and asks sheepishly, “Sorry, am I being too loud?” She is totally unaware of the chocolate smudge painted on the tip of her nose.

Lena shakes her head. “No, you’re just being adorable.”

Kara grins. “Alex used to hate me for making noise while eating, so I had to threaten her that I would burn out her eyebrows with my heat vision if she continued to complain. I guess you saved me the trouble of threatening you.”

Lena crosses her arms. “Don’t push your luck. Just for you know, Lex left some Kryptonite in a lab of L-Corp. Maybe now is a good time to bring them into the light?”

Kara pouts. “But you wouldn’t hurt me, right?”

“Try me.”

Kara puts down the mug and raises her both hands in surrender. “Okay, threat taken.”

“Good to know.”

Kara bursts into laughter.

Lena laughs along. After having revealed the last secret she kept from the Super, Lena feels like the burden on her shoulders is lifted away. But still, she wants to set the record straight about Kryptonite, so she says seriously, “Kara, I really mean it when I said Lex left some Kryptonite in the lab, and he also left an uncompleted formula for making Kryptonite in one of his journals. I can turn over all of them to DEO if you want. I just want you to know that I will never hurt you.”

Kara steps closer and says genuinely, “I know that, Lena. I trust you, with all my heart.”

Lena melts. It feels good to be completely honest with Kara, but Kara’s reaction to knowing that she possesses the only substance that can kill Kryptonian makes her feel better.

She steps closer, intending to wipe the smudge off Kara’s nose. Her robe touches the front of Kara’s hoodie.

Kara, however, doesn’t know Lena’s intention, is totally overwhelmed by the fragrant scent of Lena’s shampoo that comes with the sudden proximity. She leans back slightly. “Lena…”

“Don’t move.” Lena puts a hand on Kara’s shoulder to keep her still and reaches the other hand to the blonde’s nose. “You got something on your nose.”

Frozen at the extra touch, Kara doesn’t know where to look at, so she lands her eyes on Lena’s face. Slowly flicking her eyes down, she finds that Lena’s eyelashes flutter beautifully with the blink of her eyes; her nose is so delicate like it’s elaborately carved, and her lips, oh God, her lips look so soft without lipstick on, her neck is so slender—

“Done.” Lena shows her thumb to Kara with a charming smile. “See? Rudolf the chocolate-nosed reindeer.”

With Lena’s breath puffing through her face, Kara’s brain shuts down. She automatically reaches out a hand and rests it on the back of Lena's waist. “Can I kiss you?” she hears herself asking.

Lena only hesitates for a second before tiptoeing a little to smash their lips together. She cups the blonde’s cheeks and pulls the blonde towards herself so that she can stand steadily on her feet again.

The kiss starts off passionate.

Kara follows Lena’s guide and leans in without breaking the kiss. She is amazed at how soft Lena’s lips are. She wraps her arms around the brunette’s waist to hold her closer and tighter, seemingly never wanting to let go.

With their fronts pressing together, Lena deepens the kiss. She brushes Kara’s lower lip lingeringly with her tongue before rushing into Kara’s mouth, and Kara meets her eagerly and entangles their tongues together, inviting and exploring. She can still taste the chocolate in Kara’s mouth, but she doesn’t care at all; she just wants more. Kara seems to have read her mind. She feels Kara’s hands running along her spine all the way down to the base of her thighs, leaving a heated trail. She moans into Kara’s mouth at the sizzling touch, which only drives the blonde crazier. Then, she is lifted up, straddling the blonde’s abdomen. She instinctively wraps her arms around the blonde’s neck and gulps. “Oh, God.”

Cradling Lena securely with her arms, Kara promises, “I won’t drop you.”

Turned on by Kara’s show of power, Lena leans in again and whispers, “I know.” Then, she resumes the kiss, but slower this time to fully experience their first kiss. With Kara responding patiently, she can’t help but think that everything about Kara feels so right, so perfect. She slowly reaches into Kara’s collar and traces her fingers along the bulged muscles on her shoulder. Unexpectedly, Kara’s muscles feel so smooth under her fingertips, and she doesn’t want to stop—

“Mom, I forgot to ask what you wan—WOW!”

Lori’s exclaim makes both of them pull back and turn to look at the intruder in astonishment.

All of them stare at each other in speechless dismay.

Lena recovers first. She pats Kara’s shoulder and says, “Put me down, please.”

“Yeah, yeah, sure.” Kara flusters and complies.

After landing, Lena says, trying her best to act casual, “What were you saying?”

Lori takes a deep inhale to reboot herself and then she answers, “God, I thought I was in my timeline for a moment,” waving on hand, “Anyways, I was asking what you want for breakfast. But now come to think of it, you need more rest than usual. So, how about I make you brunch instead?”

Lena agrees, “Sounds great.”

Kara seconds the proposal with her thumbs up, “Great.”

Rubbing her temple, Lori says, “Okay then, I’ll go back to my room and hypnotize myself to forget about what I saw.” Then, she turns and slips away.

Kara mumbles, “We definitely should think about having kids more seriously.” Her remark earns herself a bubble of laughter from Lena. Encouraged by it, she prepares to utter another wisecrack to amuse Lena but is interrupted by a call-out from Lori again.

“Jeju!”

Kara laments, “What now?!”

Lori presents herself from the corner and laughs awkwardly. Shuffling her feet, she says, “Given what I ran into, I was wondering that maybe I go to Aunt Alex’s place just in case you…” nodding to the side to hint the thing she intends to say, “you know.”

“Huh?” Kara is processing.

Lena says, “No, that won’t be necessary. I’d better go sleep now.” Can’t resist the urge to tease Lori, she adds, “Besides, Maggie and Alex might be busy with their… poetry making. So, why don’t you stop being a killjoy and kindly leave them alone.”

Lori deadpans, “Ha, ha, ha, very funny.” After sinking in the insinuation in the last part of Lena’s words, she jerks her thumb in the direction of her room and steps back consecutively. “I’ll go back to my room for good. You won’t see me before you wake up, I promise!” Then, she runs off.

After hearing that Lori has closed the door, Lena says, “Bedtime now?”

“Yeah, let’s go to sleep you. No, I mean, sleep with you.” Looking at Lena apologetically, Kara groans in frustration, “Argh! You know what I mean.”

“Maybe,” Lena says before swaying her hip to her bedroom.

Dragged back to the present by Kara’s giggle, Lena asks, “What’s so funny?”

Kara turns over on her side to look at Lena and says, “Lori is snoring.”

Lena snickers and also turns over on her side. “Can you hear what’s Leo doing with your Super Hear?”

Kara feigns shock by throwing her head back. “No, I can’t. That’s a violation of his privacy.”

Lena squints her eyes. “No, that’s hypocrisy.”

Kara drops into the pillow and muffles, “Okay, you got me.”

Lena reaches out to fix Kara’s loose hair.

Kara asks tentatively, “Do you wanna talk about…the kiss?”

Lena pauses. “I really wish there was something to talk about.”

“Lena…”

“Don’t get me wrong, it’s just…” Lena sighs. “The whole situation is complicated. Neither of us will remember the kiss when this is all done. Everything will go back to square one, whether we like it or not. So, talking about it would only be pointless and painful to me. Please don’t make it harder for me,” resuming the movement of her hand, “but I can assure you that the kiss wasn’t just a heat of the moment for me. I wanted to do it for quite a long time. Believe it or not, I even had a dream about it.”

Kara blushes.

Lena rests her hand on Kara’s cheek. “Now, I can’t stop thinking about what my life would be like with you in it.”

“That’s all I can think about since Leo and Lori got here.”

Lena moves into Kara’s arms. “I want the hug you promised earlier today.”

Kara wraps her arms around Lena’s shoulder. “Anytime.”

After settling her face against Kara’s neck, Lena says, “God, I’m so tired.”

“Sleep then. I’ll always be here for you.”

Lena hums and slowly drifts into sleep.

“Lena?” Kara pats Lena’s shoulder after a while.

“Yes?” Lena is half-asleep, and her voice is husky.

“Leo’s sleep-talking.”

Lena explodes with laughter. She reaches out to cover Kara’s eyes and says, “Shut up and sleep.”

ALEX DANVERS’S APARTMENT

Alex drops herself on the couch with her face down after dragging her heavy body through the living room. She is exhausted, thanks to the tedious paperwork, also thanks to the fact that exerting herself not to punch Morgan Edge in the face during the interrogation was energy-consuming.

“Babe, it that you?” Maggie’s voice comes from the bathroom.

Alex replies feebly, “Mmm-hmm.”

“How are you? You sound tired.”

“Still alive.”

After walking out of the bathroom to Alex’s side, Maggie squats down and rubs the redhead’s back. “Have you eaten?”

“Nah, I was cleaning up the mess.”

“Do you want me to get you anything? Pizza? Beer?”

Alex turns her head to look at her fiancee. “A kiss would be fine.”

“Sure.” Maggie laughs and pecks her fiancee on the cheek.

“Hey! You’re wearing my favorite shirt, again!” Alex protests after sizing Maggie up.

Maggie stands up and walks towards the bed. “If you really want it back, come and get it, then.”

Alex oscillates between staying here and going after her favorite shirt.

“Oh, have I mentioned that I’m only wearing your favorite shirt now?”

“Coming!” Alex jumps up.

Chapter 11: party crasher

Chapter Text

Lena doesn’t know what time it is, but judging by the gleaming sunlight slanting on her, it’s already past the time when she usually gets woken up by her diligent body clock.

It feels good (fantastic, if she is being completely honest with herself), waking up to the cradle of Kara’s arm with her head nestling on Kara’s chest. She doesn’t mind requisitioning the Super’s warm embrace for a little longer by feigning sleeping. She is sick after all, and she deserves extra care and attention. She tightens her arm that is encircling Kara’s torso and snuggles into the blonde’s neck, without a vestige of a sense of shame.

Kara asks, gingerly, “Lena, are you awake?”

Lena only lets out a faint mumble and then falls into silence.

“Oh, okay.” Kara stops moving after pulling the quilt up a bit to cover Lena’s bare shoulder. On the one hand, she enjoys holding Lena, profoundly. She loves that she even smells like Lena after being in Lena’s close proximity for one night, and she absolutely doesn’t mind that she has been keeping the same posture for quite a long time and the fact—which is totally unacceptable for her under other circ*mstances—that she has skipped her breakfast already. On the other hand, she is desperate to extricate herself from Lena, because she is on the verge of losing her bladder control. She has Super Strength, Super Speed, and Super Hearing, but definitely not a Super Bladder. She is floundering in the dilemma that she put herself in.

She tells herself that if Lena doesn't wake up in one hundred Mississippi, she will go to the bathroom no matter what.

Just when she counts to sixteen Mississippi, Lori, like their hearts are linked, comes to her rescue.

Lori exclaims outside the door, “Mom! Jeju! Time to get up. I made us brunch.”

A piece of good news for Kara, but—

Lena remains unmoved.

“Why don’t you just open the door and drag them out of the bed?” Leo’s voice also sounds outside the door.

A slap on the back resounds through the door.

“Ouch!”

“Why do you always ask me to do things like this? I don’t wanna see them…” Lori shakes her head as to shake those ungodly images out of her mind. “Why don’t you go and give it a try?”

“I’m a man. It’s inappropriate for me to—”

Lori sticks her fingers into her ears and looks away. “Blah-ba-di-da-da, I can’t hear you.” After successfully shutting her brother up, she knocks on the door. “Mom, Jeju, the food is getting cold. The best flavor doesn’t wait.”

Lena sighs silently at the compulsive wake-up call. Reluctantly, she abandons her brilliant plan and props herself up. Running her fingers through her bed hair, she grumbles, “Yeah, yeah, comin’.”

“Sorry, nature's call.” Kara takes no time to appreciate Lena’s exquisite profile. Instead, she dashes into the bathroom.

Leo says to the closed door, “Mom, take your time. I’ll keep the coffee warm for you.”

Lori takes Leo’s words as the onset of siblings rivalry. “Mom has a coffee warmer, so there is no need in you.”

“But someone has to plug it in.”

“A six-year-old can do that.”

“But it’s not the same as Mom’s favorite child does it for her.”

Lori’s eyes widen. “Mom!”

The door opens, presenting a sullen Lena, who is pulling on a robe. For better or for worse, Lori has successfully summoned Lena.

Lena gives the siblings a vexed look. “Please tell me this—” she makes a circular motion with her hand at the siblings, “isn’t our daily routine.”

Leo gives Lena a side hug. Looking at Lena with a sly smile, he teases, “It looks like you’re bouncing back amazingly, with Jeju’s help, of course.”

Lena rolls her eyes at Leo good-naturedly, extending one hand to Lori as an invitation to a group hug. “Bold of you to assume that you’re my favorite.”

Lori laughs triumphantly before taking Lena’s hand.

With the siblings in her arms, Lena feels like she has recovered already. Having people showing her affection and solicitude has assuaged the terror she suffered yesterday. She reckons that she can get accustomed to those undesirable wake-up calls, if give it some time.

“A group hug? Am I invited?” Kara’s light voice sounds from behind.

Lori raises her head from Lena’s shoulder and says eagerly, “Of course, come here!”

Leo says, “You’re always invited.”

Lena turns her head and sees that Kara is smiling dazzlingly. What’s more lethal, the hoodie that Kara is wearing has its hem tucked up somehow, displaying the abs in her lower abdomen tantalizingly.

Lena thinks, Too early for this, isn’t it?

Kara walks to the trio and throws her arms around them. Her front presses onto Lena’s back immediately. Owing to their subtle height difference, her lips coincidentally (or not) land on Lena’s temple. “Good morning,” she whispers to Lena.

Lena affirms it, Definitely too early for this.

As if there is a law of attraction between her and Kara that hasn’t been verified yet, Lena unconsciously (or not) sinks into Kara’s arms. “Good morning to you, too,” she whispers back.

The siblings, as one can imagine, suddenly find the group hug children-unfriendly. They extricate themselves from it and retreat simultaneously.

Leo hurls an accusation at the brazen two, “You two just did that under my nose?”

Lori immediately unites with her brother on this matter as she always does. “Why do you always have to ruin everything? Can’t you give us a break for goodness sake?” Looking at Leo in frustration, she groans, “I just can’t.”

Leo shakes his head. “Me neither. Let’s go eat and leave them to reflect on themselves.”

Lori walks away without looking back.

Leo follows.

Kara blushes but still hangs onto Lena like a cape.

Lena squints at the siblings’ receding figures. Likely, she is plotting a retaliation.

But the siblings strike first.

Leo imitates Kara’s tone in a more pretentious way, putting an arm around Lori’s shoulder, “Good morning, babe.”

Lori plays along and leans against Leo. “Good morning to you, too, darling.”

Then, they make a vomiting noise together.

Four exotic neurotoxins that can temporarily incapacitate one's ability to speak spring to Lena’s mind. But instantly, she throws the idea of poisoning her own children aside. Nonetheless, as the matriarch-to-be of the Luthor-Danverses, she is resolute in reclaiming her authority and giving the chatty duo a piece of her mind.

And Kara? She has evolved into Superkoala, holding onto Lena as her literal backup.

After washing up and getting dressed, Lena and Kara join the siblings at the dining table.

To Lena’s surprise, Lori made a hearty meal, which can only be described as appetizing and palatable. The One Pan Egg Toast was fried golden brown, just as the way Lena likes. When she scrapes its crust with her fork, she hears a clear and crisp sound. The Bacon Potato Roll tastes salty, and the Mozzarella cheese that was wrapped inside takes the overall flavor to the next level. The Sweet Potato Wedges with Garlic Avocado Aioli is insane. Lena even wants to apply for a patent for it.

As for Kara, she has been demolishing the potstickers and churros that Lori specially made for her. All those who are presenting can testify that the superhero, who is always hardheaded and dauntless in front of her enemies, has made some uncontrollable whimpers.

Lena says to Lori while sipping at her coffee, “I gotta say, your cooking skill is definitely up to a professional level. I believe that you can make a living out of it.”

Lori co*cks a complacent eyebrow.

Leo says, “Mom, I helped out with the preparation.”

Lori retorts, “As you should.”

The failure of gaining recognition for his work doesn’t dampen Leo’s enthusiasm. Oppositely, he actively steers the conversation to the matter that has been capturing him the whole morning. He starts with Kara, the pushover, “Jeju, I’ve got a question for you.”

Kara looks up from her plate. “Yeah?”

Leo puts on an innocent smile. “If my memory serves me right, the kiss that was interrupted by Lori yesterday was you and Mom’s first kiss?”

Lori says in indignation, “Do you have to drag me into this?”

After exchanging a sneaky look with Lena, Kara puts the cutlery down and straightens up. “Yes, it was.”

“Do you feel sorry for not being able to remember it? You know, after we get back…” Leo trails off.

Kara ruminates a while before answering, “I don’t.”

The answer astounds the rest of the group.

Lena mounts a query, “Care to elaborate?”

Kara hastens to explain, “Don’t get me wrong, the kiss was great—”

Lori intervenes, “Eww, Jeju, we don’t wanna know how great your kiss was.”

Kara habitually reaches for her glasses, but only in vain, for she left them on the nightstand. She scratches her forehead, instead. “I mean, I know that firsts are always significant and memorable—”

“And thrilling,” interjects Lena.

“Yes, and thrilling.” Kara gives Lena a bashful smile. “But, there will be a second, a third, and a ten-thousandth. Fo me, every time is special. Firsts are just the beginning of countless wonderful things, so I don’t cling to the past or things that I can't control. I prefer to look at what I have now and what I will have.” Eyeing Lena intently, she adds, “For what it’s worth, I believe that we’ll create other significant, memorable, and thrilling firsts together.”

Lena smiles tenderly. “Can't wait.”

Leo taps Lori on the shoulder, without his eyes leaving his parents who are gazing at each other. “Watch and learn, that’s how you get a girl.”

Lori pats his hand away. “Says the one who never got a girl.”

Leo snorts, “The pot calling the kettle black.”

“At least I’m not the one who got friendzoned twice.”

“At least I’m not the one who…” Abnormally, Leo runs out of ammunition so puts up a desperate struggle in haste, “The first one doesn’t count! That girl only likes girls.”

“Pathetic.”

The sarcasm and mockery that the siblings are throwing at each other cause Kara and Lena to prick up their ears inquisitively.

Lena comments, “It looks like being bad at developing a relationship runs in the family.”

Lori and Leo say in unison, “Speak for yourself.”

Lena feels attacked, grossly.

Kara laughs out loud at the siblings’ taunt that renders Lena speechless, but soon she is silenced by a cautionary glare from Lena.

Lori and Leo exchange a knowing look. At family gatherings, everyone enjoys deriding Kara as henpecked, especially on the premise that she is the strongest superhero on Earth. At such times, Kara would defend herself by saying ‘Lena is the smartest woman on Earth and it’s only wise to do what she says, and Lena would say ‘Good girl’ while patting Kara on the head, which would be greeted with eye-rollings and coughs. But deep down, everyone loves watching Kara and Lena being sweet together given what they have been through.

In order to save Kara from distress, Lori says, extending one hand, “Jeju, time to rock-paper-scissors to settle who does the dishes.”

Leo pushes Lori’s hand away. “No need, I’ll do it. Jeju has another assignment that she needs to attend to.”

Lori leans back and holds up her hands. “My bad.”

Kara plunges into another distress. But this time, she is spared from another round of teases by a loud thump and a roar from the balcony.

Everyone turns with a start and sees that there stands a grotesque alien with its wings spreading out—it’s the Parademon.

The Parademon smashes through the glass windows with great ease and rushes at the astonished four, without giving them the chance to react.

The resounding sound of glass shattering jolts Lori and Kara into action, but in divergent ways.

Lori runs to the intruder and braces her palms against its shoulders, intending to stop its onward trajectory. But the Parademon gains the upper hand in the strength battle, which sends Lori into a plight where she is sliding backward incessantly.

As for Kara, she promptly scoops Lena up in her arms from the chair and Super Speeds to the door. After putting Lena down, she pulls the door open and says, “Get outta here, go get help, and evacuate the building!”

Lena doesn’t move. “But Leo is still—”

A loud sound of tableware breaking interrupts Lena. Then, Leo’s disturbed voice comes through, “Wow! Okay, no more dishes for me!”

There are a continual disturbances and groans of pain.

Kara says as soothingly as she can manage, “I’ll take care of it, I promise.”

Lena nods gravely before running away.

Kara returns to the living room that is already in a mess in a flash, and is rooted to the spot by the sight in front of her—the Parademon seizes Lori by the neck, pinning her to the floor, and Lori’s face flushes scarlet from struggling against its grip; Leo lies prone on the floor not far away, writhing in agony.

A penetrating siren splits the air. Thanks to it, Kara snaps out of the stupefaction and jumps into action. She launches herself at the Parademon and utilizes the impetus to throw a punch at its head, which sends it flying to the wall. After steadying herself, she reaches out one hand to Lori, but still fixes her eyes on the Parademon that is propping itself up on its palms and endeavoring to recover from the strike. “You okay?”

Lori takes Kara’s hand and heaves herself up. Rubbing her neck, she says, “Yeah, just haven’t had time to digest the food.”

Kara chuckles. “Yeah, it happens a lot.”

Lori stretches her shoulders. “Let’s go take that party crasher down.”

“No, I’ll deal with it. You take Leo out of here.” Seeing Lori oscillating, Kara adds, “I also need you to help with the evacuation and ensure the safety of civilians while waiting for DEO to arrive. Can you do that for me?”

Zooming in the uproar that is keeping accumulating from the street, Lori nods solemnly. “Yes.”

The Parademon roars irritably and launches an attack again.

Kara flings herself forward to shield Lori by encountering the attack, and her both arms go numb from taking the violent impact. Locking in a stalemate, she says through clenched teeth, “Lori, go!”

As reluctant as she is to leave Kara alone in the battle, Lori still hurries to help Leo up. Putting his arm around her shoulders to support him, she says, “Can you walk?”

Leo lets out a dull whimper, uncontrollably bending over at the sharp pain in the abdomen. “I hope so.”

Lori scans Leo with her X-ray vision and breathes a sigh of relief after failing in finding any fracture. She asks solicitously, “Do you need me to carry you?”

“No, no.” Leo strives to straighten up. “No need to draw any unnecessary attention. I don’t want you to blow your cover. Sorry for being a burden.”

“You never are.” Lori fixes her other arm around Leo’s waist to support most of his weight. “Let’s go.”

“By elevator.”

Leading Leo out, Lori says, “I know. I’m not that stupid.”

“Oh, yeah? Say that to all the kale smoothie I tricked you to drink.”

Lori says nothing but tightens her arm on Leo’s waist, which, as expected, elicits a round of howling from Leo.

Kara, at this juncture, is amused by the siblings’ banter and is distracted for a split second. In the next second, she realizes that she just made a fatal mistake in a battle, but it’s too late. The Parademon takes the window of opportunity and thrusts her away. As she falls to the floor, she clearly feels that the bruise on her shoulder from the thrust is aching with a steady throb, and she is stunned by the Parademon’s strength.

The Parademon directly goes after Lori and doesn’t stop to spare Kara a look. Evidently, Kara is not its target, Lori is.

Kara gets up, as she always does, and Super Speeds across the room to block its way. Glowering at the intruder, she says provocatively, “I haven’t done with you yet.”

The Parademon puffs a breath through its nose, accurately manifesting its contempt for the superhero who isn’t in the Super suit.

“Same here,” Kara responds disapprovingly before striding forward to throw another punch. To her surprise, the Parademon doesn’t even make an attempt to dodge and her fist is firmly grasped in its palm. Then, she feels a twist in the wrist, and pain follows, at which she drops to her knees involuntarily.

The Parademon looks at Kara with a tilt of its head, as to taunt the superhero.

Before Kara can find a way out of the predicament, she is grabbed by the neck and lifted up. With her legs dangling in the air and the feeling of suffocation creeping in, she feels a sudden dart of panic. Being at a disadvantage in a battle isn’t new to her. After all, she always manages to pull through at the end with Superfriends’ help. But this time, constrained by the confined space, she is encumbered by the trepidation that she might hurt civilians if she spares no effort in the fight. She has been overcautious to minimize collateral damage. Nonetheless, being choked into unconsciousness isn’t an option for her, especially on the premise that she has no idea when her backup will arrive. She has to turn the tables, now.

After striving to use her X-ray to scan the building to make sure that no one is still in it, she locks her eyes on the Parademon’s face and fires her Heat Vision without holding back. The beams of intense heat impale the Parademon’s skin and inflict considerable damage on it.

Affected by the burning pain, the Parademon roars furiously and hurls Kara into the living room brutally. At this point, it is exasperated thoroughly.

Kara’s body draws a parabolic curve in the air and then slumps into the coffee table. The coffee table crumbles, and so is her ability to move. Suffering from the anguish of the rupture of her muscles, she starts to hyperventilate.

Fuming with rage, the Parademon flies to Kara, clutches her collar, and presses her down, then commences thumping her on the head consecutively.

One, two, three…

Kara can’t do anything about the thumps that are falling like raindrops except for counting them, for she is on the verge of losing consciousness.

Eight, nine, ten…

Just when the blood streaming down from her forehead blurs her eyes, she hears a thud of landing from the balcony. Subsequently, a chilly strong wind blows in, and the incessant thumps stop. Through her bleary eyes, she vaguely catches a figure with blond hair flash by and takes the Parademon away from her. Then, she blacks out.

Chapter 12: the future came

Chapter Text

ONE HOUR BEFORE THE PARADEMON ATTACKS, KARA DANVERS’ APARTMENT

Out of the blue, a beam of purple light flashes in the living room, and then two figures emerge from it. As the light glares conspicuously, it is barely discernible that one of them is a blonde and the other is a brunette.

“Babe! You made it!” A voice full of admiration sounds.

After the light goes out, the voice continues, “And babe, I’m thrilled that you took my advice to wear a pair of glasses as a disguise. I gotta say, you look absolutely stunning in them, even after working in the lab for several days straight only with minimum sleep.”

The brunette gives the blonde a gentle nudge in the ribs, rolling her eyes at the flirtatious smile. “Not the time for this.” But to be honest, her wife’s compliments never fail to make her heart brim with joy, which, according to her rigorous data collection and analysis, occurs twice a day on average.

The blonde wrinkles up her nose as if saying “Your loss”. She looks around the apartment, and the sight evokes a surge of nostalgia in her. “This place looks the same as I remembered.”

The brunette looks around, too. “Yeah, it does.”

The blonde puts her arms around the brunette’s waist and draws her closer. “Whenever I think of this place, I think of us. We have lots of memories and…” blushing, “firsts happened here.”

The brunette encloses the blonde’s neck with her arms and raises an eyebrow challengingly. “If my memory serves me right, so did our first fight as a couple?”

Tilting her head back in frustration, the blonde grumbles, “Lena, you ruined the moment!”

Lena pulls Kara towards her until their noses touch. Looking into the blonde’s eyes, she whispers seductively, “So, Mrs. Luthor-Danvers, how could I make it up to you?”

Kara leans in an excruciatingly slow way, closing the remaining space between them. “You know how.”

Just when Lena hardly feels Kara’s lips on her own, she withdraws abruptly. “No, no, no, we’re not here for this,” patting Kara’s shoulder to signal to let her go, “we have a rescue mission to focus on. Let’s not deviate from it.”

Kara loosens her grip, reluctantly. “I wouldn’t call it a,” making air quotes with her fingers, “rescue mission. Like I said, it’s highly likely that Leo and Lori are enjoying themselves here with the younger versions of us.”

“Oh god.” Lena winces. “Now that you’ve mentioned it, we were horrible back then, dancing around each other like idiots. I don’t know how did everyone, especially Alex, manage to put up with us.” (Frankly, the use of past tense is uncalled-for.)

Kara snorts with laughter. “Remember Alex once threatened me that, I quote, ‘if you don’t tell Lena how you feel about her in this week, I’ll f*cking stab you with a Kryptonite knife’, unquote.”

Lena laughs at the vivid imitation. “Glad you finally did.”

Kara takes Lena’s hand and strokes the back of her hand tenderly. “It’s the best decision I made in my life.”

Lena smiles, basking in her wife’s abundant affection. Right before the urge to kiss her wife gets impossible to suppress, she assembles all her residual willpower and says, “Let’s get to the mission and get it done as soon as possible so that we can pick up where we left off here after we get back? If luck is on our side.”

“Yeah, sure.” Kara fetches her glasses from the pocket of her jacket and puts them on. “But we’re Mrs. and Mrs. Luthor-Danvers. We don’t need luck.”

Lena hums. “Getting all co*cky already, Supergirl?”

Kara dismisses her wife’s gibe and continues expectantly, “Did you catch on to the reference I just made? You know, the Mr. and Mrs. Smith movie, with the whole secret agents and enemies to lovers stuff.”

Lena chuckles. “Yes, I did. But I think it was a terrible reference. In my defense, I never tried to kill you, nor did I throw things at you like a baseball pitching machine. You could’ve done better.”

“Hmmm, you got a point.”

Lena alters her expression into solemnity with great endeavor. “Let’s not prolong our stay here any longer. We’d better set out to DEO now, to see if they need any help with the whole situation. And then, we’ll take the two troublemakers home as planned.” After tightening her hold on Kara’s hand, she walks towards the door but soon is halted by a swing at the hand. She turns to look at Kara in question.

Kara says with a pleading look, “Before that, can we grab a bite at the Chinese restaurant down the street that is no longer in business in our timeline? I haven’t eaten for…”

“Like one hour?”

“Exactly!” Seeing incredibility dominate Lena’s face, she adds with an indistinct pout, “Please?”

Lena thinks to herself, Who am I to say no to that pout? “Okay, whatever you want, my love.”

Kara beams and lets Lena lead her away. As a matter of fact, she isn’t putting a meal before her children. It’s just that Lena has barely eaten anything since she made a significant breakthrough in locating Leo and Lori, and as the best wife in the galaxy (Lena bestowed this title upon her and gave her a mug with it printed on the front at her investiture), she takes keeping her wife well-fed as a serious job.

DEO

A trace of uneasiness has been haunting Winn all this morning, partly due to the fact that the Parademon is still unaccounted for, and predominantly because Alex has smiled at him twice when their eyes met by accident. Twice, for Yoda’s sake! The first time, he thought it was just a hallucination as a result of staring at the computer screen for too long, so he shrugged it off. But the second time, the smile was too tangible to be deemed as a hallucination or misread. Instantaneously, he was petrified. It’s unintelligible and occult for him at the moment, but he successfully compelled himself to stretch a smile in reply. Even though Maggie dropped by unannounced and brought them each a cup of coffee, he still can’t comprehend why this is happening. He just got a hunch that something is about to go wrong because, in his experience, everything will go downhill after it peaks.

He discreetly turns his head and steals a glance at the soon-to-be-married couple. After seeing that they stand exceedingly close by each other by the central console and are whispering and giggling blessedly, he resumes typing with a frown. Something definitely will go wrong, he thinks.

After taking a sip of her coffee, Maggie says with a self-satisfied smirk, “I got a news for you.”

Alex asks, “About what?”

Maggie’s smirk widens. “About Kara and Lena.”

Alex isn’t sure whether she likes where this conversation is heading, but she is willing to play along with her fiancee. “What is it?”

“Leo called earlier. He told me that Lori told him that she ran into their make-out session last night. And allegedly, it was intense.”

“What?” Alex is dumbfounded. “I mean… good for them. But, wow.”

“Told ya the Luthor has been looking at little Danvers like a predator for a while.” Perceiving Alex recoils visibly at the word predator, Maggie snigg*rs and continues, “Putting joke aside, I’m happy for them, especially with knowing that they’re gonna have an amazing life together.”

“I know that we’re gonna have an amazing future together even without two future children falling from the sky to tell us so.”

Maggie reaches an arm around her fiancee’s waist with a dazzling dimples-showing smile. “You should put that into your wedding speech.”

“Nah, she won’t,” a voice cuts in, intercepting Alex’s another declaration of love. The soon-to-be-married couple turn around synchronously with an identical gloomy expression on their faces, seeming to be exasperated by the third wheel who imposes on them untimely. As soon as Alex lands her eyes on the third wheel—Kara, who is chewing with her mouth full and holding a half-finished sticky bun in one hand with Lena’s hand in the other, her expression morphs into bewilderment. “What are you doing—” she swallows down her words because something indescribably different about the two catches her eyes.

“Told you they wouldn’t recognize who we really are right away,” Lena says triumphantly.

Perplexed further by the statement, Alex darts her eyes between the two. Lena wears a white shirt that has its two upper buttons undone and a pair of black wide-leg pants, and has her hair pulled back in a ponytail, and what’s out of the ordinary is that she is wearing a pair of glasses similar to Kara’s. As for Kara, she wears a back wool sweater and a pair of jeans that she has never seen before, but nothing really stands out. She still hasn’t connected the dots.

“No sh*t.” Maggie is the first one to react with elation apparent on her face. “Our future world-changing couple themselves. To what do we owe the pleasure?”

Alex’s mind is in a whirl. Obviously, the information flow is too much for her to process.

Lena shakes her head fondly. “Oh, Magg. You’re shrewd as usual.” She spreads her hands to invite Maggie to a hug.

Although stunned by Lena’s gesture, Maggie compliantly glides into the expecting arms.

“Alex.” A jab from Maggie drags Alex to the present. She comes to her sense and also responds to Lena’s open arms. After pulling away, she observes Lena from head to toe. “Geez, time has hardly done anything on you. You look like a—”

“Milf?” Maggie offers.

Kara chokes on the last bite of her sticky bun, and Lena pats her back with an indecipherable grin.

Alex is aflame with embarrassment. “Vampire! I was going to say vampire!”

Lena gives the soon-to-be-married couple a wry look. “Well, either way, I’m flattered.”

“How did you get in?” Alex digresses for the sake of her own personal safety.

Kara says matter-of-factly, “From the front door, obviously. I am Kara and I do have clearance, remember?”

Just when Alex is about to make a caustic comment on DEO’s security system, Winn exclaims, “Future Kara! This is so cool!” No one knows when he sneaked upon them.

“Winn!” Kara responds with matched enthusiasm and strides to hug him while wiping her sugar-stained fingers on her jeans. “I missed you so much!”

Winn is thrilled at first, but after soaking in Kara’s words, he panics and extricates himself from Kara. “Wait, what do you mean by missed me? Am I dead in the future?” He feels like crying.

Kara quips, “Everyone is gonna die in the future.” Her remark sends Winn to the verge of crying straightway.

Lena says, “Kara, quit messing around with him. And Winn, you’ll be fine.”

“More than fine, actually,” Kara says cordially before retreating to her wife.

As much as she hates to be the one who kills off the fun, but with the priority bore in mind, Lena says, “Since you absorbed the fact that we came from the future easily, I suppose that you’ve met Leo and Lori already?”

Alex answers with a nod, “Yeah, we have.”

Kara breathes a sigh of relief. “How are they?”

“Where are they?” asks Lena.

Alex looks at Lena. “They’re at your penthouse and they’re fine now.”

Lena acutely grasps the implication in Alex’s words. “Now?”

Alex waves her hands frustratedly for her slip of the tongue. “There was an incident and they had a quarrel. Look, I don’t wanna put my foot in it. You’d better ask them about it.” Watching Kara and Lena exchange a look, she adds, “Please don’t tell them I told you this. I wanna be a cool aunt.”

Maggie says, dismissively, “Too late, Danvers. I’m already the cool aunt.”

Alex gasps theatrically, feigning being offended tremendously.

Lena tunes out the ongoing dispute about who’s the coolest aunt. Thankfully Sam isn’t here to muddy the waters further, she thinks.

Ignoring her sister and sister-in-law, Kara says to Winn. “Winn, how about the Parademon that attacked Leo and Lori? Have you caught it?”

Winn drawls, looking at Kara like a kid who is called out in the middle of mischief, “No… I’m trying to track it with the program Lori wrote, but there is something wrong about it, which I haven’t figured out yet.”

Lena says, “Can I take a look at it?”

“Yeah, sure.” Winn gestures at his computer. “Knock yourself out.”

Lena gives Winn a benign smile and walks to the computer, and Winn follows immediately. She bents down to the screen and covers ten lines at one glance, then she mutters, “Lori did a fair job on this, but she missed out something that would affect its stability. Looks like she still got a lot to learn.”

Winn gabbles as the keyboard resounds strikingly under Lena’s fingers, “The mother of the genius indeed.”

Lena turns and co*cks an eyebrow at Winn smugly without stopping typing.

Watching the scene, Kara curves her lips into a smile, feeling proud of her wife.

Soon, Lena announces, “All done. I think it would work beautifully now.” Hardly she finishes the sentence, a red caution mark occupies the center of the screen, accompanied by a disturbing alarm sound. Lena frowns and taps away at the keyboard, again.

Kara asks concernedly, “What’s that about?”

Lena answers, “It’s the Parademon. I just picked up its signal.”

“Where?”

“My old penthouse.”

WHOOSH!

Lena turns, only to find that Kara is no longer there.

Chapter 13: hang in there

Chapter Text

LENA LUTHOR’S PENTHOUSE

Kara thinks that she is having a bizarre and absurd dream. In a blur, she sees herself land on the balcony with a splashy yet dominating posture in Supergirl suit, the color of which is discernibly darker than hers, and the cape fluttering in the air secures her a delicate layer of deterrent.

Pants! She wows and makes a mental note that she’s gonna steal the pose.

And then, a provoking snarl sounds, which effectively reminds her of the acute pain in her head. She lets out a feeble groan. Subsequently, she sees the Parademon rush towards the balcony. But herself in the dream doesn’t seem to bother, only straightens up leisurely and shoots a solicitous look in her direction. She wants to alert herself to the incoming, but she can’t manage to do it for the throb in her head is fettering her, so she gets more and more irritated as the Parademon gets closer. The Parademon throws a punch as soon as it is in the attack range. Herself in the dream is still not moving, just simply utters three words: Activate Super Elec. Hit by a dazzling flash of light mingled with a touch of blue emitting from the suit, the Parademon collapses with a wail and goes motionless after a twitch.

“Oops. Hand-to-hand combat, as my wife said, is outdated,” Herself in the dream says with a triumphant smile, which Kara finds way too co*cky for her tastes. When the word wife finally strikes her, she can’t help but worry about Lena. Her jumble of thoughts is interrupted by herself in the dream, who is hunching over and scrutinizing her. “Yucks, you look like sh*t.”

RUDE! Kara yells internally.

“Jeju! You came!” It’s Lori’s voice. Kara wants to move her head to look at Lori but the pain that is assailing her is creeping down from her head into every inch of her muscle, so she stays still and waits.

Lori launches herself at herself in the dream, and herself in the dream catches her steadily. “It doesn’t look like I have a choice.”

Lori can’t hold back her laughter. Neither can Kara, but her laughter converts into coughs when it comes out of her mouth. Herself in the dream quickly crouches down beside her and says, “Easy here. We’re going to get you to DEO and put you under yellow-sun lamps, okay?”

With great endeavor, Kara nods a reply.

“Good. Now, take some rest.”

Kara lets out a long breath and closes her eyes. Her consciousness gradually drifts into a mass of black clouds, which is absorbing her pain away like a sponge. But still, she can perceive turmoil spreading around her fleetly. She hears Alex barking out orders, and she feels that she is gently scooped up by someone and settled on a gurney, then someone takes her hand—she just knows that it’s Lena. She strives to give Lena’s hand a squeeze, intending to send her some comfort. Lena leans closer and strokes her cheek, and says soothingly, “Hey, everyone is fine. Just rest, okay?” She is so close to succumbing to the void of unconsciousness but she battles against it just because she longs to feel Lena’s hold for a little longer until a mantle of warmth blankets her and lures her away.

DEO

What happened in the last few hours has evoked a sense of unreality in Lena. First, she was having brunch with her future children and was wooed by Kara. Then, her future wife dropped from the sky and gracefully saved the day. Now, gathering in the meeting room (Alex expelled them from the medical bay to here in order to leave some tranquility to Kara because the hubbub that future Kara, Leo, Lori, and Maggie, aka ‘League of Chaos’, generated was insufferable), she is more overwhelmed thanks to the ceaseless glances from future Kara and her assumably unintentional flexing of muscles. Future Lena notices her wife’s ignominious behavior and gives her a cautionary glare. Future Kara drops her crossed arms and looks away in awkwardness, contrasting sharply with her Supergirl poise. Lena notices the scene, and also rends her inquisitive gaze away, concentrating on the conversation that is going on among the League of Chaos.

“…I jumped onto the Parademon and successfully distracted it,” says Leo.

“And I took the opportunity, took down the Parademon in one go,” says Lori.

Leo draws, “Ehhh… I don’t think that’s what happened exactly.”

“I might’ve embellished the story a little, but let’s not focus on the details."

Looking at future Lena and future Kara, Maggie teases, “Looks like you have two competent successors.”

Future Kara says, “Actually, they can be anyone they want to be rather than just a Super or a Luthor.”

Future Lena adds, “As long as they quit getting themselves into trouble.”

Lori protests, “Mom, trouble literally presented itself this time.”

Leo echos Lori theatrically, “Literally.”

Future Lena looks away from the clamorous siblings and says to Lena, “Can I talk to you for a second in private?”

As perplexed as Lena is, she nods cordially and conducts future Lena to the far corner of the room. Nagged by a tenuous sense of unease, she fiddles with her hands and waits.

Future Lena starts, “Even though you won't remember what I’m about to say, I still want you to know that you’re gonna have an amazing life.” She pauses at catching the younger her darting a glance at her Kara and continues after the identical emerald eyes return to her, “I’m not just talking about Kara. Kara and I encouraged each other to be the better version of ourselves. She’s more than what I’d expected, especially with her perfectly carved abs.”

The corners of Lena’s mouth curl up into a sly smile.

“I’m also talking about you’ll be free to do whatever you wanna do, to embrace who you really are. And you’ll have families and friends who will always love you and support you unconditionally, although some of them are prone to get themselves into troubles that will get under your skin, or force you to perfect a time travel machine in the limited time, but you’ll love them, I promise.”

Lena chuckles, and her face softens. “I believe I will.”

Future Lena wraps Lena into a tight hug and whispers, “Everything is gonna be okay. Just hang in there for a little while.”

Initially, the hug catches Lena off guard. But as what future herself just said seeps into her rather laden brain, she realizes that those words aren’t an empty promise but a fact, the reassurance of which assuages her uneasiness. She hugs future herself back and mutters, “Thank you.”

After letting go, future Lena says, “You know, I have to erase your memory about us, just in case anything goes wrong. Essentially, you need to experience everything for yourself, good and bad.”

“Yeah, I understand.” As the scientist side of her prevails, Lena has to ask, “So, is there an actual memory wiping device? How does it work?”

“No. I set up a program that will activate automatically after we go back to our timeline. It’s a code I found in Lex’s mind control program after we took him down. I just simply altered it a little.”

Lena’s face crumples. "Mind control? Typical Lex.”

“I know, right? His bald face is so repulsive.”

Lena chortles with delight. It feels good to interact with someone who actually understands her, although, technically, the someone is herself. “I guess this is a goodbye, then?”

“Yeah, we still need to find the culprit behind the scenes, and we have a family gathering waiting for us, which would comprise unreliable storytelling and potential alcoholism.”

“Sounds compelling.”

On the other side of the room, since Alex and Maggie are called away by work, the other three Luthor-Danverses naturally focus on two Lenas and are captivated by the scene of two Lenas walking towards them, but obviously, for different reasons.

After rejoining the group, future Lena says, “Since everything was settled, we’d better take the Parademon along and get going.”

Future Kara nods in agreement and then she looks at Lena. After a moment of hesitation, she ventures a hug. “I just want you to know that I love you so much.”

Lena is transfixed, not knowing what to do. She shoots future herself a look for help.

Future Lena says, “Kara, you’re spooking her.”

Future Kara promptly steps back. Looking tremendously flustered, she says, “I’m sorry. It’s too much and inappropriate, isn’t it?”

“Totally.”

“Affirmatively.” Lori and Leo speak up at the same time.

“It’s okay.” Lena jokes, “It’s just your muscular arms are too much for me to handle.”

The siblings start to slip away after exchanging a testy look. Apparently, the vibe in the room is too much for them to handle.

Lena calls them out, “Lori, Leo, wait! Aren’t you gonna give me a goodbye hug?”

Lori halts and turns. “This isn’t a goodbye. We’ll see you.”

Leo says, “Besides, our arms aren’t as muscular as Jeju’s, so you might not like it.” Then, they exit for good.

Peering at their receding figures, Lena mumbles, “Huh, they’re…”

“A pain in the ass.” Future Lena finishes her sentence.

A burst of laughter added with empathy resonates in the room. After the laughter fades away, future Lena says her farewell, “Take care.”

“Take care,” future Kara mimics her wife because she doesn’t want to adventure any more fatuous remark.

After watching them leave the room, Lena stands still for a considerable length of time with some intricate thoughts reeling in her head until a sudden wave of weariness arouses. She sits on the chair next to her, letting the weariness take control over her as she did for countless nights after arduous work. But this time, palpable gratification accompanies her.

KARA DANVERS’ APARTMENT

As the credit of the movie starts to roll, Lena sinks further into the back of the couch while stretching herself. When the abnormality that Kara is being so quiet since the end of the movie finally hits her, she languidly turns to and sees that Kara is wiping her tears with her sleeves, which she finds absolutely adorable and…huggable. She summons a copious amount of self-control to stay immobile and not launch herself at the blonde.

Having noticed this, Kara wipes her cheek carelessly and turns. Looking moderately offended, she says, “What? Toy Story is a real tearjerker.”

Lena says indulgently, “I concur.”

Kara fires a suspicious look at her.

Seeming to be incapable of subduing the humorous side of her around the blonde, Lena says, “Okay, I confess. We Luthors had our lacrimal gland removed at age of eight.”

Kara snorts with laughter.

Lena enjoys watching Kara laughing, which is fabulously infectious. “I just want to say thank you again for letting me crash at your place since my penthouse was ravaged by some rampaging alien.”

“What friends are for.”

Here it goes again, the word friends chafes her significantly. Nevertheless, she alters her expression into gladness. “So, as a friend, I want to pay you back for your hospitality. Make a wish.”

“You don’t have to.”

“It’s one of the perks of having a billionaire as a friend. C’mon, just name it.”

“Anything?”

“Anything.”

Ravished by the billionaire’s sugar mommy energy, Kara shakes her head. “I can’t think of anything.”

Lena raises an eyebrow. “Last offer.”

Kara surrenders. “Okay, okay, let me think.” She looks away and ruminates.

Lena knows that she got it bad when she even finds the little frown on Kara’s face cute. The realization makes her feel vulnerable, but she can’t tear her eyes away. She lets her eyes roam over Kara’s profile, coming to terms with the likely doom that Kara might never feel the same about her. She convinces herself that she’s blessed enough to have the embodiment of sunlight in her life and she can’t afford to ruin it with audacious moves. So, she just sits here and waits, ready to reach for the stars for Kara. Then, Kara looks back at her and says in all sincerity, “I just want you to be happy.”

“I’m happy when I’m with you.” Those words flew out of her mouth without authorization from her brain stun her. She wants to temper them and make them less desperate but she can’t bring herself to do so because they’re simply the truth.

Kara grins and tilts her head. “You’re stuck with me, then.”

Screw it. Lena decides to turn her flirting mode full on. “Getting all confident, huh? I like it. But in terms of stuck, I think you gotta try harder.”

“Challenge accepted.” Kara shifts closer and cramps Lena between her arms. “You’re not going anywhere now.”

The unanticipated action sends Lena into stitches. She wriggles, trying to extricate herself from Kara’s grip. “I didn’t mean it literally!”

“Too late!” Kara holds Lena tighter but is cautious enough not to exert any more force than a human body can’t withstand.

After some grandiose attempts, Lena gives up. She rests her forehead in the crook of the blonde’s neck where they fit immaculately together. Steadying her ragged breath from the frisking, she says, “God, you’re much stronger than I thought.”

Kara’s body goes stiff. She tardily slackens her arms and pulls away. “Emm, Alex always drags me along to the gym.”

Lena misses Kara’s body heat already. “I see. There isn’t enough work out for an agent who works for a clandestine government organization.”

Kara slouches. “I—emm, I’m sorry that I kept it secret to you.”

“Oh, please don’t be. I know that it’s not your secret to tell and you were just protecting your sister. And to be honest, I was kinda shocked when I woke up in DEO, given my experience in the Daxam’s airship. It felt good to have some familiar faces to walk me through the alien attack that knocked me out.”

Kara breathes a sigh of relief, but her brows are still knitted in apprehension.

In order to soothe the blonde, Lena jokes, “I actually find it hot, you know, having a secret identity.”

Kara jerks her head up and gulps. “There is something I wanna tell you.”

“I’m all ears.”

Kara reaches for her glasses. Just when she touches the frame, Lena’s phone that is left on the coffee table rings. She darts a fretful look at the phone. “I, uhh…” As the phone is still proclaiming its existence aggressively, she hesitates. “I…”

Lena’s attention is diverted by the persistent ringtone. When Sam’s name on the screen catches her eyes, she picks the phone up readily and says, “It’s Sam. I gotta take this.” She looks back at Kara with an apologetic look while arising, “can it wait?”

Kara deflates but puts on a well-mannered smile. “Yeah, of course.” She slumps headfirst on the couch after Lena walks away, groaning in frustration.

Lying flat on her bed, Kara is panicking. To be more specific, she is gay panicking, primarily due to the actuality that Lena is lying beside her, only a-sticky-bun away (it’s Kara’s unique measurement system in the size of food, and don’t blame her for it), and also on account of her enhanced senses. She can smell the scent of her body wash emitting from Lena, which she has never found this captivating before.

She angles her head to look at Lena, who is presumably asleep already judging by the placid look on her face that is wildly different from her usual formidable business look, and she melts. She loves seeing this side of Lena, loves seeing the brunette laugh and talk freely around her rather than being encumbered with the tainted Luthor name, or she just loves Lena, not in a platonic way, not anymore. She realizes this during the earlier movie watching where Lena commented on how unrealistic the movie was in the aspect of physics and invoked Newton's laws of motion to substantiate her opinion, and she didn’t say anything in return because she was enchanted by the unquenchable light in Lena’s eyes. That’s her the moment, the moment that she finally knew that she wanted to see the happy Lena every day, that she wanted to be with Lena.

Lena rolls over, eliminating the a-sticky-bun distance between them. By the shift of sleeping position, her arm touches Kara’s, and her face hovers over Kara’s shoulder. They’re nearly cuddling, nearly.

With Lena’s breath breezing through her neck, Kara feels an electric current flowing through her skin. She hastily tears her eyes away and fixes them onto the ceiling, floundering. Now, her brain is in a muddle and only grants her the function of reproaching herself for not seizing the opportunity to tell Lena her Supergirl identity, to be thoroughly honest. She rebels at the perfunctory response she spewed out out of inclination when Lena brought up the interrupted conversation after hanging up the phone. She isn’t sure whether Lena was flirting with her when she said try harder, or come to think of it now, from the first time they met, but she is sure that she can’t start a relationship with a lie, even a friendship. She can’t do this to Lena, especially on the premise that she knows how much Lena hates deceit. She can’t keep her secret from Lena anymore, even though coming clean constitutes a menace to their friendship and possible romance. She has to do it, for Lena, for herself.

She stays staring at the ceiling while making up her mind until Lena drapes an arm around her torso. She is startled at first, but soon relaxes and puts a hand on Lena’s arm.

I’m gonna tell her tomorrow, she thinks before closing her eye.

Kara is having the best dream of her life. She is sprawling on a massive pile of marshmallows. Everything feels so soft and warm. A sudden urge to snuggle further into the marshmallows underneath her, which smell exactly like her body wash, kindles in her, so she gratifies the urge without a second thought because this is her dream and she reigns here. She hums when her nose touches an even softer spot. Just when she is about to settle down, a pat on the shoulder stops her.

“Kara.”

She doesn’t want to wake up, not yet. She shakes her head in protest.

“Kara, you’re crushing me.” Lena’s comfortless voice alarms her brain and compels her to open her eyes. After adjusting to the soft morning light, the situation that she sees herself in directly sends her to bounce off. Her eyes are still glued to Lena’s breast, where she just pillowed and rubbed her face in. She is processing, hard.

“I’m sorry!” she blurts out, and her eyes finally move to Lena’s face where they conventionally should be in a conversation. “I have no idea what I was doing! Did I hurt you?”

“Kara, it’s okay. You didn’t hurt me.” Lena props herself up and loosens her rigid shoulder up. “It’s just…” she stops after looking at Kara properly.

Kara waits anxiously for Lena to finish her sentence. Locking eyes with Lena, the pause feels excruciatingly long.

Lena looks away, bowing her head and pinching the bridge of her nose, “I’m still a little fuzzy from the sleep. Let’s get up and get some coffee.” Then, she gets out of the bed and directly walks toward the bathroom.

Kara reaches for her glasses set on the nightstand and puts them on with a frown, thinking about X-raying Lena to check whether she is actually unhurt later because the look on Lena’s face isn’t reassuring. Then, she uses her Super Speed to get dressed, just to brew coffee for Lena as soon as possible.

Chapter 14: kisses at the wedding

Chapter Text

Lena looks blankly at her reflection in the mirror, clutching onto the edge of the sink. Intricate feelings gnaw at her.

Kara Danvers is Supergirl.

The moment she saw Kara without glasses for the first time and promptly ascertained the inconceivable fact hit her like a roaring train, incapacitating her for a sensible reaction, so she took a flight instead. Much to her dismay, thinking back to the dawn of their friendship, it did cross her mind once or twice, given the pronounced resemblances and the suspiciously incoherent excuses that Kara has been making, but she uncharacteristically chose to overlook it because she simply repudiated the possibility that Kara has been lying to her. She sneers at her credulity, and almost finds the ludicrousness in it if she didn’t inevitably fall for her best friend.

Falling for a Super. Even Lillian would be impressed that I took the Super and Luthor drama to the next level, she snorts, sinking into the irony of it all. She can’t think of any explanation for Kara’s deceit except her notorious last name. On top of that, she knows better than to justify other people’s behaviors, which she learned in a hard way from Lex’s primitive obsession with Superman that ultimately turned into a calamity. Shutting her eyes, she obstinately extinguishes the feeble but incessant inclination to pretend that everything is fine. I have to confront Kara. It’s the right thing to do, she reasons with herself.

There is a knock on the door, and Kara’s voice comes through. “Lena, is everything okay? You’ve been there for a while.”

Attaining some equanimity swiftly, she responds, “Yeah, I’m fine. I’ll be out in a minute.”

“Take your time. I’ll keep your coffee warm for you.”

Having scarcely bitten back a retort that is What a waste of your Heat Vision, she has a sudden urge to lash out and to cracke the blonde’s hypocritical facade with the harshest words she can think of. Driven by this, she obstinately dismisses the worst-case scenario that she might say something unforgivable in the heat of the moment that will permanently end their friendship, then stomps out of the bathroom.

Against all expectations, her faculty of speaking eludes her at the sight of Kara holding a mug with a smiley face, of which she will never get tired. A blank chokes her words, rooting her to the floor. Her brain barks out a command to say something, anything, but her mouth fails to obey.

Kara, however, seemingly having not picked up on the brunette’s abnormality, walks up to her and guides her to take over the mug by cupping her hand. “Looks like you really need it,” she says, still smiling, before withdrawing her hand.

Jesus, is she flirting with me? A huge question mark hangs over Lena’s head. As flustered as she is, she hides it perfectly. “Thanks.” She takes a sip, reasoning that it would be a good idea to get hydrated before a big talk.

Kara’s smile widens. “So, there is a bakery down the street selling the best cinnamon roll in town. Wanna try it out?”

Infected by the blonde’s enthusiasm, Lena can’t help but tease, “Oh, are you asking me out?”

Kara flushes. “What if I am?”

“What if, huh?” Lena feigns a frown. “You know, I don’t accept an unassertive invitation.”

“Okay.” Kara quickly wears a look of solemnity. “I’d really like to share everything I like with you. So, would you come with me?”

Lena wants to say yes, but the weight of the appalling truth is hindering her from doing so. Somehow, the vehement speech she formulated earlier has become a lump in her throat, rendering her unable to say anything.

Seeing Lena growing irritated, Kara puts a hand on her arm and gives it a squeeze. “Hey, you okay?”

Lena shrugs off the touch and takes a step back uncomfortably. “Yeah. I uhh… It just hit me that I have tons of work waiting for me at L-Corp. I should get going.” She sets the mug on the counter carelessly and heads directly towards the door. Gathering her belongings from the hatstand at the door, she hears the blonde’s tentative voice, “Maybe a rain check, then?”

She looks back without stopping what she is doing, and says as casual as she can master, “Yeah, sure.” Then she hurries out of the door, skipping the routine goodbye hug. After having ushered herself out of the building and called her driver on autopilot, a mixed surge of shame runs through her, which is equivalent to a combination of withdrawing from a huge opportunity and sneaking out after a one-night stand. Looking down at the coat hanging lifelessly over her arm, she finally curses, “f*ck.”

LENA LUTHOR’S OFFICE, L-CORP

Sam is worried, to be specific, about Lena, because the big boss sitting across from her has been staring at the same page of a file like it is written in ancient Greek (although she vaguely has an impression that Lena does know a little ancient Greek) for a considerable length of time that is long enough to alert her. Knowing that whatever is occupying Lena’s mind must be something significant, she calls out after reaching her patience threshold, “Lena.”

No response, not even a blink, which means the situation is at a disaster level. Sam gulps.

Then, Lena’s phone placed on the table lights up with a ding, vigorously declaring the advent of Kara’s text. Both women see it, but Lena ignores it and stares back at the file that she has already memorized.

On the other side of the table, Sam has an epiphany, hardly resisting a sly smile that is desperate to dominate her face.

There are another three dings and vibrations from the desolate phone, but the owner is adamant that she will not give it any attention, and even moves the file up a little to block the sight of it.

“So,” drawls Sam, “you broke up with Kara or something?”

Lena snaps her head up, looking scandalized. “What do you mean?”

“I mean,” Sam shrugs, “you looked off since you stepped in this office, and you ignored Kara’s texts, which has never happened before,” raising a hand to deter Lena’s protest, “besides, everyone thinks that you’re secretively dating.”

Lena is astonished. “Who is everyone?”

“Everyone with a standard brain.”

Lena looks away. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Sam puts the facetiousness away and says, “Lena, look, I don’t wanna probe into your privacy. You have every right to keep your personal life to yourself. I just wanna say, from my own experience, the silent treatment isn’t gonna solve the problem; it only makes things worse.”

“I know. It’s just… We’re not dating, though.”

Sam stutters, “Oh, sorry for assuming.”

Lena grins wryly. “It’s complicated.”

“Since when complicity is a problem for you? You’re getting soft, Luthor.”

“I can’t tell that’s a compliment or a disparagement.”

“A compliment, definitely a compliment,” says Sam righteously, which incurs an eye-rolling from Lena. Seeing her friend loosen up a little, she suggests, “Hey, why don't you come and stay with me and Ruby until the renovation of your penthouse is done? Ruby could really use your help with her science project.”

“Aren’t you worried that I might make her a lightsaber?”

Sam gasps theatrically. “You can do that? Can you make me one?”

Lena jokes, “Okay, but you and Ruby need to sign an NDA and a disclaimer first.”

Sam closes her laptop. “Before that, how about having lunch tougher? It’s on me. We can even have some midday drink if you want to talk about that Kara Denvers, or whatever her name is.”

Lena laughs. “You’re being ridiculous.”

“Or is it Kara Danfers?”

“That’s not even a name.”

Sam hums nonchalantly in reply. Rising from the chair and gesturing Lena to follow, she says, “You know, I can beat her up for you if you want me to.”

“I deeply doubt that.”

SAMANTHA ARIAS’S HOUSE

Sitting cross-legged on the floor with Ruby at the coffee table and finalizing details of her science project on the tablet, Lena is filled with ease that is reminiscent of her time at MIT. Although Ruby’s project is barely at a rudimentary level for her, she still finds herself enjoying it profoundly.

Sam comes from the kitchen and serves the science duo both a cup of tea. After settling on the couch, she says, “You know, I still think lightsaber is a better idea.”

Ruby protests, “C’mon, mom. Apparently, a robot with voice control is way much cooler.”

Sam hums noncommittally. “What can it do actually?”

“It can dance. Samba, breaking, voguing, you name it.” Ruby adds passionately, “Oh, it also can do lip-sync!”

“Impressive.” Sam looks at Lena with an expression that is far from impressive while calculating the feasibility of cutting down Ruby’s screen time.

Lena takes a sip of the tea, content with the floral flavor, intending to get away from the culpability, but the fact is, she did contribute some constructive ideas to the project since Ruby showed her some clips from the drag race, which were utterly enthralling and resulted in an impulsive subscription.

Ruby, however, is not the type who takes all the credit. “Aunt Lena has really helped a lot with it. She suggested the lip-sync.” She turns to the CEO. “Aunt Lena, please stay as long as you want. It’s really cool to have you around.”

Lena returns a genial smile, staggered by the tangible genuineness in Ruby’s words, to which she hasn’t quite got accustomed. She is acclimatizing, though, thanks to Kara who magically thawed her. Now thinking of the blonde, her spirit sinks a little. Her mind drifts back to the apartment where she should have obdurately outed her so-called best friend. Too engrossed in counting all the ramifications, she fails to notice a ring of the doorbell and the response made by Sam. It is Ruby’s exclamation of surprise that brings her back to the present.

“Aunt Kara!” Ruby drags Kara to the tablet straightaway without giving her the opportunity to greet everyone properly. “Look, Aunt Lena and I are designing a dancing robot.”

Sam cuts in, deadpan, “It’s a drag queen robot.”

Kara chuckles. “Looks amazing.”

Lena gives the blonde a stern look, but her lighting-up face betrays her intention.

Although Lena barely shed light on what’s going on between her and Kara, Sam reads the room perfectly. Extending a hand to Ruby, she says, “C’mon, Ruby, let’s go upstairs and leave the grown-ups to talk.”

Ruby complies and follows her mom upstairs. Before making a full exit, Sam cautions, “Both of you, on your best behavior, okay?” Lena rolls her eyes at this, and Kara nods dutifully.

After being left alone, Kara sits beside the brunette on the floor, and hands out the paper bag she has been holding. “This is for you.”

“What’s in it?”

“The cinnamon roll I pitched at you. I figured that I could bring it to you since you told me that you had a huge project going on and didn’t have time to hang out.”

Lena takes over the bag. “Oh, thanks.” She looks at it with an undecipherable look and places it on the coffee table, leaving it untouched.

They fall silent, both waiting for the other to start the conversation that is presumably destructive. The air is thick with tension.

Kara starts after taking a deep breath, “So, are you avoiding me? Because I asked you out?”

Lena gives Kara a prolonged stare. “Yes and no.” Seeing the blonde’s bewildered look, she elucidates, “Yes, I’m avoiding you, but not because you asked me out.”

Kara utters another conjecture that has been eroding her all day, “Because you knew.”

“Knew what exactly?”

“That I’m Supergirl.”

Another silence descends upon them.

Kara ends the deafening silence, again, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to deceive you. I’ve been wanting to tell you, but I kept chickening out because I was so afraid that you would be angry at me, and that I would ruin everything. But I already ruined everything with the lie, didn’t I?” She sighs. “If…if you don’t wanna hear from me again, I’ll respect that. I’m so sorry.”

“You know, when I found it out this morning, I thought that you were just another Super who distrusted a Luthor. I wanted to lash out, to confront you, then you asked me out.” Lena gives the blonde a weak smile. “I almost said yes. You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting for you to do it. But Kara, you keeping your Supergirl identity from me changed everything. I just need some time to digest it all. Just give me some time, okay?”

Kara nods and smiles. “Take all the time you need, and I’ll always be there for you when you need me.”

Lena smiles back, relaxing at the assurance that Kara offers.

“Okay.” Kara pushes herself to the feet. “I should get going and leave you to digest. Can you say goodbye to Sam and Ruby for me?”

“Sure.”

Kara gives Lena a last longing look and turns to leave. Just when she reaches the door, she is stopped by a call from Lena.

“Kara.”

She turns and sees that Lena is getting herself up, so she waits. Then, the brunette walks toward her steadfastly after a moment of hesitation, and she waits. When she finally stops by her, she still waits, doesn’t want to revive from the stillness spell cast on her, until the brunette wraps her into a hug.

Lena murmurs, “No more lies, okay?”

Kara hugs her back. “Okay, I promise.”

They stay like this for a while, then Lena severs the hug and says, “I’ll see you.”

Kara doesn’t know how she left the house. When she realizes that she did, she is already in the sky with her civilian clothes on. Leaving the trepidation that she might be spotted behind dismissively, she flies home with unquenchable exultation.

KARA DANVER’S APARTMENT

Maggie pauses The Legend of Korra playing on the TV, which elicits an indignant “Hey” from Alex who is sitting next to her, but the latter soon catches up on what is going on with a nudge and a glance from the former—Kara, curling up on the club chair beside them, is glued to her phone with a goofy smile, not paying any attention to the show at all.

Alex mutters, “That’s new. She loves the show and couldn’t bear missing a second of it,” turning to Maggie, “is she texting Lena?”

Maggie says, “We’ll find out.” Then, she calls out, “Kara?”

“Emm?” Kara looks at Maggie vacantly, connecting with the world around her for the first time since the show has started.

Maggie continues, “You’re missing out your favorite Asami part. So, why don’t you put down your phone and focus on the show, instead of Lena?”

Kara says, “I’m just helping her pick out an outfit for your wedding. She can’t decide on going for a dress or a suit.”

Alex is amazed by her fiancee’s interrogation tactic, and she respects it.

Maggie presses on, “So, what’s your suggestion?”

Kara flushes. “A suit. I bet that she’ll look amazing in it.”

Maggie jokes, “I bet it is her birthday suit that you want to see her in.”

Alex cringes, and her respect dissipates.

Kara, on the other hand, flushes deeper. “We’re just friends.”

Alex is baffled by the statement. “Friends? I thought you guys have already had several dates.”

“They’re just platonic dates.” Daunted by menacing glares given by the wives-to-be, Kara slumps back to the chair. “I, uhh…I don’t want to scare her off with another official ask-out since, you know, we just started talking again. I don’t want to push her.”

Maggie says, “Maybe you should push her to a wall and kiss her.”

Kara is transfixed. “I can’t tell you’re joking or being serious.”

“You’re hopeless.” Maggie plays the show, leaving the Kryptonian to ruminate.

Alex says before refocusing on the show, “I think she’s being serious.”

Kara hums, ponderously.

ALEX AND MAGGIE’S WEDDING DAY

“Talk, let’s have conversations in the dark

World is sleeping, I’m awake with you, with you

Watch, movies that we’ve both already seen

I ain’t even looking at the screen, it’s true

I’ve got my eyes on you…”

Accompanied by Kara’s singing, Eliza walks Maggie, whose wedding dress’s hemline crawls across the ground gracefully, down the aisle. After arriving at the altar, Eliza gives Maggie a hug and then heads to her seat in the ceremony seats. Maggie stays, standing on the right and expecting.

Sitting in the second row, Sam nudges Lena and whispers, “Geez, look at those arms! I bet she can lift you up with one arm.”

Lena hisses, “Shut up! She can hear you!”

Sam shrugs, insensitively.

Kara, wearing a baby blue sundress, singing wholeheartedly by the altar, skips a beat abruptly but resumes the song momentarily, and looks away from Lena who is in a dark violet suit that flaunts her skin ostentatiously.

“And you say that you’re not worthy

You get hung up on your flaws

But in my eyes, you are perfect as you are

I won’t ever try to change you, change you

I will always want the same you, same you”

Sam continues, “You know, I really don’t understand what’s stopping you from dragging that snack into your bedroom.”

Lena says with her eyes still fixing on the exuberant blonde, “I’m just taking it slow and…enjoying flirting.”

Sam makes a grimace, coyly. “Suit yourself.”

“Swear on everything I pray to

That I won’t break your heart”

J’onn walks Alex, who is also in an elegant wedding dress, down the aisle. Both of them stay at the altar. Alex stands on the left, and J’onn takes the center as the officiant.

“I’ll be there when you get lonely, lonely

Keep the secrets that you told me, told me

And your love is all you owe me

And I won’t break your heart.”

Lena’s eyes never leave Kara until the blonde finishes the song and takes the seat beside Eliza.

J’onn starts, “We are gathered here today to celebrate the love between two wonderful people, whose story I was fortunate to witness from the beginning. Life has always been a mystery to us all, pushing us into a direction that we might never think of, taking us to a landmark and another. And along the road, we would find ourselves eventually, and if we are lucky enough, we would also find our missing pieces, just like Maggie and Alex did. I believe that today isn’t their happy ending but another beginning of an amazing journey. So, now, before I start to cry, I will ask Maggie and Alex to exchange their vows.”

Maggie says, “I’m losing it, so I’m gonna keep it short. Alexandra Danvers, I think you already knew but I will say this to you every day that I love you, and that there is nothing I wouldn’t do to be with you, to be there for you. I love you.”

Alex says, “I can't believe this is happening. Maggie, you completed me in the most inconceivable and compelling way. I’ve never felt this free before and I've never liked a smile as much as I like yours. You taught me love and show it to me every day. So, I want to wake up to you every day and explore what lies ahead with you.”

After instructing the brides to exchange rings, J’onn says, “Now, I pronounce you wife and wife. And you may kiss each other.”

The brides rush to each other for a passionate kiss.

At the reception, everyone is a bit tipsy after several rounds of toasts. They have laughed at the brides’ speeches and cried over blessings from families and friends. With the band performing vibrantly on the stage, some are congregating on the dancing floor, swaying to the music flow strenuously.

Lena, however, isn’t among them because she isn’t the one who enjoys moving her body around idly according to ever-changing tempos, also because she isn’t drunk enough to do so yet. She just sits at her table, contenting herself with a cup of co*cktail (which Sam got her, although she isn’t a fan of it) and watching Kara doing cringey dance moves. She sees that the blonde raises Alex’s hand and invites her to take a spin, and Alex complies jocosely. Then, the blonde looks at her with a mischievous look on her face, apparently is planning to drag her into the dancing crowd.

So, she waits, patiently.

Kara elbows her way through the crowd and stops in front of her. Extending on hand, she says, “May I?”

She says nothing but takes the hand, and follows the blonde to the dancing floor.

After reaching a relatively less congested spot, Kara stops and turns. As the music still goes abuzz, she says, “Now, I’m gonna show my signature dance move, and you are gonna try to follow me.”

She laughs, heartily. “Okay.”

Locking her eyes on the brunette, Kara starts to floss clumsily.

She can’t subdue her laughter. “Hell no, I’m not going to do that!”

Kara stops. “C’mon! It’s gonna be fun!”

“Fine.” She succumbs to the beseeching sapphire eyes and wobbles her arms slightly, trying her best to mimic the blonde.

Kara beams. “Ohh, not bad.” Then, she rejoins the dance in a much more enthusiastic way.

She stops her movement because the way Kara is moving is way too hilarious. She giggles nonstop, failing to notice that the music has changed into a soft one, until Kara takes her hand and pulls her close. Leaning against Kara’s front, she wavers for a moment before draping her other hand on the blonde’s shoulder and letting her lead the dance.

They just stare at each other, and their bodies respond to the music automatically.

At the beginning of the second verse of the music, Kara whispers, “You look amazing.”

“Thanks. You look amazing, too. And your voice is also amazing.”

Kara blushes and looks away.

They continue to dance to the music until the last note sounds. She withdraws her hand and is about to take a step back, but Kara doesn’t let her go, stopping her with the hand that is still resting on the small of her back. So, she stays with a questioning look.

The music in the background changes into a fast-paced one. Then, she hears, “Can I kiss you?”

She is stunned by the question at first and then answers it by tiptoeing a little to smash their lips together.