Experience Tumblr like never before
Supercorp - Blog Posts
It’s in my DNA. So please, just stop believing in me, okay? I am not worth it.
Hello 🙂 for the one hundred ways to say I love you I’ll ask you number 99! Thank you!
100 Ways to Say I Love you - "Be Careful" (Supercorp)
Maybe one of my shortest ficlets. A little Post-Phantom Zone reunion with a touch of angst.
Lena’s voice had been noticeably absent from the chorus of goodbyes from everyone gathered at the Watchtower as Kara prepared to head out on patrol. Something that she had tried not to notice, tried not to allow her mind to spin into some hurtful bit of fiction but as she prepared to head out on patrol she could feel herself doing just that. It didn’t surprise her... Not only did Kara have a way with words but she had months of incredibly painful memories to draw from back when she and Lena had been estranged, a deep well to draw fetid water from.. . Despite the careful progress the two had made since her return from the Phantom Zone, maybe they weren’t as okay as she thought they were… “Kara…” Lena’s voice floated to her from down the hall from the direction she had just come. There was the measured staccato click of her heels as she approached and when Lena drew closer the unmistakable beating of her heart, the tempo increasing ever so slightly when their eyes met... “Lena… Is something wrong?” Lena smiled shyly and shook her head., eyes trained momentarily on the ground before she looked up again and Kara was almost overcome with just how green Lena’s eyes truly were. The verdant green of some unending grassy meadow or the glittering ethereal beauty of delicately cut emeralds. “Nothing’s wrong,” Lena assured her. “I just…” She exhaled slowly and Kara took a step closer, concerned. “Promise me something?” she asked and before Kara could agree to Lena’s terms, she spoke again. “Be careful… Promise me that you’ll be careful, Kara.” Kara might have told her that she was just going out on patrol, that she had a better chance of being hounded for a picture than happening across an actual crime in progress but she saw the poorly masked fear on Lena’s face, the slight tremble in her hands and couldn’t get the words out. “I just got you back,” Lena whispered, throwing back the curtain on the root of her fear. “And I can’t…” She clamped her mouth shut and shook her head, dropping her gaze again as her shoulders started to hitch. “I can’t…” She trailed off again and shook her head, unable to get the words out but she didn’t need to. Kara already knew what she wanted to say. “I can’t lose you, Lena,” Kara said and took Lena gently by the shoulders and pulled her into a hug that Lena melted into, arms wrapping tightly around Kara’s back, her head coming to rest against her shoulder. “I promise that I’ll be careful,” Kara whispered, pressing her lips to Lena’s temple, still holding onto her tight, tight. “And you’re here now,” she whispered and felt her eyes mist over. There were no more secrets between them, no more lies, and now all that remained was the simple fact that they were two people who loved one another very much. “Right here with me,” Kara whispered. “Right where I always wanted you to be.” Lena nodded earnestly against Kara's shoulder and nuzzled closer, tears sliding down her cheeks that Kara did her best to brush away as gently as she could. She tilted her head slightly to the side and Kara felt Lena's hands glide down her sides sending a rush of blood to her head that made her feel the slightest bit dizzy. Her hands settled securely around Kara's waist and she lifted her head up from Kara's shoulder, eyes sparkling. "I'll be here," Lena said and pointed back towards the room in the Watchtower they had both just vacated. "And here." She pointed to Kara's ear. "And here," she whispered and pressed her hand over Kara's heart. She rose up half an inch onto the tips of her toes, lips brushing dangerously close against Kara's ear that got her heart racing. "Go get 'em, Supergirl."
A smile as bright as the rising sun lit up Kara's face and while she would have liked nothing more than to scoop Lena up into her arms and fly somewhere private... somewhere romantic, she knew that there would be time for that later, tonight maybe if all was quiet. "Dinner later? If you don't mind waiting," Kara said, giving Lena an out. "As long as you let me pay," Lena said and while her eyes were still damp, she looked like she was more than ready to dig her heels in if needed. "Deal," Kara said, rising a couple of inches off the ground, feeling so deliriously happy that she might have been able to fly on just that feeling alone and flew backwards, not wanting to take her eyes off of Lena, nearly flying into a water cooler before she finally turned around and put on a burst of speed, flying out and over the city. She couldn't remember the view ever looking so magnificent. "You both left your comms on," Alex said her voice filtering in through her suit's comms. "Next time maybe switch to a private channel," she suggested, her voice brimming with poorly restrained glee.
Feeling stuck on my main fic, so decided to jump in on Supercorptober prompts (Day 15 — Coffee) despite having skipped the entire first half of the month. Just a little bit of college AU fluff. Up now on AO3, if you’d rather read it there. Hope you like it!
*********
“Coffee?”
“What? Oh, hi!”
Lena looked up from her theoretical physics assignment and smiled at the girl standing a few feet away. She was holding two coffees awkwardly at her sides, nervously shifting her weight from one foot to the other, but her sky blue eyes were fixed hopefully on Lena’s. Lena raised her hand up to shield her forehead, careful of the pencil still gripped tightly between her fingers, and squinted. It was unmistakably the same girl who had slammed into her three days ago in the middle of the quad, spilling both of their half-full coffees all over her favorite graphic tee and pristine white sneakers.
“Kara, right?”
The girl’s cautious smile widened so much it made her eyes crinkle. “Yeah! That’s right!” She nodded and Lena was about to reintroduce herself, but the girl continued. “Lena.”
Lena felt her heart pound an extra beat, hard against her ribs.
That was odd.
But the way her name sounded breathed out by those smiling pink lips — as though that wasn’t the first time they’d ever said them, as though maybe they’d spent the last few days rolling them around her mouth like a favorite candy — made her stomach do funny little flips. She let her tongue try its own new flavor again, “Kara,” and it sent a shiver down her spine and flush to her cheeks.
If Kara noticed, she was kind enough not to mention it. She just kept staring and smiled even wider. Smiled like some girl remembering her name three days after spilling coffee all over each other was the best thing that had ever happened to her.
They stayed like that for a few more seconds, already long enough to be embarrassing if anyone happened to be watching, before Lena’s smile crooked a bit and she lifted one perfect eyebrow in question.
“Oh, right, sorry! Um, I just, I saw you here on my way to the cafe…” Kara swung her arm over her shoulder, motioning toward the campus’s only source of decent fresh-brewed coffee, and the movement caused a few drops to escape the white travel lid and land hot on the girl’s wrist. “Oh shoot.” She mumbled, and Lena watched as a dark pink tongue licked across tanned skin before soft lips closed quickly around it. Lena thought she heard Kara mumble “hopeless” to herself, but she couldn’t be sure over the deafening sound of her own rushing blood pounding in her ears.
Well, shit.
A distracting crush on a straight girl was the last thing Lena needed right now. She should probably pretend to be busy [‘you are busy’ her useless queer brain supplied] and nip this in the bud. She opened her mouth for a friendly but firm brush-off, but Kara was already talking again.
“Anyway, um, you didn’t let me buy you a fresh coffee the other day, so I thought maybe I could make it up to you now. May I?” Kara motioned toward the empty half of the park bench on which Lena was now sitting completely frozen. Her mouth opened and closed a couple of times, trying to will dismissive words to come out.
They refused.
But the silence seemed to be doing the trick anyway. Kara’s smile faltered and her voice sounded higher and a little strained as she forced understanding words through a now-plastic looking grin. “Or, you’re probably busy. Sorry, that was stupid, I shouldn’t have interrupted you, you’re obviously working. I’ll let you—“
“Kara, wait. Please. I’ve been staring at this book for so long the words are swimming on the pages. I could use a little break.” It was a blatant lie. She’d barely made it through half of her assignment and would never finish before class if she didn’t get back to it immediately. But Kara’s smile had broken free of its plastic casing again and Lena could’ve sworn her eyes actually sparkled. She had never cared less about theoretical physics.
“Cool! Great. Nice. Thanks! Um… here.” Kara finally settled on the bench, messenger bag half-trapped under her leg. She was trying to blow a flyaway lock of hair out from between her face and her glasses, holding both arms awkwardly in front of her to keep from spilling either coffee again.
“Oh, thanks.” Lena helpfully took the offered cup then hesitated, not wanting to be rude, but… “I’m happy for the friendly distraction, but I’ll pass on the coffee. I only drink half-caf after 3pm or I’m up all night.”
Kara finally freed her messenger bag and wrangled her (gorgeous) unruly hair out of her eyes. Pushing her glasses back up the bridge of her nose, she grinned as she reached out to twist the cup in Lena’s hands. Lena looked down at the hastily scribbled “1/2 caf” and then back up at Kara with surprise and an unspoken question in her eyes.
Kara blushed a bit, but just shrugged her shoulders. “I maybe might have noticed you in the cafe before. It’s not like it’s a hard order to remember: black in the morning, half-caf black in the afternoon. Which, also, now that we’re on the subject: Gross. How can you drink that?!”
Lena scoffed in mock outrage. “If I’m drinking coffee, I’m going to drink coffee. You’re the one who should explain herself, 3 milks and 10 sugars? What kind of monster?”
Kara’s eyes widened and Lena’s face went scarlet.
“Oh, really?” It could’ve been in defense of her “coffee” preferences, but it was quite obviously more about Lena’s accidental confession.
Lena tried to keep her eyes appropriately, embarrassingly, focused on the ground. “I maybe might have noticed you before, too.” But she couldn’t help glance up sideways through her lashes to check for Kara’s reaction.
“Well, that’s encouraging.” Kara had one smug eyebrow lifted, but she failed to hold onto her attempted smirk. Her face seemed determined to break into the widest most uninhibited smile Lena had ever seen directed her way.
“Oh?” Now Lena was trying to be coy, but Kara’s was the kind of smile that tugged yours right along with it. Before she could stop herself, Lena’s cheeks were spread around double dimples and she giggled as she scrunched up her nose and shook her head a little at the strange, beautiful girl still beaming at her with unrestrained hope. [Maybe not so straight after all?]
“Want to grab coffee with me some time?” [Definitely not so straight after all.]
Lena laughed. “Aren’t we having coffee now?”
“Oh, so this is a date! Excellent.” Kara winked. “I kinda thought so, too.” She paused while Lena laughed again, still shaking her head and nervously playing with the lid to her drink. “And since the first date is going so swimmingly, I hope it’s not too forward to ask if I could maybe take you on a second date sometime soon?”
Lena stared at those earnest blue eyes and genuine smile. The last shake of her head was directed at no one but herself as she broke every rule she had carefully put in place to avoid the dangers of letting anyone close. She turned away from Kara and rifled in her backpack, quickly unlocking her phone and handing it over before she could change her mind.
“Go ahead, put your number in.”
Kara very nearly spilled her coffee again as she scrambled to set it down and take Lena’s phone from her hands. She quickly entered her info and passed it back to Lena, her hand slowing at the last minute as a brief shadow of doubt crossed her face. Before Kara could finish her sentence (“Is it okay if I get yours— too— oh, nice!”) Lena had tapped the little phone icon and smirked as Kara whipped around to the sound of her own ringer going off.
Kara turned back around. “Best first date ever.”
Lena laughed, “I can’t help but feel that was a pretty low bar then.”
“Nope.”
Lena’s cheeks were starting to hurt from smiling. Not a very Luthor problem, to say the least. Another thing she couldn’t care less about at the moment.
“I do actually have to finish a couple of sketches before my evening class though, do you mind if I…”
“Oh, no, of course! I, um, I should actually finish this physics reading, too.”
Kara smiled and reached into her bag for a sketch pad, two pencils, and a putty eraser. She brought her legs up to criss-cross on the bench and smiled one more time at Lena before diving right in on a blank page, tongue poking endearingly between her teeth. Lena settled back into her reading and was soon lost in her own work.
The silence that followed had absolutely no right to be as comfortable and productive as it was. Lena was nearing her last paragraph when her phone alarm cut through the ambient chirping of birds, murmuring of students, and crunching of autumn leaves under passing footsteps along the park paths.
Kara jerked her head up at the sound and clutched her sketchbook against her chest as Lena silenced her phone and started packing up.
“Sorry, I forgot I had that set. Good thing though, I guess, I was really off in my own world there.”
For some reason she couldn’t bring herself to meet Kara’s gaze. She kept rearranging things in her bag, trying counterproductively to both stretch and avoid the moment. “Um, I have to get to class though… I’ll, uh…” [Pull it together, Luthor.] She breathed out, stilled her hands, straightened her back, and looked down into Kara’s startling blue eyes. “I hope this isn’t the last time we talk?”
Kara’s smile was nothing if not a promise. “I hope not either.”
Hi friend! How bout " jesus... what have they done to you... " Or "it's okay... I'm here now" for the drawing prompt thing :)
Fic update!
she’s cursed
chapter 9, mistakes
on ao3
•••
“Babies aren’t weird!”
Sewn Soul
Her body feels foreign. It takes days to adjust to the motions and weeks to grow comfortable in it.
It's like a second thought and each time she moves, she has to think about it. She bends forks and breaks dishes with inhumane strength. She reaches a staircase and doesn't remember how to lift her foot to take the first step.
The woman is always there with her, patient and ever so gentle. She eases her grip on the cutlery and hooks their elbows together before nudging her towards the stairs.
With each passing day, she acquires an inch more of her body.
A rattle of bones, a clack of fangs and teeth. Soft skin that bleeds under halfmoons of nails.
Or my interpretation of this spooky art
read it on ao3
Here’s an old story, while my brain fights with itself and refuses to put together more words. Happy Halloween!
is it possible to fall in love with tiny wisps of hair on the back of a neck? or would it make more sense to say that she’s in love with the owner of the neck with the tiny wisps of hair swaying ever so slowly as the evening breeze waltzes through the open windows of her apartment.
kara can’t seem to take her eyes off of them.
it’s as if they’re coaxing her to touch them — calling out to her in a tiny voice that says come here, come closer, touch us with your gentle fingers — and kara does, kara really wants to, but alex is here and sitting next to her is kelly. sam is on the other side of lena, engaged in a lively conversation with the only couple in the room, and kara is just… staring, facing lena, one arm propped on the back of the couch, elbow bent so her fist is resting against the side of her head, and chin resting on her bicep.
it can’t be the alien alcoholic beverage that sam brought along with her nor is it the fact that she’s just recently recovered from another solar flare. it just doesn’t make sense. it wouldn’t explain the one time she caught herself looking at the back of lena’s neck during their first game night with her; not the one where she’s standing behind lena, saying things about wanting to rebuild their trust, momentarily distracted by those tiny wisps of hair before lena inevitably turned to her with a curious frown.
none of those moments had involved alcohol or… or solar flare.
it just… is. it’s just because of lena and her slender neck, her soft-looking skin, those tiny—
“what?”
in her distracted state, kara misses the moment when lena finally feels the weight of her stare and turns to her with a small smile, bordering confused — her cheeks flushing a pretty shade of pink under kara’s gaze.
she’s so close.
kara meets her eyes and… she doesn’t know what to say, so she doesn’t make a single sound. merely shrugs her shoulders, eyes searching lena’s green ones, dropping briefly on her red lips, slightly parted and wet from the red wine, then back up at her green eyes.
“what’s wrong?” lena asks again, tilting her body towards her this time, but only just enough that it doesn’t rouse other guests. it brings her even closer to kara, effectively stealing the air from her lungs.
kara shakes her head again, incapable of words now that lena’s facing her; tiny, wispy, little hairs now gone but replaced by the mesmerizing sight her eyes. she sighs longingly, stretching her arm so her hand lands near lena’s neck, fingers brushing ever so lightly on those tiny, little strands of hair. lena shudders, a natural reaction, especially in that particular area, but it affects kara in a way that makes her want to do it again and again, and again, and again—
alex, kelly, and sam be damned.
she just wants to touch her there forever, caress her slowly and lull her to sleep. she wants to see those eyelashes fluttering shut, wants to be the reason why lena is comfortable and sleepy and—
kara’s heart aches.
“darling?”
kara breathes out, slowly but steady, and before she chickens out, she moves forward and presses her lips so, so lightly against lena’s. it’s the softest kiss she’s ever had and ever given someone; the bravest kiss she’s ever pursued, uncaring of the sudden silence in her living room, of the shuffling of feet and the crumpling of paper bags to be disposed of. kara barely hears alex’s goodbye before she pulls away, pressing her forehead against lena’s with a nervous sigh.
“was that okay?” kara asks, heart beating loud and fast against her ribs as she brushes her thumb across lena’s neck, urging — begging — her to open those beautiful eyes of hers. “lena?”
lena lets out a watery laugh, finally meeting kara’s gaze with so much love in those pools of green.
“more than okay, my love.”
—
READ ON AO3
It actually reminds me of No one mourns the wicked by kellsbells
which is one of my personal favourites.
WICKED MUSICAL | SUPERCORP AU’S THAT I’LL NEVER WRITE 4/?
Lena has been casted as Elphaba for the new season of Wicked, most of the other actors think she only got the role because of her family and she’s starting to believe it.
Maybe they are right because how could she ever be to the pair of Kara Danvers (Glinda) who is literally one of the biggest names in musical theatre? Kara is nice, especially with Lena and all she can hope is not to mess things up with her, in and out of stage.
There are Secrets of the Heart to Wonderful for Words
Another soulmate AU—in which the first words your person ever says to you are written on your wrist. Only Lena doesn't have any markings, and Kara has far too many.
Word Count: 1898
Read on AO3
Year: 2004
Lena:
Words. Lena Luthor obsesses over other peoples’ words.
From the time a person is born, the small, black letters written on their wrist indicate the first words they’ll hear their soulmate speak.
Except Lena doesn’t have any letters. She has a painfully blank canvas on her wrist where there should have been a saying. A word. Something.
Anything.
It’s the only thing Lillian likes about her. Or likes to point out about her, amongst not being a real Luthor or not being as smart as Lex. Not having a soulmate is a frequent point of conversation between them.
“I don’t need a soulmate,” Lena says every time it’s brought up. And she doesn’t. Her greatest love is learning. Why would she ever need anybody else? Why would she ever want anybody else?
Lena is pretty sure she doesn’t have a soulmate because it would be unethical to subject them to the Luthor family. They all have them, though. She’s glad she doesn’t have one. Really. She is.
“Who would love you?” Lillian sneers every time.
Harsh words that prove to be correct.
Lionel dies. Lex is in prison, and Lillian becomes crueler with every year that passes.
Lena’s blank wrists are another checkmate in Lillian’s books; as if their very lives are an entertaining game. Lena is good at chess — likes it — but she doesn’t always want to play. She is, however, resigned to a life of being toyed with. Lena knows it’s all she will ever have, and as horrible as it may be, Lillian’s sharp criticisms and condescension is better than nothing, isn’t it?
Kara:
Words. Kara obsesses over her words.
Most people have some form of a greeting written on their wrist.
Eliza has ‘Doctor Danvers? Hi, it’s great to meet you.’
Alex has ‘I’m looking for my brother, James.’
Everyone has a few short words written at the bottom of their arm, but not Kara.
Kara can’t believe the spiel of words that takes up her entire arm.
Sure, some people have more words than others, but Kara has never, ever seen anybody who has an entire half-sleeve, starting from the crease of her elbow and ending at her wrist. Some of the words aren’t even in the dictionary, though Eliza assures Kara that her soulmate must be a scientist, based on the tattoo.
Kara’s soulmate also believes, in the future when they meet, that Kara is a new intern.
Kara isn’t sure how she feels about that. The thought of someone assuming she isn’t as smart as the writing on her arm kind of insults her, even if she doesn’t know all the words yet.
“At least we’ll know who they are right away! You could have something generic, like ‘excuse me.’ Kenny has ‘sorry’ on his wrist.” Alex does her best to make Kara feel better about having the largest soul mark in the known universe.
Kara knows she’s a rambler. She’ll talk with her hands and go on and on and on about anything and everything with very little control over it, and she worries that her soulmate’s tattoo might be even longer than her own. She’ll just have to wait and see.
Sometimes she worries over her soulmate’s mark, though.
Would they even have one?
Present Day
Kara’s late. Gosh, she’s so late. She was supposed to be at the library an hour ago but her alarm didn’t go off and now she’s going to get fired. Or probably reprimanded. Or maybe Nia covered for her, but still! Kara is late to the only good job she’s ever had, where people don’t mind how quiet she is.
She can’t lose this job, not on her first week.
She rushes toward the library, or where she thought the library was. Moving to National City to be closer to Alex was a good idea, but on days like today when the concrete and glass of the buildings bleed together like some sort of shifting labyrinth, Kara doesn’t enjoy it so much.
Especially not with all the car horns and people chattering on their cellphones. Cigarette smoke burns her nose as someone longboards by her, and the smoke mixes with the food of the vendors lined along the street.
With the bright sun overhead, it’s too much. Too much noise, too many smells and sights and feelings, and Kara needs to escape it.
She pulls open the glass doors of the nearest building —a crisp white daroca stone one that towers above the rest—and she hopes nobody minds her borrowing the space to calm down.
The heat of the sun melts away to cool air that clings to her sweaty brow, the din of the city melting behind the door as it swings closed behind her.
Kara takes a few deep breaths before looking up, her eyes widening at the blue marble floors and the white fountain that’s sunken into the floor in the middle of the room.
Small ficus trees line the walls in grey, ceramic pots.
Its austerity is calming.
The receptionist at a monochrome silver desk raises an eyebrow and Kara waves, trying to convey she’s not a total weirdo.
She glances around the room and sighs in relief when she spots a shiny, silver plaque engraved in black letters and an arrow indicating the directions to the bathroom.
Kara adjusts her glasses before following the sign down a series of hallways — all a mirror image of the last with every turn she takes, but eventually, she pushes through the black door with a bathroom sign on it, locking it behind her.
She takes a few minutes to practice breathing before she goes to the white sink. It’s like a hotel bathroom almost, with another ficus in the corner, the white porcelain and silver chrome shining like it’s never been used.
Kara smiles as she washes her hands. The soap doesn’t smell like anything.
She pushes her glasses to the top of her head while she splashes cool water on her face, eager to get rid of the sweaty residue.
After drying off with a thick paper towel, Kara glances at her watch with a sigh.
She is late, but she can explain how she got lost, and try to avoid the mistake in the future. These things happen.
She nods at herself in the mirror before leaving the room, eager to try to find her way through the city again.
Only the inside of the building is just as maze-like, and Kara goes around in circles.
What’s weird is that even though the building is lovely —sleek and clean, nobody is in it.
Kara is in a maze of white walls and marble floors with never-ending ficus trees breaking up her twists and turns.
She rolls her eyes as she ducks into one of the black doors, intent to ask someone to help her escape.
She freezes and her eyes bulge as she enters a lab.
Like, a real, mad-scientist-esque lab filled with chrome robots that shine, immobile, on the surfaces of desks, varying glass vials on the surface of another.
Kara has half a mind to leave the room and continue her lost torment, but a woman in a white lab coat and a maroon three-piece suit underneath smiles at her as she sits up from behind a desk, dropping a screwdriver onto it.
Kara means to wave or introduce herself somehow. Really, she does, but the woman is so pretty, and as soon as her green eyes land on Kara, Kara’s mind goes blank.
“Oh, you must be my new intern. You’re early, though I suppose that’s not a bad thing since we have a lot of work to do. I just started testing the biological reactions of these DNA samples after I add in nanogenes. We’re only at a success rate of 73%, so we have a ways to go. Feel free to observe while I explain-”
She continues, and Kara ambles forward, helpless to the pull. She ambles between the few rows of lab tables until she’s close enough to read the name off of the woman’s lab coat.
Lena K. Luthor
Kara beams down at it as her heart thunders in her chest.
It feels exactly like she thought it would. Her palms are sweaty, and this woman rambles on and on about nanogenes and technology that could change the future.
Her green eyes sparkle with passion as she talks about her work, and already, Kara wants to get lost in them.
Kara’s breath comes in small pants, catching in her throat each time as she smiles at this beautiful, marvelous woman.
A woman whose words Kara has read over and over, words Kara doodled on top of when she was bored in class, read when she was sad, thought about to remind herself that there was someone, somewhere, waiting to be loved by her.
Lena’s jaw is sharp, like her mind, Kara’s sure. Her hair is pulled back into a high ponytail as she gestures to the microscope in front of her. Kara wants to reach out and touch her, hold her, explain who she is and how she got there.
Lena freezes when she turns back toward Kara, surprised by the proximity, and she raises her eyebrows at the closeness before they pinch in concern.
Tears have gathered in Kara’s eyes and she wipes them away with a noiseless chuckle. She bites her lip, takes a deep breath, and rests her leather bag on the lab table before she unbuttons the sleeve of her navy blue oxford.
Words upon words are revealed and Lena glances at them in confusion before her eyes grow wide.
Lena looks at Kara’s forearm, her own words —to the exact punctuation—staring back at her.
She reaches up to touch them, goosebumps rising across Kara’s skin as cool fingers caress her tattooed flesh.
The sleeves of Lena's coat and suit rise as she cradles Kara's arm like a precious thing, rubbing her thumbs across the paragraphs with reverent disbelief.
This is when Kara’s heart breaks because where there should be something —some grand declaration of all the fierce love Kara carries in her heart—all Lena has is pale, blank skin.
Lena bites her lips as she inhales a shaky breath through her nose. Her eyes, lovely sea-green eyes, are red around the edges and her lashes wet as she lets a tear trickle down her face.
She didn’t think she had a soulmate, Kara realizes.
And maybe Kara can’t talk—hasn’t spoken a word in her life—but she has never needed words to get her point across.
Kara points to her mouth with her tattooed arm, shaking her head when Lena looks up.
Lena’s shoulders ease in understanding, and she takes a breath so full it’s like the first time she’s ever breathed.
Kara bites her lips as she opens her arms, slow and tender as she brushes her hands across the white lab coat around Lena’s shoulders, pulling her into a hug that starts gentle but gets firmer the more Lena clings to her.
Kara rests her head on the side of Lena’s, sure that the steady pressure of her hug is saying everything for her.
It says, “I am here now.
I’m sorry it took this long.
I care about you so much.
And I am not going anywhere.”
part one
Despite being very red, Lena's cadence stayed mellow and sober as she trudged through rows of flowers.
Kara studied her from the shade of the orchard, half hidden between wavy fronds of fig saplings. Leaning back against the coarse bark of an old tree, Kara sat cross legged, lap overflowing with wicker. She dragged her thumbs along the chipped edge of a half assembled basket, as her nimble hands entwined sinewy twigs with mindless sinuous movements.
She could see Lena's lips mouthing something, but she couldn't make out the words so far.
After a tentative week of forced bedrest, Lena's bandages had finally peeled away in clean folds of stale white. Her limp had healed and the bruises over her ribcage had disappeared, nursed back to health by stubbornness and frowns. As soon as she could last an entire day without collapsing in exhausted naps, Lena had rolled the cuffs of long sleeves over her wrists and offered to help with odd jobs around the farm.
"Have you ever uprooted weeds?" Kara mused, elbows half buried in a bag of fertilizer.
Lena cast the bag an indifferent glance, "Can't be more difficult than polyatomic anions."
Armed with a crooked rake, Lena braved the grassy plains with the hesitance of a newborn duckling. And the same quiet determination to spread wings for the first time.
The fields were cast in the rusty glow of sunset as light seeped into the wrinkles of Lena's starched shirt. It was an old garment, one that Kara had fished from a forgotten corner of her wardrobe, tucked under the tailored tunic her mo-
A twig snapped under her fingertips, startling Kara out of her thoughts. She brushed them away like cobwebs, struggling to untangle the broken wicker stuck in the weaved pattern of the basket. All her efforts proved to be fruitless and Kara stood with a sigh, mentally giving up on the task.
She looked over Lena's hunched form, still engrossed in her job and figured they could call it a day. She dusted herself off and strolled past the trees' edge, wandering towards the open field. The basket was soon forgotten in the fallen foliage.
As she neared, Lena interrupted her string of murmurs. Her rucked shirt was stained with dirt and grass smudges, much like Kara's beige overalls. Kara's eyes scanned the field, looking for the way glass bent around the memory of Lena's steps, who was bent over a flowerbed of tulips, a vibrant cloud of red flowers that dissolved into smoke every sunset.
Lena's eyes shone with wonder when she had seen her the first vanishing blossom turning into smoke.
The air smelled of flowers and early chance of rain.
Another petal dissolved under their eyes and Lena offered a halcyon smile.
"These flowers are beautiful."
Glowing with a burgeoning sunburn, Lena painted an almost endearing picture, dirt stains in the shape of her knees and small blisters huddled on her palms from the rake's handle.
"When I said you could help around the farm I didn't mean you had to get sunburn on the first day on the job."
Lena flicked a lock of hair behind her ear with a flippant smile, "I might have underestimated this planet's two suns."
Kara chuckled briefly, catching easily on the playful tone, "I can tell. You are also quite..." Kara hesitated, chanced a quick look at the sliver of Lena's exposed collarbone, "You do have a fair complexion."
"My Irish genes shining through."
Kara blew her lips, "Yeah, I have no idea what that means."
"You really don't, do you?" Lena looked pensive and Kara tilted her body forward, swaying on the balls of her feet.
"The place I come from, Ireland," continued Lena, "My mother's side of the family."
The tendrils of dimming sunlight felt warm on their skin.
"She is-" Kara waved a hand, "Is she Irish?"
Cracking a slanted grin, Lena turned subtly away from her as if to inspect another dissolving tulip, and made no reply. At the prolonged silence, Kara forced herself not to reach over, lest she ended up doing something ludicrous.
(Like tuck the sad alien under her chin, chase a grip on her body, fold those hunched shoulders in a hug.)
After a moment, Lena sighed.
"I'm sorry. I'm not really good for conversation."
Kara's thoughts clammed in one direction No, you are fine. For an alien who crashed on my tiny farm, you are doing really well, even if I think you frown too much.
"Me either. I'm not really good at talking, most of the time I end up rambling," was what she said, instead.
"You do seem the type to ramble," Lena commented, handing the rake back to Kara to dust herself off.
Kara surveyed the flowers with a critic's eye, impressed with Lena's work: she may have lacked speed, as only half the field had been tilled at the end of the afternoon, but Lena definitely made up with her immaculate meticulousness.
"Wow," she deadpanned, "The first alien ever to crash into my silo and - of course - it's a rude alien."
That was enough to make Lena smirk and to lodge a proud grain of warmth in Kara's chest. She could do banter with Lena. It was safer than personal issues.
Kara had a fleeting thought to grab Lena by the wrist, then thought better of it before starting the walk back towards the house. She felt Lena fall into step behind her.
"So, how was your first experience with farming?" Kara asked, pausing on the toll of lightness in her timbre. She heaved the rake over her shoulders with a twirl, a move she hoped looked as cool as she intended. But at the apex of the motion, the handle hit the back of her head with a thud.
Lena's chuckle flew past her ears like wind chimes and in horrifying slow motion, Kara turned her head back to look for the crumbles of her own dignity. There was mirth in Lena's eyes, a dance of laughing stardust as her grin teased Kara's clumsiness.
Blowing at her mussed hair, Kara felt her cheeks match Lena's in redness as one of the alien's dark eyebrow rose. Embarrassed, she ducked her head to look at her feet and kept walking.
"The first encounter of my intergalactic travels and - of course - it's a dork farmer."
Kara chuffed good-naturedly at the impish tone, "Rude," she tossed back over her shoulder.
She met Lena's amused stare with her own teasing eyes, as the alien plodded through the lush plains.
An easy silence fell between them, encompassed by the background noises of a languid sunset. A fatigued yawn overruled Lena's lingering grin.
"I'm definitely gonna be sore tomorrow," she stretched, rolling her stiff shoulders in circular motions. She halted mid stretch to wince at the feeling of tender skin, "Oh, I'm definitely gonna feel that tomorrow."
Kara couldn't help but sneak another glance at Lena's shoulders, red skin peeking from the loose collar of her shirt.
"I'm sure I have some silver cream somewhere in some cabinet. For burns," she reassured with a sympathetic hum.
"You're a lifesaver," Lena sighed gratefully, missing the quip of her own words.
Without missing a beat, Kara added a teasing note, "Alas, I don't entrust my secret remedies to rude aliens, so you'll have to-"
Lena swatted at Kara's arm, wrinkling her sunburnt nose.
"You should have thought twice about laughing at my coolest moves."
Kara relished in the serene warmth diffusing in her body from head to toes as Lena laughed again.
(It had been a while.)
+++++
(She almost forgot to retrieve the half finished basket.)
+++++
The ancient spaceship had been caught in the planet's orbit and had crashed in a manner of seconds.
Kara had been kneeling next to the leaky pond when the spaceship had slashed her sky in two, catching her silo in its blazing trail.
All the ducklings had scattered immediately at the blare of the crash, the herd of rams barreling down their grassy pasture in fright. It had taken her three full hours, later in the dim lights of the evening, to gather them again, coaxing the most stubborn with her treasured stash of gummy bears - hay flavoured.
The rising smoke had been thick, burning black from oil and machinery. The same dark smoke Kara had seen once, several moons ago, after the battle against Daxam, where her father's battleship had been swallowed in the same black clouds.
She had stumbled to the side of the burned out shell, squinting. With shaking hands and tattered rags she had snuffed the fire quickly, before pulling herself level with a gaping hole in the spaceship flank to peer inside its belly.
The sunlight had danced on the alien's dark visor as its head had lolled against her shoulder.
Apollo x Daphne AU — goddess of music
A gentle breeze touches Lena’s flushed and clammy skin, but it brings no relief – even the air itself is stiflingly hot today. Tree leaves brush against her arms and her cheeks, tickle the soles of her feet, get tangled in her hair. Lena breathes in slowly and lets the scent of the mountains ground her as she makes her way home.
Time has given her the opportunity to memorize the world around her in ways no mortal ever could. She knows the ways rivers flow in winter, after a rainstorm, during a draught. She knows the way they used to flow, and remembers every change. She knows where they end, where they start, when they started.
She would know the way through these mountains blindfolded, on the darkest nights.
Her connection with these forests allows her to notice when something has changed within them – a new presence, or the loss of an old one. Today is one of those moments. Lena isn’t sure what it is. The grass is still scratchy and yellow in the same places as yesterday, still green and soft in others. The cypress trees are still in the same place, and so are the barn owls nesting in their hollows. Even the gray wolves haven’t moved from their resting place since this morning when she left.
Whatever it is, she decides, there is no use dwelling on it now. Lena lets her thoughts drift as she climbs over a fallen tree. Its mossy trunk feels warm on her thighs and hands – familiar, she imagines, like the touch of a lover would feel after centuries of closeness. Intimate, trusting, in a way she herself has never felt with anyone. The thought of it feels familiar even so – she has dreamed of a love like that so often, she can almost feel its warmth.
But romance happens in stories, and a watered-down version of it happens to the other nymphs around her, and nothing like it will ever happen to Lena. She has made peace with that knowledge a long time ago, and if you asked her, she wouldn’t say she’s lonely. Lena treasures the time she spends in solitude, free of judgement and expectations, free of performances. The sweltering heat of today’s noon should be spent just like that, alone.
As she makes her way across a grassy glade, she finally hears the murmur of her river. Lena sighs in relief. She has detested the summer for as long as she can remember, and today’s blinding sun does nothing to change her mind. She can’t wait to dip her tired body in the cold, rushing river water, floating in it with her eyes closed and her mind wandering.
Which is, of course, when she hears it.
Keep reading
"Do you think I could use horseradish as fuel?"
Kara paused in her hammering to cast the alien an apprehensive look, "It depends on how advanced your technology is."
"We don't usually rely on vegetables for powering up our spaceships, but this one- this one glows..." the alien trailed off, frowning at the luminous tuber clutched in her hands.
"Your vegetables aren't of the glowing kind?"
The alien offered an overwhelmed shrug.
"Will you show me another cool transmutation trick? From vegetable to fuel?"
Something creased the thin line of the alien's mouth, "That was just dried grape fruit. Astronaut foods. It wasn't a real sugar cube, it just looked like one."
Kara didn't frown back. She offered an helpless shrug instead, one that made the hammer slip out of her clammy grip. The tool plummeted to the ground, awkward and way too loud for what was going on. The alien chuckled at her clumsiness, sniffling and Kara ignored the wet note stuck in her voice.
The air grew quiet as Kara turned to stand shoulder to shoulder with the lost castaway. Together, they stared at the crumpled skeleton of the spaceship as smoke slowly rose from its corpse.
The alien crouched to toss back the horseradish in its crate, where other vegetables were mutely glowing in a rainbow of neon colours. The movement shifted the tattered bandage fastened around her head.
"It's not like-" Kara extricated her sweaty fingers around the hammer's handle, hoping that freedom of movement would improve her eloquence, "I mean, even if you had fuel, it's not like you could fly with a gaping hole in your flank, right?" she muttered, awkwardly pinching the side of her wrist.
The alien's shoulders just deflated, the slope of her spine tilting. Fingertips nervously drumming the side of the hammer, Kara felt she had never known such helplessness before.
(Maybe once.)
"Look, Lena-" the name rumbled like a sticky vibration on Kara's tongue, unfamiliar with the strangeness of such a foreign tonality. By the passing expression on the alien's face, the same weird feeling must have resounded in her ears.
Feeling a bubble of unease burst in her chest, Kara gnawed on her bottom lip. "It's going to be okay," she pressed, "Next time the cargo ship comes, you can come with me to the market. I'm sure you'll find something for repairs and-and..."
Lingering words got lost in the stark profile that Lena cast over rows of drooping gladiolus, under the twinkling light of the pair of suns. Kara swallowed, fighting the distinct urge to hug the lost alien, who was merely a stranger with a crashed spaceship and frowning lines.
"I promise."
But the frown didn't lift from Lena's forehead, settling deeper in the circles in her eyes. Kara had never encountered such a frowny alien before.
She fell silent, dreading whatever clunky attempt at comfort her mouth would sprout next.
(She used to be better at this.)
She aligned her knuckles back in her grip around the hammer and turned back to work. She let herself get lost in the rhythm of mindless hammering, palming dark veins in wooden planks. There was always something to mend or repair around the farm, dull tasks that became plain boring during the sourer days. But Kara didn't mind the dust and the boredom, she liked the hard work. Making something with her hands.
It took Lena three boards and seventeen nails to turn away from the broken remains of the spaceship.
"What are you doing?" she asked quietly, tugging at the loose end of one of her sleeves.
Kneeling in the dirt, Kara tossed an easy smile over her shoulder, grateful for the lighter tone of Lena's question. "Oh! Just trying to fix this pond. It’s been leaking something awful and I could hardly keep it full.”
Lena still looked caught up in her head, but Kara couldn't help a relieved breath when Lena sat down with her on the naked ground, legs folding over each other. The slope of her shoulders curled inwards.
"I was worried the ducks wouldn't have liked it anymore with such little water," Kara continued, conversational, eyes flicking to a grease stain on Lena's forearm.
Lena didn't reply to that. She just changed her position, the white of her pants brushing against the ground. It painted a smudge of dirt on the cloth, the only dainty pair of trousers Kara had been able to salvage from the crash and the blood. It was a pity to stain such a rich fabric, but living on a farm did tend to have that effect on things. And on people, too.
She looked like a lost person, with her crossed legs and closed eyes. Like a fragment of a star in a galaxy of asteroids.
Turning on the water to refill the pond, Kara straightened with a jolt, head snapping up. A couple of bones cracked in her back and elbow as she released a satisfying sigh. Cheek cradled in one hand, Lena peeked at her from the corner of one eye, "Ouch," she winced, offering a tight grin.
Kara shrugged cheekily. She rummaged for a moment through the pebbles at her feet, before choosing a single rock and weighed it in her hand. It was flat and small and she could hold it in one palm.
Lena's gaze got lost in the repetitive movement of the water, until Kara tossed the pebble across the surface of her newly repaired pond, watching it glumly sink in the middle of lazy ripples.
Lena turned to face her, both eyes open. Kara felt herself blushing under her stare, "I was trying to skip a rock."
"It didn't skip."
The blush reached the tips of Kara's ears.
"Why would you do that?"
Shuffling closer to the pond, Kara knelt to inspect the mended planks, if only to hide the redness dusted on her cheeks, "I thought it would skip."
A huff of laughter reached her ears and Kara watched the shards of a smile paint itself across Lena's frown. It was the first time she could see a trace of pure joy in the alien's smile. She should have tried to skip rocks earlier.
When Lena's laughter grew into a comfortable silence, Kara turned back towards the setting suns. She had just enough time before darkness to check on the grapevines, to check the soil for-
"Oh."
Kara watched as Lena's lips morphed into a mou of surprise.
A chaotic procession of ducks suddenly unfolded in front of them, a fluttery of green feathers. Two, three, six animals wandered past the pair, wobbling unsteadily on webbed feet. Only the bravest of the flock hobbled close to Lena to inspect the frayed hem of her nice pants.
"Uuuh," Lena's hand hovered.
"Ssh," Kara shushed gently, "I think he likes you."
The curious duck hesitated maybe three more seconds before he blinked his purple irises at Lena, batting one eyelid at a time. He lifted one wing and started preening. The other ducks were swimming lazy circles in the pond.
Kara leaned back on her feet to stare, flashing a proud smile.
Lena didn't meet her eye, busy doing some simple math under her breath. "He has... four wings."
Hammer tucked back in her belt, Kara sat again in the dirt, sending a fleeting apology to the grapevines, "Yes," the duck fluttered his wings, "You've never seen a duck before?"
"Of course I have- of course," said Lena, and then hesitated for a handful of choppy seconds, "We have ducks on... back on my home planet, but these... I've never seen alien ducks before."
Kara wrinkled her nose, "These aren't alien ducks," she pointed out.
"Of course they are, Kara. They have four wings, four-"
"That doesn't make them aliens."
"Ducks have two wings, Kara, two! Not four. Back on my...," she stumbled, "Back on..."
The first of the two suns the planet orbited around disappeared under the horizon, a trail of magenta embers left behind.
The breath that pushed out of Lena was long, sharp and Kara noticed the way it took another chip of tension out of her body. It dissolved into a hiccuping laughter, like syrupy bubbles clawing their way out of her throat. Lena kept chuckling even when her eyes filled with tears.
Done with his preening, the duck ambled towards the pond, tail wagging, his animal heart too young to comprehend the entirety of Lena's splintered feelings. Kara felt more in tune with him for a cursory instant.
Lena leaned back on her elbows, "I'm an alien."
Kara wondered if there was mercy in discovering another part of your soul, lost in such a minuscule place.
When Lena's tears dried, they revealed an hesitant grin buried underneath.
Always wanted to commission a SuperCorp fanart but have no means to? This might be your chance!
Hello, everyone! @kendrene has this idea of “paying a fanart forward”— you know like paying a coffee forward in cafés so the next person would get a free one but fanart!
So, this is for supercorp fans who always wanted to commission their own SC fanart but has no means to! Yup, out of the kindness of their heart, @kendrene would pay for a fanart! I’m honored to be their chosen artist for this. 🙇🏻♀️
How do we go about this?
We agreed that those interested could send me an anon ask (with your email pls!) of their commission ideas and I’ll send all of those ideas to kendrene. Kendrene will then pick the top 3 ideas to narrow the choices down (if we get a lot.) In the end, I’ll pick the ONE I can confidently draw!
So what can I draw for you? What’s the limitation? You have three choices:
A.) 6 (six) whole-body chibis (like 3x Supercorp chibi arts if I were to draw SC chibis as couple for example)
B.) half-body fanart of SuperCorp
C.) whole body fanart of either Lena or Kara
So you choose A, B or C. Then let me know in your ask what your commission ideas are!
Example: “Option B. I want Kara and Lena drinking wine and smiling fondly at each other. My email is gracie_something@yahoo.com”
I’m still quite busy though, so I can’t draw anything till March! So I guess the deadline for commission ideas will be in March! And you’ll get your commissioned piece by end of March!
I hope that was clear. Let me know if you have questions!
My only request would be keep it all rated PG! Thank you!!! ☺️
please write the zoo au 🙇
if you’re looking for something to blame for this, here’s the culprit
“…cockroaches.”
“Yes.”
Kara squints. “Like, the creepy-crawly little bugs we freeze in the thousands to feed to the animals.”
“The very same.”
“And you want me to… name them?”
Cat sighs so heavily that had she been standing, she probably would have fallen over. “You’re not naming them, Keira. Do try to keep up. Patrons can pay $5 to name a cockroach after their ex. You will then feed these named cockroaches to the animals. For $25 people can also name a frozen rat.”
Kara gapes. “So I’m feeding animals named after people to other animals?”
“If you think that displaying the comprehension skills of an elementary schooler is going to impress me, you’re sorely mistaken,” Cat says dryly, her tone bored as she shuffles the stacks of papers on her desk. “Thank you for reminding me that I didn’t hire you for your intellect.”
Kara ignores the dig. She’s had plenty of practice over the past five years. “But doesn’t that seem a little…. mean?”
“You’re worried about the feelings of a frozen dead cockroach?”
Kara huffs, digging her hands deep into the pockets of her green NC Zoo fleece. “Not the bugs. The people the bugs are named after. The people watching themselves in bug form be fed to a lizard, or whatever.”
Cat hums, tapping her pen thoughtfully against her chin. “I suppose we’d also better appeal to the bleeding-heart animal lovers out there if we want to maximise sales. We’ll introduce a vegetarian option as well: $5 to name a cabbage after your ex to be fed to our herbivores. I’ll let Olsen know.”
“But—”
“Keira.” Cat’s voice clicks into its most chilling no-bullshit tone and Kara winces, fighting the urge to cower at her boss’ feet. “This programme will almost singlehandedly fund the renovation of our giant panda enclosure. Do you not want the pandas to have water to swim in and bamboo to nibble on, Ms Danvers? Do you want them to go extinct?”
Kara blanches. Everybody knows the pandas are her favourites. “No, of course not, I just—”
“Good,” Cat snaps. “National City Zoo’s Cry Me a Cockroach event will be going ahead from tomorrow, and I will expect your full support every step of the way.”
Kara sighs. “Sure thing, boss.”
“Oh, and Keira,” Cat calls as Kara’s halfway out of her office. “You’re going to be the public face of this event. All the naming and feeding will be broadcast across our social media livestreams. Winslow in tech support will help you get everything set up.”
“Me?” Kara gapes. “Why?”
Cat quirks an appraising eyebrow, making no secret of the fact that she’s giving Kara a discerning once-over. “You fit the image that will draw in viewers,” she drawls, eyeing the planes of Kara’s shoulders, the lines of her thighs beneath her standard-issue cargo pants. “Can’t say that I see it myself, but I suppose you do have a certain… appeal.”
Kara feels her cheeks turn an immediate shade of scarlet, shuffling her feet awkwardly. “I, um. Thanks?”
“That wasn’t a compliment,” Cat says smoothly, eyes never leaving her laptop screen. “Go away now. And do a good job on this, Keira. We really need the extra income.”
“Yes, boss.”
“Oh, and one more thing,” Cat calls. “Wear something form-fitting tomorrow. This is basically a PR stunt— it won’t hurt to give the people a show.”
-
“So, we’ve got all the purchase summaries right here on this tablet,” Winn says, fiddling with the inordinate number of screens and cameras currently pointing right at Kara. “So we’ll get a shot of the rat or roach, then you read out the name of the person who made the purchase, and the name they’ve given to their animal. Maybe the background story, if they’ve submitted one. Then feed the poor bastard to the— the—”
“The snake?” Kara supplies cheerily, stroking the head of the Jamaican yellow boa constrictor currently draped over her shoulders.
Winn shudders, fighting down his gag reflex. “I will never understand how you can touch that thing.”
“You work at a zoo, Winn,” she chides. “How can you be scared of snakes? Noodle is a creature that needs our love and care, just like all the others.”
“Noodle?” Winn squeaks. “You named a snake that probably weighs more than you do Noodle?”
“Only unofficially,” Kara sighs. “Cat says I have to stop getting so attached to the animals.”
Winn gapes at her. “You know what, we don’t have time to unpack that right now.” He adjusts the lighting outside the enclosure, turning Kara this way and that until he finds the perfect angle. “So the main thing is to keep things fun and engaging. We’re aiming for numbers here. If this doesn’t go viral, Cat will have my nuts on a silver platter.”
“You’re so crass,” Kara scolds. “He’s so crass,” she murmurs to the snake wrapped around her abdomen, stroking its head again. Noodle flicks his tongue out in response, tasting the air. Kara takes it as an agreement.
“Oh, and if part of the summary is shaded red, it’s because the purchaser asked for the information to remain confidential,” Winn continues, adjusting camera angles and making sure the Facebook, Instagram and Twitter livestreams are up and running. “So don’t read that bit.”
“Red means no,” Kara salutes. “Gotcha.”
“Alright, ready?” Winn asks, and Kara sucks in a deep breath. At least Noodle doesn’t care that her palms are sweating. “We’re live.”
“Hey, hi. I’m Kara Danvers, head zookeeper here at National City Zoo,” Kara starts, eyes flicking rapidly between the three cameras trained on her. Where is she supposed to look? If she looks at one feed for too long, will the others feel neglected? Will viewers tune out? Does she have to keep glancing between the three of them like she’s watching a three-way tennis match? What if—
Behind the camera, Winn clears his throat. “Chill,” he mouths silently from the far side of the intimidating assortment of screens, and Kara forces herself to heed his advice.
“Welcome to Cry Me a Cockroach,” she continues, voice steadying as she manages to get her rapid breathing under control. “Thank you so much to everyone who’s purchased a rat or a cockroach so far— all your donations will go toward the renovation of our giant panda enclosure! For anyone who hasn’t gotten around to their vermin vengeance yet, the event will be running through the end of the month.”
She reaches up to adjust Noodle so he’s slung more comfortably over her shoulders and then grabs the first container of frozen rats. “Alright, well. This guy’s hungry, so we’d better get started before he decides to eat me!” She winks at the camera, laughing when Noodle’s forked tongue darts out to flicker against her cheek.
“I’m just joking. Jamaican yellow boas like Noodle only eat small prey like birds, bats, or today, rats!” she grins, running a hand over the snake’s sleek body. “But maybe he’ll make an exception just this once for our tech guy, Winn.”
She steps closer to the camera and extends an arm, Noodle poking his head towards Winn in interest. Winn shrieks at the snake’s approach, tripping over wires and plugs as he scrambles backwards, landing flat on his ass on the ground.
Kara grins, drawing the snake closer to her body again and extending her hand. “High five,” she grins at the snake, and Noodle flicks his tongue against her palm. “Operation Scare-The-Cameraman, Day One: complete.”
She reaches one gloved hand into the bucket to pull out a frozen rat as she scans the tablet in front of her. “Okay, so. This rat, named Dave, was purchased by Kerry in Thousand Oaks, who also included this message.”
She skims the purchase summary before holding the rat out to Noodle, who unlatches his jaw to swallow it whole. Kara stares into the camera, one eyebrow quirking. “That’s what you get for cheating, Dave.”
-
They move through most of the reptile house, Winn filming as Kara names and then proceeds to feed a bucketful of cockroaches to the zoo’s scaly inhabitants.
The longer it goes on, the more at ease Kara starts to feel, laughing and cracking jokes for the camera as she reads people’s messages to their ex with growing glee.
“Shouldn’t have forgotten to pick the kids up from school, Dan,” she sing-songs, dropping a frozen rat into the enclosure of Slinky the African rock python.
“Rachel from Gotham City, you told Dylan that is wasn’t him, it was you. Well, he wants you to know that this cockroach is definitely you,” she says with a rueful smile as the creature in question is plucked from her glove by a panther chameleon.
“Lucia hopes your new woman is ready for a lifetime of your snoring, Mason from Laguna Beach,” she says as she dumps a handful of cockroaches into the bearded dragon’s enclosure to be swallowed with great enthusiasm.
They make it to one of Kara’s favourite inhabitants, Godzilla the tiny leopard gecko. She lets the little fellow climb up onto one hand as she scans the tablet. “Alright, last one for today, folks,” she grins, grabbing one more bug for Godzilla’s dinner. “This is from Lena in Metropolis, who has named her cockroach Andrea. So Andrea, this is for—”
Kara cuts herself off as her brain registers the red shading over the message section. “Never mind, the message for this one is private,” she murmurs absentmindedly, eyes still stuck on the purchase summary. Her gaze catches on words like lies and betrayal and deception and ten years and she can feel her brow scrunching as her eyes narrow.
She looks back up at the camera, one fist clenching as she ignores Winn’s questioning look to clear her throat. “Alright, Lena’s message is confidential but let me just say: Andrea, if you’re watching, you’re lucky that all you’re getting is a cockroach with your name on it after the stunt you pulled. Lena, whoever you are, you’re a better person than I would be in your shoes.”
And with a gleeful smile and far too much gusto, probably, she extends the dead bug to the gecko perched on her palm. “Enjoy this one, Godzilla,” she coos at the tiny lizard. “Really savour it.”
He does, swallowing the bug in one smooth gulp, and Kara runs an affectionate finger over his head. “Hope you felt that, Andrea,” she mutters, too low for the cameras to pick it up. Probably. Hopefully.
She perches Godzilla back on his favourite rock and turns back to the cameras with a smile. Rounds out the livestream and repeats the details for people to purchase their own cockroaches ahead of the next day’s broadcast, high fives Winn once the cameras stop rolling, and chalks the whole thing up to a good – if weird – day’s work.
-
The livestream is a hit, and Cry Me a Cockroach sales rocket overnight.
Cat even graces her with a grudging well done as she heads to the aviary for the day’s filming and feeding. She and Winn repeat the same setup at the day before, moving around the enclosures to feed bugs and rodents to the assortment of birds housed within, Kara smiling and laughing and joking the whole way.
But as they come to the end of the broadcast something’s still niggling at the back of Kara’s mind and Winn’s about to shut off the cameras when Kara reaches out a hand to stop him.
“Um, before we go,” she starts, ignoring Winn’s what the hell look even as her cheeks flush crimson, “there’s just one more cockroach to be crunched. If you were watching yesterday, you might remember that Lena from Metropolis bought a cockroach named Andrea. Lena didn’t want everyone to know the terrible thing Andrea did to her but personally, I think it was bad enough that we could maybe do one more bug-feed. On the house,” she winks at the camera, reaching into the bucket at her feet.
She scoops up a container of frozen bugs, tilting them towards the camera. “Lena, I hope you’re watching, because every single one of these guys is named Andrea,” she grins, tossing the scoop into the enclosure of Tim McCaw, the zoo’s giant hyacinth parrot, where it is immediately devoured.
Winn ends the stream just as Kara’s phone rings in her back pocket; the Jaws ringtone that indicates her boss is calling. She answers with a wince, bracing for Cat’s inevitable reprimand for going off-book and dishing out her own vermin vengeance, but it doesn’t come.
Cat just informs her that cockroach sales have spiked again, and to keep up the adequate work. She also tells Kara to strip down to her tank top in the next stream, and not to be shy about lifting some of their heaviest snakes in front of the camera.
Kara doesn’t ask for the reasoning behind that specific instruction. Based on the way Winn had snickered into his hands for a solid three minutes upon overhearing it, she doesn’t really want to know.
-
It becomes something of a routine.
Every day, she and Winn move through the different enclosures, feeding cockroaches and rats and the occasional cabbage to the zoo’s inhabitants. Kara reads out the names and the stories – some of them funny, some of them sad, and some just plain weird – and tosses the meals to the waiting animals to be enthusiastically enjoyed.
And right at the end of each stream, Kara plucks out one extra cockroach, names it Andrea, and drops it into the waiting jaws of whichever animal seems hungriest that day.
Maybe she’s a little too invested in this Lena person. Winn certainly tells her so at least eighteen times a day. Alex and Kelly have picked up on it too; they both watch Kara’s livestream from work and take turns sending her a barrage of texts the moment it ends, ranging from gentle teasing (Kelly) to downright harassment (Alex).
Kara doesn’t mind. Something about Lena’s message, the way she’d described how she’d been betrayed by the person she’d trusted the most, had struck a chord deep in Kara. Lena had sounded so hurt, so alone, and yet the only revenge she wanted to take on the woman who broke her heart was to name a $5 cockroach after her.
She doesn’t know if Lena watches the livestreams. But it makes her feel warm and fuzzy inside to think that maybe, Lena has seen it, that she knows that there’s someone out there on her side. Even if that someone is just some random zookeeper on a Facebook live.
The streams, much to Cat’s delight and Winn’s relief, have gone viral. The day after Kara lifts the zoo’s seventy pound green anaconda above her head live on camera to demonstrate its enormous size – wearing the tank top Cat had not so subtly suggested – a clip of their broadcast is shown on national news. Sales skyrocket, with so many people trying to participate in the event that their website crashes. They’ve already raised enough money to cover the renovations of the panda’s enclosure so Cat spreads out the extra profits, investing in higher quality feed for the animals and a series of webcams that livestream footage of their most popular residents 24/7.
The zoo’s profile is rising, and more big donors and investors are expressing interest in the research and conservation work they’re doing. Cat harnesses their surge in popularity, launching new protection projects for snow leopards, rhinos, and pangolins.
Everything is going according to plan – better than planned – and Kara couldn’t be happier. Protecting the planet’s incredible wildlife was all she’d ever wanted to do, and if naming some cockroaches and wearing a few tank tops can help her achieve that dream, it’s a sacrifice she’s willing to make.
She does draw the line, though, at being dubbed Cockroach Kara by internet lurkers.
Winn is extremely unhelpful, collapsing into hysterical laughter the first time he shows her her new moniker and producing no useful suggestions as to how to make it stop. The problem resolves itself, however, after Winn videos Kara hefting two enormous fallen logs in the elephant rehabilitation enclosure onto her shoulders a few days later to move them to a safer location.
The next day, #DaddyDanvers is trending nationwide. Alex laughs herself clean off the couch when she sees it, and Kara blushes so long and so hard she’s not sure she’ll ever recover.
-
The month is drawing to a close, and Kara has to admit she’s going to miss their daily livestreams. Her audience has grown exponentially since the first broadcast and many people are now genuinely invested in the wellbeing of the animals, asking for updates on specific zoo residents and sponsoring conservation efforts for the most endangered creatures.
Kara decides to end the event on a crowd pleaser, and she and Winn make their way to the koala enclosure for the final stream. Sitting cross legged on the grass with a sleepy koala in her lap, Kara tugs the bucket of eucalyptus leaves closer to her side as the stream gets going.
“I know it’s very satisfying to name a cockroach after your ex,” she grins at the camera, “but as this is our last broadcast I thought we’d end on a more upbeat note. For all of you who’ve purchased a bug today, I’ll be feeding one eucalyptus leaf to our resident koalas here at National City Zoo. We’ve got three babies in here who are growing and hungry, so let’s turn the upset and bitterness caused by everyone who’s done you dirty into something good instead. Help something new grow out of the pain of the past.”
She feeds leaf after leaf to the cuddly little creatures, beaming as the entire family gradually make their way over to investigate her. Names each leaf and reads out each story, laughing as the baby koalas climb up her arms to cling to her back and shoulders, playing with her ponytail.
“And, in keeping with tradition,” she smiles, a koala on each shoulder and three in her lap, “I’m naming this final leaf Andrea.” She holds it out to the youngest of the bunch who grabs it eagerly, clasping the leaf between its tiny paws as it chews. Kara grins, glancing directly into the camera. “This one’s for you, Lena from Metropolis.”
She wraps up the stream with a heartfelt thank you to everyone who’d contributed money to the cause, beginning the gentle process of extricating herself from her clinging koalas as Winn packs up the camera equipment for the last time. He heads off, muttering something about giving Cat a debrief as Kara bends to collect her bucket and check the water levels, one baby koala still cradled in the crook of her arm.
She’s so absorbed in her examination of the control panel, checking light and humidity settings in the enclosure, that a throat gently clearing behind her makes her jump.
She spins to see a woman standing nervously by the door of enclosure, twisting her clasped fingers together in front of her. She’s elegantly dressed, with long dark curls and perfect porcelain skin, full lips and sparkling green eyes. She is, in short, the most beautiful woman Kara has ever seen in her entire life, and she promptly forgets how to breathe.
“Can I, um, help you?” she manages at last, cheeks flushed and voice cracking.
The woman presses her lips together, and Kara curses her own abject lack of subtlety as she tries (and fails) to pull her gaze away from the woman’s mouth. “I hope so,” the stranger says, and her voice is soft and lilting and lovely and Kara instantly becomes addicted to hearing it again. “You must be Kara Danvers. I’m— I’m Lena. From Metropolis.”
Kara’s mouth falls open, and she very nearly drops the poor unsuspecting koala in her arms out of pure shock. Blinks back into a semblance of self-awareness and places the cuddly creature carefully on a nearby branch so she can make her way over to the enclosure’s door, smoothing a hand self-consciously over her koala-mussed hair.
“Um, hi,” she breathes once she’s joined Lena on the other side of the glass. “Gosh. Hi. So you’re— you’re Lena. Like, Lena-and-Andrea Lena.”
The woman – Lena – smiles ruefully. “Well. Without the Andrea part, now. As I’m sure you will have read in my purchase summary.”
Kara barely represses the urge to smack herself resoundingly on the forehead. “God, right. Yes. Sorry, I’m so sorry,” she stutters. “That was so dumb. I just— I can’t believe it’s you.” She reaches a hand up to tug awkwardly on her ear, emphatically unable to stop more and more words falling out of her big stupid mouth. “I can’t believe Andrea did that to you. I mean—” she whistles under her breath, giving Lena an appreciative once over. “Look at you.”
Lena’s cheeks flush the prettiest shade of pink, teeth digging into the plush of her bottom lip. “Oh. Um. Thank you?”
“Oh Jesus, I didn’t— I’m sorry,” Kara stammers. “Okay. Let me start this again. Hi.” She extends a hand, sucking in a sharp breath at the feeling of soft skin beneath her own when Lena shakes it. “I’m Kara. It’s so great to meet you.”
Lena smiles, and Kara’s never really thought much about the word radiant before but that’s what the woman before her is. Lena blossoms when she smiles, and she’s so beautiful it takes Kara’s breath away.
She squeezes Kara’s hand once before letting go. “It’s great to meet you, too.”
-
The zoo’s opening hours come to an end but, Kara realises, her time with Lena doesn’t have to. Perks of being the head zookeeper and all.
She tentatively invites the dark-haired woman to stick around, takes her on a tour of the different animals and points out all her favourites. Lena is, like, crazy smart, in addition to being crazy beautiful, and she produces odd little facts about some of the zoo’s rarer inhabitants that even Kara hadn’t known.
Kara learns that Lena had just moved to the area from Metropolis after the Andrea incident, which she has to repeatedly remind herself not to bring up. She learns that Lena has a PhD, and that she’s the youngest head of R&D ever at her brother’s company. She learns that Lena had watched every single one of her livestreams, right from the first day, and had finally been convinced by her best friend to come and meet Kara in person.
She learns that Lena is gorgeous, and devastatingly funny in an understated kind of way, and smart and kind and generous and self-effacing. She learns that everything she learns about Lena only makes her want to know more.
They end up at the giant panda enclosure and Kara sneaks a look around before unlocking the door, ushering Lena inside. She leads the dark-haired woman to a dry patch of grass near where the babies are sleeping with their mothers and gestures for her to sit, realising belatedly that Lena’s suit probably costs more than Kara makes in a year and that she probably doesn’t want to muddy it up in a mess of twigs and leaves.
But Lena doesn’t even hesitate, taking a seat facing Kara and pulling her legs in close to her body. Her eyes keep darting to the pile of pandas behind them and Kara grins. “If we just sit here, they’ll come and investigate us,” she smiles, and Lena looks so excited that Kara’s breath catches in her chest.
They chat about Kara’s job, the zoo’s conservation work, Lena’s move out west and her latest projects at Luthor Corp. Sure enough, within minutes the most brave and inquisitive of the baby pandas has perked up from its nap, ambling over to give them a curious sniff.
Kara’s heart clenches so hard in her chest at the way Lena’s entire face lights up when one of the bears flops into her lap that she legitimately fears she may have gone into cardiac arrest. But if this is how she dies, so be it; watching the untempered joy in her expression as Lena holds a tiny panda in her arms, staying quiet and still as the baby paws and prods inquisitively at her face and hair, would not be a bad final image.
“I wanted to say thank you,” Lena murmurs after a while. “For what you did on the livestream every day. For your discretion, but also— your support.”
She takes a deep breath, gaze focused on the cuddly ball of fluff in her arms. “When Andrea and I ended, it tore me apart, and no one in my daily life knew what had happened. You can imagine why I wanted to keep the details private,” she smiles grimly, and Kara nods. “I felt so isolated. But seeing your videos, seeing you every day— it made me feel that little bit less alone.”
Lena blushes, ducking her head. “I’m sorry, I know that probably sounds ridiculous. I don’t— I didn’t even know you.” An errant curl falls forward into her face, and the baby panda in her arms immediately begins chewing on it.
Kara scoots forward on her knees, pulling the lock of dark hair gently from the baby’s grip and tucking it carefully behind Lena’s ear. “It’s not ridiculous,” she whispers as Lena raises her head again, suddenly aware that their faces are now only inches apart.
“I’m, I’m really glad I could do that for you. I’m really, really glad I got to meet you, Lena. And for the record,” she pauses to swallow hard, drowning in the intensity of Lena’s eyes. “Andrea is the biggest idiot on the planet to have ever let you go.”
Lena’s breath catches in her throat, and Kara doesn’t miss the way green eyes flicker down to her mouth for a moment, Lena’s tongue darting out to wet her own lips. It makes Kara feel bold, and before she can think too hard or second-guess herself she’s leaning forward, sliding a hand up to thread through soft dark hair and pressing her lips to Lena’s.
It’s light, brief, just the gentlest press of mouths, but it shoots a white hot bolt of fire from the crown of Kara’s head to the very tips of her toes. Her whole body is tingling as she pulls back, heart pounding.
“God, sorry,” she gasps, eyes widening as the reality of the boundary she’s just blown past comes slamming in. “Oh, fu— I’m so sorry, Lena, I don’t know what I was—”
“Kara,” Lena whispers, gently depositing her baby panda on the grass to push up on her knees as well. “Do it again.”
Well. She doesn’t need to be told that twice.
She surges forward again but Lena’s already there to meet her, mouths slanting together like they’d been doing it for years. Kara’s tongue darts out to trace the seam of Lena’s bottom lip and the dark-haired woman’s mouth falls open with a tiny gasp that hits Kara low in her hips. The first touch of Lena’s tongue against hers is bright, jagged and electric, and Kara tightens one hand in Lena’s hair as the other slides round her waist to anchor their bodies together, Lena’s own hands fisting in the collar of Kara’s green fleece.
Maybe it’s minutes, maybe it’s hours later that they finally break apart, gasping for air. Kara doesn’t particularly care. She takes in Lena’s heaving chest, her kiss-swollen lips and rose-tinted cheeks, and wonders how the hell a bucketful of dead cockroaches could ever have led her to something as beautiful as this.
“Oh,” Lena gasps, voice light and breathy. “Oh, wow. Maybe I should visit zoos more often.”
“As long as it’s this one, I’m on board with that,” Kara chuckles, tracing her thumb feather-light over Lena’s lower lip and trying (and failing) to restrain a shiver at the way Lena’s nails scratch lightly at the nape of her neck.
“So, um,” Lena murmurs, biting her lip, and it’s taking every scrap of Kara’s willpower not to interrupt whatever she’s about to say and claim her mouth once again. “I feel like an all-access encounter with baby pandas is quite a tough first date to follow but, um. Would you like to maybe do this again sometime?”
Kara grins. She grins and grins and grins. She doesn’t think she could stop grinning if she tried. “I’d love to.”
The answering smile that breaks over Lena’s lovely face makes Kara’s heart do a backflip, and she’s just about to lean back in when the ominous sound of the Jaws theme tune starts up from the pocket of her fleece.
She pulls out her phone, stomach dropping when she sees the thirty new messages from Alex and Kelly and Winn, the hundreds of Facebook and Twitter notifications flooding her homescreen. With a pit of existential dread opening up in her chest, she answers the call.
“Cat,” she says, voice bright and just a little too high. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“I have to assume, since you were the one who lobbied for their installation, that you are aware of the three cameras livestreaming the giant panda enclosure at all times,” Cat drawls, voice bored and callous with the barest undertone of amusement. “Which leads me, naturally, to assume that your little after-hours rendezvous with billionaire tech mogul and philanthropist Lena Luthor was intended to be broadcast live to millions of viewers?”
Kara slaps a hand across her forehead, cheeks redder than a fire truck as she shoots an agonised glance in Lena’s direction. Lena shakes her head questioningly at her and Kara tugs the phone away from her ear to put the call on speaker.
“So, um. The whole world just saw that, huh?” she asks through a grimace. Lena’s eyes widen and she presses a delicate hand to her mouth to hold back a shocked giggle.
“They certainly did,” comes Cat’s disembodied voice. “And it’s doing wonders for our popularity. I already have three new investors interested in supporting our panda rehabilitation programme. You know, Keira, when I asked you to give the people a show, this is not exactly what I had in mind. But I must say—”
Her boss pauses for an interminably long moment and Kara holds her breath, wondering if she’s about to lose her job or get promoted.
“—I don’t hate it,” Cat finishes. “While you have her, perhaps you could ask Ms Luthor how she would feel about becoming an official patron of National City Zoo.”
“I would feel very good about it, Ms Grant,” Lena answers smoothly, serene and composed despite her kiss-tousled hair and smudged lipstick.
“Excellent,” Cat says resoundingly. “In that case, I’ll let you, ahem. Get back to it. My office at 9am for a staff meeting, Keira.”
“Of course,” Kara manages before hanging up, tossing her phone into the grass as she presses her palms to her flaming cheeks. “So, um. Our first kiss was just livestreamed to half the country.”
Lena presses her lips together to hold back a smirk. “It was.” She arches one eyebrow, a playful smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. “Well, there’s no going back now. We can’t break the Internet’s heart. I suppose I’ll just have to stick around.”
Kara gives up any last semblance of self-restraint at that, pushing forward to wrap her arms around Lena’s waist and pull her back in for another bruising kiss. “Well, Lena from Metropolis. I sure hope you do.”
lena just gets on with her life every episode even tho shes been manipulated into horrible situations by her abusive mother and almost murdered by her brother several times WHILST getting blamed for everything they do NOT TO MENTION been thrown off a fucking balcony and been absolutely sure that she would die in the fall yet she ISNT EVEN FAZED by it is honestly?? unrealistic
Faster Than A Speeding Date → AO3 Link Words: 3,703 I Chapters: 1 / 1 a ridiculous v-day prompt fill for @ekingston
That’s what friends are for: Kara takes Lena to a speed dating event for Galentine’s Day.
Metallo!Lena AU Pt 3
The air feels different.
The warehouse had been damp, perpetually chill, and echoed with emptiness. As Lena slowly wakes, the air around her presses warm and dry against her skin, enveloping her in gentle sounds.
Beeping monitors, now a fixture of her reality.
Muffled voices, urgent yet distant, as though muffled through a door.
Faint snores, from someone sleeping in the room next to her bed.
With considerable effort, Lena pries open her sleep crusted eyes. The ceiling overhead is too close, too white. She blinks against the disorientation, and when she tries again she can count the ceiling tiles between the air vents, and suddenly it doesn't feel like the room is caving in on her anymore.
More surprising, though, is when she turns and finds the snores are issuing from Supergirl herself.
Alarm sears against her senses, and Lena gasps when her heart starts to pound. Supergirl jolts awake at the sound, bolting upright even as Lena recoils.
"Get away!" Lena chokes out. "Get away from me, please--"
Supergirl lifts her hands placatingly. "I'm not going to hurt you--"
"I don't want to hurt YOU--"
"You won't," Supergirl promises gently. Lena pauses when the hero nods towards her chest, hands still aloft. "Look."
Lena reaches for the collar of her hospital gown, peeking beneath to see that the chunk of kryptonite is covered by a portion of her leaded apron, now secured by shoulder straps over each arm and a buckle around her ribs.
"We're both safe," Supergirl continues. "I promise."
Sagging, Lena sucks in a ragged breath. All she wants is to curl into a ball, close her eyes, and pretend none of this had happened at all, but she hasn't the strength. Tears start to come, burning hot against her eyes.
"I'm sorry," she says again, her voice cracking under the strain. "I'm sorry. I never wanted to hurt anyone."
Supergirl nods, slowly bending to perch on the seat she'd just been dozing in. "I know. But I'm okay. We're more concerned about you."
Lena blinks up at the ceiling. "You can't remove it, can you."
"No," Supergirl responds after a beat. "The kryptonite is fully grafted into all of your neurological and circulatory systems. It's... It's the only thing keeping you alive."
It comes as zero shock to Lena-- Lillian has made no effort to spare Lena the details of her condition, or the success of her work in resurrecting her. Lillian has never been one to sugar coat.
"I know you've been through a lot," Supergirl continues. Her eyebrows crinkle in the middle. Lena doesn't quite know what to do with the concern in the hero's gaze. Or the sympathy. "But we were hoping you could help us."
"How?"
"The people who did this to you... we think they're part of a group called Cadmus. We think the person behind is--"
"Her name is Lillian Luthor," Lena surrenders readily, bitterness rising in her throat. "She's my mother."
Lena's jaw tightens. She meets the hero's gaze.
"What do you want to know?"
Happy late Halloween! Here’s a spooky Supercorp fic, inspired by this amazing art by @sheltereredturtle
Here’s a snippet:
Her body feels foreign. It takes days to adjust to the motions and weeks to grow comfortable in it.
It's like a second thought and each time she moves, she has to think about it. She bends forks and breaks dishes with inhumane strength. She reaches a staircase and doesn't remember how to lift her foot to take the first step.
The woman is always there with her, patient and ever so gentle. She eases her grip on the cutlery and hooks their elbows together before nudging her towards the stairs.
With each passing day, she acquires an inch more of her body.
A rattle of bones, a clack of fangs and teeth. Soft skin that bleeds under halfmoons of nails.
𝗛𝗼𝗽𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗯𝗲 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗼𝗲𝘀.
And if the rest of this family stands steadily in darkness, you will always fall into the light.