#supercat sanvers 2020

[sapphicscholar]

20 questions for fic writers

Thanks for the tag, @lilolilyr!

1. How many works do you have on ao3?

135 fics total!

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count?

2,436,430 words (jfc hahah)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Ever? Listing them in vague order of when I started writing for them: Supergirl, Wynonna Earp, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Grace and Frankie, This Way Up, Once Upon a Time, Madre Solo hay Dos (just on Tumblr), Abbott Elementary, Hacks, and Julia

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

ALL of them are Supergirl from back in the early-ish days of the show when it was a pretty massive (by femslash standards, I suppose) and very active fandom! It's actually so interesting seeing how absolutely nothing I've written in more than half a decade even shows up, since I've largely switched to smaller fandoms since then.

But the top 5 fics by kudos are:

Stronger Together, a collection of one-shots for various Supergirl ships (with a few gen fics mixed in), which has nearly 5k kudos (WILD to me as someone now in a fandom with maybe 25 people total haha)

Welcome to the Gayborhood, my first ever fic, a looong Sanvers and Supercorp professor AU that still keeps the alien/supernatural elements of canon

6,500 miles away...but getting closer, a Sanvers epistolary fic that my wife and I actually co-wrote and posted 1 letter/email per day every day for many months

Noise Complaint, a Sanvers next-door neighbor AU that, hilariously, given its placement in the top 5 here, is what catalyzed a series of events that led to me very much leaving the fandom (and fandom writ large for nearly a year)

Supercat Sanvers 2020, a Sanvers and Supercat political AU that was maybe one of the last long-form works I wrote before moving out of DC!

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I really try to! Sometimes if it's from a person I know well, I end up responding via DMs, esp if there are questions about what comes next, plotting elements, etc., that I don't necessary want everyone to see while the fic is still being posted, but mostly I try to respond on AO3. I've gotten a bit worse in the past few years just because I'll manage to eke out a bit of time to write, which puts me behind on my work, and then I don't leave myself time to respond, and by the time I DO have time, it feels awkwardly late to do so. But even if I don't respond, I absolutely love/cherish/adore/etc. every single kind comment I've ever been given <3

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Forgoten, but not Gone - a Sanvers amnesia AU set post-breakup that's heavy on the angst with a rather ambiguous ending. I got talked into writing a part 2 that resolves the angst haha, but taken on it's own it's definitely my angstiest ending!

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Huh idk! Most of my fics end on fairly happy, if a bit open, endings. I'm not a big fan of having all the loose ends tied up, and I realllyyyy don't do the marriage/2 kids/white picket fence epilogue, so I guess maybe the political AU has to be up there because it actually envisions a world where a queer woman wins the presidency on a progressive platform, and that feels rather utopian 🙃

8. Do you get hate on fic?

Not in a while, though I used to back in the days, like super vitriolic shit (big fandoms with too-big emotions, man... which has really kept me away maybe forever from those kinds of fandoms!)

9. Do you write smut?

Haha very much so. I've written and posted before about why, but I really believe there's so much interesting character work and exploration that can be done by exploring characters' pleasures, their desires (both thwarted and realized), their fantasies, etc. Obviously smut isn't the only way to do this, but fanfic feels like one of the few venues where it's a real possibility!

10. Do you write crossovers?

Nah, not really. I've written a handful of bring characters x and y into the universe of another show fics, but that feels mostly different. Every so often I'll borrow vague character outlines for tertiary characters in other fics just to see if folks recognize them (had Grace Hanson as a grumpy background character in a Sanvers fic set at PT for instance hah)

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Once or twice, but we got them taken down

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yeah, one of my SG fics was translated into Russian! I'm not sure if it's still up (tbh I can't recall which one; it's been a long time!) I've also had a couple podfics now made of my fics, one of which I still need to go listen to when I get the time!!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yeah! The long-form Sanvers epistolary fic my wife and I co-wrote together, and a group of Supercat authors got together and did a delightfully chaotic round robin, each writing one sentence, then setting a timer for the next person to write the next sentence, etc., until we had Intergalactic Standard Cuddling

14. What’s your all-time favourite ship?

Oh man, I really don't know that I have a favorite! I really appreciate what various ships can offer me at different times - there are certain themes that make sense to explore with one pairing but not at all with another, or certain AUs that work in one fandom but not really in another. Basically, if a show is giving me multiple female characters who interact in canon in ways that go beyond existing near each other, I'm intrigued, and if these characters actually get depth and complexity, I'm probably in! There are, however, some ships that I might not end up feeling fannish/creative about even though I love them as ships (I talked a lot to @trying-to-get-somewhere-real about this recently, actually!), so it's hard to name a favorite when the metrics get all wonky!

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but probably won’t?

I don't want to say never, but I have a Cat-centric fic that'll end on Supercat that just has a lot of angst that coincided with a period of unexpected loss and grief in my own life in ways that have made it really hard to get back into even now (it just feels so...enmeshed with that moment, even though the timing was utterly coincidental)

16. What are your writing strengths?

I think I do a good job with dialogue and getting characters' voices down - I'm really into the character side of things (which is also what gets me invested fannishly in shows! I want a show that cares about developing their characters first and foremost vs. a show where plot takes priority)

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Certain kinds of action scenes haha - also I tire easily of writing things that feel repetitive to things I've done/written before (this was more of an issue when I took prompts)

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

Largely, this isn't something I've had to deal with much outside of maybe a few phrases and sentences from multilingual characters. I've talked before about how it was actually the language/translation barrier that kept me from writing for Madre Solo hay Dos. I don't speak Spanish, and getting a show entirely via the Netflix-provided translations meant 1) I was fairly certain there were some word choice/dialect peculiarities I was missing, and 2) I couldn't catch the rhythms of their speech, the cadence of their voices at least in ways that corresponded to the specific words. For me, voice matters so much, and it really felt like a barrier to not have access to the source language because I felt like I couldn't do these two women justice!

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Supergirl

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

Oh I've answered this elsewhere with 2-3 works, and tbh I don't think it's changed since then! I'm actually far more interested in others' favorite fics of mine because it's so interesting to think about the question of *what* sticks with a person from yours (it's often so idiosyncratic!!)

I'm getting to this pretty late, so I won't tag anyone, assuming many people already have been, but if ya see this and want to participate, feel free to give me a tag! I always love seeing people talk about their own writing :)

#fandom things #tag meme #fic writer asks

[night-dark-woods]

@artemissoteira and i went thru ao3 ship stat summaries 2013-2021 (by centreoftheselights on ao3) and its fucking GRIM. thought some of you might also appreciate and/or be upset over the fruits of our speedreading.

the only f/f pairings to ever get into the top 100 total (by cumulative work numbers over time) are:

-swanqueen (every year baby!)

-brittana (2013-15 only) & faberry (2013 only)

-rosemary (2013-2016)

-hollstein (2015-17 only)

-clexa (2016 onwards)

-supercorp (2017 onwards)

-catradora (2021 only)

at most 4 of these at a time are in the top 100. there are fucking 20 or so mcyt rpf pairings in 2021 tho. in order each year:

2013 - brittana, rosemary, sq, faberry

2014 - sq, rosemary, brittana

2015 - sq, rosemary, hollstein, brittana

2016 - sq, clexa, hollstein, rosemary

2017 - sq, clexa, hollstein, supercorp

2018/19 - sq, clexa, supercorp

2020 - supercorp, sq, clexa

2021 - supercorp, sq, clexa, catradora

there are a few other pairings that pop into the top 100 pairings by new fics within each year, but they dont make it onto the total list. many of the top of all time are also top per year, usually in the year they first appear in the top of all time list.

-shoot (2016)

-korrasami (2016)

-supercat (2016-17)

-alphys/undyne somehow (2016-17)

-sanvers (2017-19)

-wayhaught (2018-19)

-bumbleby (2020)

-lumity (2021)

-and also one pairing from evil british greys that we have never heard of before tn (holby city, in 2017)

#hell. hell on earth. #my posts #ao3 #2018-19 is one dataset for some reason #anyway uh. i always forget how much im in my own little ff bubble lol

[trixicbean]

Supergirl Romantic Ships FanFiction on Ao3 Summary

Total: 30979

Supercorp: 13893 (44.8%)

Sanvers: 5854 (18.9%)

Supercat: 3073 (9.9%)

Karamel: 1228 (3.9%)

Alex and Kara: 1222 (3.9%)

Astra and Alex: 1159 (3.7%)

Sam and Alex: 798 (2.5%)

Dansen: 709 (2.3%)

Alex and Lena: 609 (1.9%)

Alex and Lucy: 350 (1.1%)

as of 20:00 GMT 26/10/2020

[i don't ship all of these]

#supergirl cw #supercorp #lena luthor #kara danvers #supergirl #karamel #mon el #alex danvers #sanvers #maggie sawyer #fanfiction

[ao3feed-detectivedanvers]

Supercat Sanvers 2020

by SapphicScholar

In this political AU, sparks fly on the campaign trail as presidential hopeful Cat Grant is reunited with Kara Danvers after years of separation and silence, and Alex finds herself butting heads with a new advisor who won’t back down in the face of her intimidation tactics.

Words: 3921, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Supergirl (TV 2015)

Rating: Mature

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: F/F

Characters: Cat Grant, Kara Danvers, Alex Danvers, Maggie Sawyer, Lucy Lane, James Olsen, Winn Schott Jr., Susan Vasquez, Maxwell Lord, Sam Lane

Relationships: Kara Danvers/Cat Grant, Alex Danvers/Maggie Sawyer

Additional Tags: Political AU, supercat, Slow Burn, Mutual Pining, Sanvers - Freeform, coming out arc, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Angst, Eventual Smut, all the political intrigue, political fixer!Alex, Political Campaigns, DC setting, Aged-Up Character(s)

from AO3 works tagged 'Alex Danvers/Maggie Sawyer' http://ift.tt/2CO9nes via http://ift.tt/HeCC5o

#sanvers #fanfic #ao3 #ifttt

[ao3feed-supercat]

Supercat Sanvers 2020

read it on the AO3 at http://ift.tt/2CO9nes

by SapphicScholar

In this political AU, sparks fly on the campaign trail as presidential hopeful Cat Grant is reunited with Kara Danvers after years of separation and silence, and Alex finds herself butting heads with a new advisor who won’t back down in the face of her intimidation tactics.

Words: 3921, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Supergirl (TV 2015)

Rating: Mature

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: F/F

Characters: Cat Grant, Kara Danvers, Alex Danvers, Maggie Sawyer, Lucy Lane, James Olsen, Winn Schott Jr., Susan Vasquez, Maxwell Lord, Sam Lane

Relationships: Kara Danvers/Cat Grant, Alex Danvers/Maggie Sawyer

Additional Tags: Political AU, supercat, Slow Burn, Mutual Pining, Sanvers - Freeform, coming out arc, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Angst, Eventual Smut, all the political intrigue, political fixer!Alex, Political Campaigns, DC setting, Aged-Up Character(s)

read it on the AO3 at http://ift.tt/2CO9nes

#kara danvers #cat grant #supergirl #supergirl cbs #ao3feed #fanfic #IFTTT #supercat

[ao3feed-dctvfemslash]

Supercat Sanvers 2020

read it on the AO3 at http://ift.tt/2CO9nes

by SapphicScholar

In this political AU, sparks fly on the campaign trail as presidential hopeful Cat Grant is reunited with Kara Danvers after years of separation and silence, and Alex finds herself butting heads with a new advisor who won’t back down in the face of her intimidation tactics.

Words: 3921, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Supergirl (TV 2015)

Rating: Mature

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: F/F

Characters: Cat Grant, Kara Danvers, Alex Danvers, Maggie Sawyer, Lucy Lane, James Olsen, Winn Schott Jr., Susan Vasquez, Maxwell Lord, Sam Lane

Relationships: Kara Danvers/Cat Grant, Alex Danvers/Maggie Sawyer

Additional Tags: Political AU, supercat, Slow Burn, Mutual Pining, Sanvers - Freeform, coming out arc, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Angst, Eventual Smut, all the political intrigue, political fixer!Alex, Political Campaigns, DC setting, Aged-Up Character(s)

read it on the AO3 at http://ift.tt/2CO9nes

#sanvers #maggie sawyer x alex danvers #alex danvers #maggie sawyer #show: supergirl

[sapphicscholar]

November 2024

“And CNN can now project that former Governor Catherine Grant will become the President Elect of the United States. By our estimates, she now has more than enough votes to become the 47th president, the country’s second female president, and the first out LGBTQ president. Folks, this is a historic moment.”

The rest of the commentator’s words were drowned out in a roar of cheering as Cat strode out on stage in front of a room packed full of her supporters. Miniature American flags waved in outstretched hands. Red, white, and blue balloons bobbed through the air above them and fell, scattering across the stage. And rainbow confetti—the one “fun” choice Cat had allowed Kara—floated down from the ceiling. Cat kept one hand on Carter’s arm, her other hand clutched in Kara’s, her fingers trembling slightly, still not quite sure whether she could believe the results. After all, it had only been four years ago when she had walked out on stage to give a rather different speech after a long night of contested results and too-close-to-call-it-yet moments that finally ended after 4 in the morning with a slightly uncertain calling of the election for General Lane.

“It’s real,” Kara murmured, and Cat squeezed her hand just a little harder at the reminder that Kara had always been the one to know exactly what she needed to hear. With a quick peck for Kara and a tight hug for Carter, Cat strode forward to the podium, waving at the crowds and calling out her thanks until the tumultuous applause finally died down. She smiled as it quieted, adjusting the microphone and glancing down at the speech she had prepared, hoping but not quite believing she would have reason for it this time.

“Thank you!” Cat shook her head the slightest amount, still wondering if perhaps it was all some dream she would wake up from, finding the election night still to come. “Thank you all for your support and your donations and your hours and hours of tireless campaigning. And now—now we’re here.”

Kara threw an arm around Carter’s shoulders as they watched and listened from the wings, cheering and laughing and clapping at the lines they had listened to Cat practice the night before. “She’s pretty great, huh?” Kara whispered, earning a low chuckle from Carter.

“Think I can get off work tomorrow since my mom’s president and all?”

Kara shrugged her shoulders. “I’m calling off work tomorrow with a case of First-Lady-itis.”

With a snort, Carter shook his head. “You’re the boss. Of course you can call out.”

Not that Kara took off many days. Or any days, really. After the last campaign ended, she had turned down several offers to return to the Senate as a chief of staff or to manage another campaign. The work with Cat had been enjoyable and meaningful, but after watching and living through the dirty smear campaigns and invasive personal attacks, Kara decided she needed to step back and return to the kind of work that had inspired her to turn to politics in the first place. After a year as a senior researcher at one of DC’s progressive think tanks, Kara had applied for grants and gotten seed money from L-Corp’s philanthropic arm to found an NGO dedicated to advancing alien rights and promoting interspecies dialogue—something she saw an increasingly urgent need for in the face of the Lane administration’s attempts to roll back protective measures like the Alien Amnesty Act. But now the country seemed ready to arc back toward justice, and Kara knew, no matter how late they were out that night, she would head into the office for at least an hour or two the next day to be sure they had put out a statement about Cat’s victory.

By the time Cat finished with the speech and started working her way through seemingly countless interviews with the press, most people finally headed home, leaving the large venue quiet after a night of nervous chatter and raucous applause. At a certain point, Carter snuck in for a hug and yet another congratulations while Cat was between interviews, excusing himself to get a nap in before he had to fly back to the West coast.

James likewise caught an early flight back to California after Cat sent him off with a teasing admonishment to “keep my legacy alive, Jimmy.” Even with assurances that he had CatCo’s best reporters on it and had vetted the proofs of the front page himself, James still ended up heading back out, sighing about how the work of a CEO was never done.

Around the time the sun was beginning to rise, bathing the city in a soft pink light, Kara found a very drunk Alex and an only marginally more sober Maggie making out behind the bar and celebrating the return of a liberal to the White House. After taking a few photos for posterity’s sake, Kara shuffled them outside and instructed two of the hired security guards to take them back to their house, leaving them both with stern reminders to drink plenty of water.

“Can you take us to Shake Shack?” Alex slurred as she flopped into the back seat behind Maggie. “They got great fries. Maggie likes fries. Didja know that? Veg’tarians can have fries at burger places.”

“We’ll get you fries at some point today,” Kara promised as she shut the door behind Alex, rolling her eyes as Maggie dropped her head into Alex’s lap, already half asleep.

While Kara waited for Cat to finish her final interviews, she scrolled through her texts and emails, smiling at all the happy messages waiting for her from Eliza, who promised that she had been watching live from the Grant campaign headquarters in California, and Winn, who included several photos of Americans following the coverage in Germany with the caption: “SO PROUD OF YOU!! Time to go: they’re buying shots. Gonna be so hungover for day 3 of the conference…”

Kara’s phone rang with a call from Lucy and Vasquez as Cat sat down with the last of the interviews that Jasmine had arranged. With a little wave to Cat, Kara gestured at her phone and the back corner of the room before wandering away from the cameras to take it. As she slid her finger across the screen, she couldn’t help the excited squeal. “Good news?”

“Double good news!” Vasquez cheered. “Don’t think we didn’t watch the coverage just because we couldn’t be there in person.”

“Little asshole had to choose the most inconvenient time to arrive,” Lucy grumbled in the background, earning a loud bark of laughter from Vasquez.

“Don’t mind her. She’s still a little grumpy from the 18 hours of labor.”

“‘A little grumpy?’” Kara had to hold the phone away from her face as Lucy yelled. “You try shoving a 7-pound lump out of your—”

“Congratulations!” Kara cut in.

“Thank you!” they both called back, and Kara had to chuckle at the dramatic shift in tone.

“Got a name?”

“Nope.”

“He’s baby X for now.”

“And he’s really fucking cute.”

“Okay, well, he’s kinda weird-looking, but they promise that he’ll be looking a little less alien in a couple of days. No offense, Kara.”

“None taken. I guess.”

“He’s so little. Did you know how little they are?”

“But he’s got, like, these itty-bitty fingernails and everything. Like…he’s a full human, only miniature.”

“But with big blue eyes. I don’t think they’ll stay blue, but they’re beautiful for now.”

“And so much hair. I kinda hope it falls out…might be nice to start again without a big shaggy mop of it.”

“They said it would.”

Kara snorted at the back-and-forth, wondering how long the two of them had been awake at that point. “I think Cat’s wrapping up, so I should probably go, but congratulations again!”

“Congrats to Cat too!” Vasquez cheered.

“Yes! About damn time.”

“Hopefully we’ll make it out to see the baby in the next couple of days, if you don’t mind a big team of security stalking out the perimeter of your house.”

“Go for it. And you know, if they want to take out the trash or pick up some diapers while they’re at it, I hear we’re gonna want all the extra help we can get.”

“Well I’m sure baby X’s godmothers will be more than happy to babysit once they’ve recovered from their collective hangover from hell,” Kara snickered.

“That bad?”

“Oh, I took pictures. Don’t worry.”

Lucy let out a little hum. “Can always count on you for that.”

“I think I might save these ones for the next big birthday party, though…” Kara grinned at the thought of the sheer number of humiliating photos she had saved up for that moment. “Anyway, I’ll let you go, but have a safe trip home from the hospital and give baby X a kiss for me okay?”

“Of course!”

Once Kara hung up, she ambled back over to where Cat was gathering her things and stretching after too many hours spent standing in heels. Throwing Cat’s bag over her shoulder, Kara extended her free hand. “Can I take you home, President Grant?”

“Please.”

December 2024

“God, accounting for a security detail for the president-elect is such a pain in the ass,” Alex grumbled as she pulled out the pegs of the seating chart for what felt like the hundredth time.

Maggie laughed as she wrapped her arms around Alex’s waist and pressed a kiss to her shoulder. “Still better than accounting for the security detail of the actual president, isn’t it?”

“Oh yes, because bumping up the timeline for the wedding by four months was so much easier.”

“You’re the one who insisted on having Kara as your maid of honor, and you can’t just not invite her wife.”

“We should have gotten married before them.”

“Please, you had so much fun giving Kara shit for U-Hauling with Cat after only a year. You wouldn’t have given that up for a slightly easier go of it ourselves.”

Alex let out a long sigh. “Maybe not.” After a moment she added, “But I still think Kara should be doing some of this work.”

“Well then tell her so over dinner.”

“Oh yeah, let’s think about how that’ll go. Hey, Kara? Be a dear. In between running an organization and preparing to move into the White House and making decisions about the inauguration and the ball, could you also figure out this seating chart?”

“You forgot to add in that we could really use the extra time for ourselves since your fiancée is kind of irresistible.”

“Mm yes. That too.” Alex’s eyes fluttered shut as Maggie kissed her softly, their hands twining together.

A knock at the door interrupted them. “Coming,” Alex called out, squeezing Maggie’s hand one last time before making her way over to the front door. She swung it open to reveal Lucy and Vasquez, both of them looking a little worn for wear. Lucy had a diaper bag slung over her shoulder, and Vasquez held an infant carseat in one hand, a bottle of wine in the other.

“Hey! Come in, come in, it’s so good to see you.”

They followed Alex inside, waving at Maggie as she rounded the corner. As Vasquez set the carseat on the ground, Lucy grimaced at the sound of a little whimper.

Alex leaned forward, unbuckling the straps and lifting the baby up, settling him into the crook of her elbow as she cooed at him. “Oh, come here, little Alex. Your godmother’s got you.”

Lucy pursed her lips and glared. “It’s A.J.”

“Mm, but I believe one of those names could be shorted to Alex. And really, I’m still so flattered that you named your son after me.”

Vasquez’s lips twitched as Lucy groaned. “It was a family name.”

“Say whatever you want to, Luce, but me and little Alex are always gonna know the truth.”

Lucy raised her eyebrows at Maggie. “She’s insufferable, you know that, right?”

“Considering we’re getting married in a couple weeks, I think I know that by now.” Maggie raised herself up to her tip-toes to kiss away the crinkle in Alex’s forehead. “But I love you more than anything.”

“Yeah, yeah. You’re lucky I’m holding a baby.”

“And you’re welcome to borrow him anytime you want.”

Vasquez shook her head. “She says that now, but she’s secretly a big softie with him at home.”

Before Lucy could respond, the sound of several SUVs pulling up drew their attention outside. “Cat’s here!” Alex called out. “Maggie, can you deal with the security team?”

Eventually Cat and Kara made it inside, and after a round of passing A.J. around to everyone, Lucy got him to fall asleep in his carseat in time for dinner. When she got back, Vasquez patted the seat next to her, throwing her arm around Lucy’s shoulders and kissing her temple.  

Alex raised her glass in the air. “A toast to little Alex!”

“Also known as A.J.,” Maggie chimed in, winking at Vasquez across the table as they clinked their glasses.

“And to the soon-to-be-married couple for hosting us tonight,” Cat added, earning another round of clinking glasses.

“And, excuse me, let’s not fucking forget,” Lucy cut in, “to the next President of the United States of America.”

“Cheers!” the table chorused.

“Here’s to an overdue victory!”

“And eight long years in the White House!”

#supercat #sanvers #political au #fluff #completed fic #fanfic #supergirl #kara danvers #cat grant #alex danvers #maggie sawyer #lucy lane #susan vasquez #supercat sanvers 2020 #ao3feed

[sapphicscholar]

A/N: I played a bit with form here, and we've got some alternating POVs between Cat and Kara. Hopefully you enjoy! We've got a few chapters left until this fic is through...

Chapter Preview:

The days blurred together in a haze of travel and stump speeches and rallies. Kara was fairly certain if she needed as much sleep as a normal person, she’d have collapsed by then, and the fact that Cat, Alex, and James were keeping up with it all by mainlining caffeine never ceased to amaze her. The questions about Cat’s “new” “lesbian” identity cropped up at every event, but the public gradually grew less interested as no new information surfaced and Cat provided the same generic responses each time.

At some point, Kara realized she’d stopped keeping track of time by date, instead losing herself to the rhythms of a kind of geographic calendar. With every slow descent out of the air came a new voter base to woo.

Tempe, Arizona:

Two members of the Hispanic Caucus who had pledged support for Cat early on in the race and who hadn’t withdrawn it, even during her leave of absence, joined the team on their journey around Maricopa County. James ran into hurdle after hurdle in his attempts to rally support among some of the more moderate papers—concern about Cat’s “scandals” still running high—though Alex pulled in favors for positive coverage in the lead up to the primary.

At the end of their second night there, Cat pulled Kara aside. “Honest answer. How’s it looking?”

Kara shrugged. “Not great. But not terrible. I think you’ll still beat Max and Justin, but not by as much as it should have been.”

With a slow nod of her head, Cat sank down into the leather seat by her hotel room desk. “Thanks.”

“It’s what you pay me for.”

Kara watched Cat’s face close off as she dismissed Kara with a flick of her wrist. A part of Kara almost wanted to stay, to insist that Cat lay it all out—whatever it was that had Alex nudging Kara back toward her for some reason—but she was tired of being lied to and pushed away and fed half-truths for her “protection” or whatever bullshit reasons people told her after the fact. So she left, the door clicking shut and locked behind her.

Boise, Idaho:

They barely spent a full workday in Idaho, dominated as the coverage already was by polls predicting Max’s landslide victory, his smarmy face plastered all over billboards and television ads. Cat swore she could feel her stomach churning with every glimpse of him. She hated knowing that she’d ever dated the man, even if it hadn’t lasted. It was one thing when she thought the worst part of him was his libertarian ideology. It was quite another to find out that he’d take money from people who tried to kill her consultant, drug her girlfriend—no, no, not that, certainly not that anymore—manager, and sink her campaign with tawdry gossip. And all for what? For enough cash to bankroll a campaign that would land him in the White House with his hands tied by all the dirty funders who’d gotten him there?

She and Justin crossed paths in Boise and Idaho Falls for their single day there, both of them apparently sticking to the “cut your losses” philosophy and leaving the state to Max.

On the plane ride to Utah for a few stops before they circled back to Arizona for the results watch party, Kara nudged Cat softly during takeoff—the first voluntary physical contact they’d had since…just since.

“I still believe in this campaign,” Kara whispered.

“Not in this state.”

“No,” Kara acknowledged with a dip of her head, “not here. But we’ve got a whole lot of states left, and, well, they’d be crazy not to see that you’re the best person in the field.”

And it wasn’t much—certainly not the kind of effusive praise Cat had soaked up earlier, not the indulgent fantasies of life in and after the White House they’d once shared over their more leisurely moments in bed together—but Cat felt like maybe it was a start. It wasn’t quite, “I forgive you,” but it lacked the overt hostility of before, and the acute hurt she’d once seen glimmering back at her from those big blue eyes had receded into a kind of wistful sadness that twisted her heart without making it feel like it would shatter.

Read the rest on AO3!

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Friday afternoon found Alex in Cat’s kitchen once more, standing across from the woman herself and clutching a to-go cup of coffee that Cat had to assume, by the bags under Alex’s eyes, was the only reason she was still upright.

All the same, Cat managed as much snark as she could muster as she folded her arms over her chest and asked: “So what’s this magic plan?”

“We leak it ourselves.”

Cat scoffed, but when Alex’s expression didn’t change, she fixed Alex with a stern glare. “Not those photos we don’t.”

“No…not all of them,” Alex conceded with a dip of her head. “We leak the first one. It’s the one they think is the most incriminating because it actually shows you”—she gestured uselessly with her hand, trying not to dwell on the image—“in the act, as it were.”

Cat looked down at the image Alex had placed on her counter. “But the suit is hidden.”

“Correct.”

“How do we know they won’t leak the others? How do we know they don’t know what’s visible in them?”

“If they knew, they would be blackmailing Kara. We saw it as something other than an undershirt with a logo because we knew to look for it. And yeah, with enough time and enough media scrutiny, I bet someone else would realize it too. But for now? They haven’t. And we act before they have enough time to figure it out.”

“And how do we know that they’re not just…biding their time?”

“Because I was able to track down who took them, and she isn’t the kind to sit on something like that.”

“How do you know? Who is it?”

“Leslie Willis. Ring any bells?”

Fighting to steady her breath, Cat placed a hand on her countertop, ignoring the way it trembled with the force of her suppressed rage. She could feel anger bubbling just beneath the surface, rippling like some kind of toxic undercurrent that might at least give her enough momentum to carry her back into the race. “You mean the woman I pulled out of some gutter and put on the air in National City?”

“Mm, that’s the one. But remember how Dirk moved to a new media company after leaving CatCo’s board?”

“Was ousted is more like it,” Cat grumbled.

“Right, well, it would seem Leslie just got a very nice job offer from that other company with a signing bonus that would impress professional athletes.”

“That fucking—”

“Cat.” Alex slapped her notebook against the marble counter, drawing Cat’s attention back up to her. “Not the point. We have her on camera sneaking into and out of the hotel bathroom with a backpack, then doing it again the next morning. I had a, uh, friend check her Amazon account, and she had ordered a few remote cameras that match the kind of grainy resolution we see in these photos.”

“So then get Lucy and have her taken in or served!” Cat felt herself spiraling, but she couldn’t quite manage to reign it back in on time. She might have overlooked several personal failings when it came to Leslie over her years at CatCo, but she never expected this…this betrayal.

“Remember how we couldn’t get the leaked emails back into Pandora’s Box, even though we certainly didn’t give anyone permission to hack into our system to steal them?” Cat could already tell where it was going, and she nodded along with Alex as she answered her own half-rhetorical question: “Same thing here.”

“So then what? We simply let them win?”

“No. We call a press conference, and on Monday morning you come out and you tell the entire goddam world that you fell in love.” Cat scoffed and rolled her eyes, but Alex pressed on without acknowledging it. “People don’t like scandals, but dammit, Cat, they’ll fall over themselves for a good love story. And this is it. This is the progress narrative.” Alex began pacing around the kitchen, painting a rosy picture that didn’t quite jive with her jaded expression. “You grew up not realizing that certain things were possible, living in a world where the only path that seemed open to you as a viable possibility was settling down, marrying a man, and having kids.”

“And the fact that I have already been with other women?”

“Irrelevant. You’ve never had a significant relationship with one, have you?”

“No.”

“Nothing has ever been documented as such, has it?”

“No.”

“Exactly. You watched as this”—Alex glanced up, her gaze focused on the wall behind Cat’s head as she searched for words—“this great country of ours marched forward. You get some quotes from the history of the gay rights movement. You bring up the moderate groups most palatable to people—you know, HRC, ACLU, the like.” Alex could see Cat already thinking through her contacts at those organizations, already planning on how it might be done. “You talk about shattering glass ceilings with CatCo and fighting to be the second female president. You talk about wanting to set an example, to show people what’s possible the way you wished someone would have done for you. And then you come out, but you don’t make it about a label. Don’t make it about sex. Make it about love—this one person who inspired you. Make it about the next step forward.”

It would certainly lose Cat a few voters, but for the most part, she’d only isolate the ones already campaigning hard against her. Cat felt her mind kicking into overdrive, racing with phrases that she knew would play well with crowds. But in a moment it all came crashing back down, and she spun to face Alex. “What about the fact that the woman in those pictures works for me?”

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Cat stood once more with the same stylist who had been brought in before her debate appearances, tsking at the comments about what colors might make her seem “promiscuous” and the exact point on her legs where a dress went from “slutty” to “professional,” then down to “dowdy.” Of course, it had been decided that it needed to be a dress, needed to be something to show the world that she was still feminine, as though somehow her attraction to a woman might make her less of one. She scoffed and crossed her arms through the entirety of it, her mood not improved in the slightest by the hangover that left her head throbbing and her mouth dry.

In her misery, Cat couldn’t quite keep herself from drifting back in time, nostalgia tugging at her emotions. She remembered her first night with Kara, the way it had all begun with that little flag pin, Kara’s deft fingers affixing it to her lapel. This time Kara didn’t come anywhere near her. No, Kara stood several feet away being fitted in a tailored navy pantsuit with heels high enough to make even a Kryptonian wobble and wince. Her objections to being forced under the woman’s scrutiny and dressed up in something five times as expensive as her usual attire had all been shut down within moments by a stylist contracted to secrecy and deprived of any electronic devices until after the press conferences ended. “The cameras will be on you before you know it. You’re as much a part of this as she is.”

“Sorry,” Cat had mouthed at Kara, swallowing harshly when she was met with nothing but stony silence in response.

The only thing Cat felt halfway okay about was her speech. She’d spent all afternoon with Alex and James weaving in the phrases that had polled best with Winn’s test groups, and even if Kara didn’t want to hear it, Cat knew she’d been more honest in writing than she had for most of her relationship with the woman—too scared of the possible fallout from exposure then to realize that there might be a very different set of consequences waiting for her.

She barely heard Alex and James’s last minute reminders to her before she was being led toward the podium they’d set up. And then it was just her and the cameras. The shutters and flashes faded into the background, all of it slipping away into white noise as she settled into her role.

“Thank you all for coming out here today.” And then she was off.

Kara watched from the back of the room, and Alex came to join her a minute or two into the prepared remarks.

“How you holding up?” Alex whispered.

“Fine.”

“Kara.”

“I can’t—not here, Alex.”

Alex nodded, knowing she’d have her chance to talk to Kara after the speech ended. A team of security was ready to keep the office guarded for Cat, show that it was back to business as usual, but they’d agreed that Kara would take the rest of the afternoon off, camping out in Alex’s house, which was easier to secure than Kara’s studio apartment. Cat seemed to understand when Alex asked for the afternoon off as well, and she wasn’t about to deny Kara the one comfort still in her power to bestow.

Alex focused back in on Cat again, listening as she spoke about fear and bravery, about learning not to treat her identity as a woman or as a single mother as a liability, but instead to embrace them, to use those experiences to bring a new voice into politics. Alex even found herself smiling as Cat built to the crescendo of her speech. The rah-rah attitude about “love wins” might be acting, but damn, it was Oscar-worthy.

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Alex stared at her phone, trying to will away the creeping pangs of guilt and fear at Kara’s words. “You wanted me to hide and deny who I really was. Why would I come running to you now that I’m finally free?”

“You okay?” Maggie’s voice was soft, but it startled Alex.

“Oh, uh, yeah. Fine. Totally fine.”

“Alex…”

“She’s not coming.”

“We’ll get your sister back, I promise.” Maggie looped an arm around Alex’s waist and pulled her close, watching as her expression shifted from hurt and betrayal to resolution in the span of mere minutes.

“She might not want to talk to me right now, but maybe there’s still a part of her that would show up for work.” Maggie nodded, not adding that Kara’s big crush, rather than her work ethic, might be the thing that made Cat the more enticing option. “I’m calling Cat now.”

Within half an hour, Cat had texted Kara telling her she needed her to come up to her room, while Alex waited just outside the door—a situation that left Cat’s heart racing. She found herself praying for Kara to be angry, hoping she would do little more than insult her or yell at her, maybe even bring up the whole wrong name thing or the crispy lettuce wraps and perfectly hot lattes she demanded over the years.

As it turned out, she had little time to worry; within seconds of Kara’s arrival, Alex had swept in with something like a miniature bazooka in her hands and sprayed Kara with a foul-smelling mist. The last thing Cat saw before Kara collapsed was a look of betrayal flashing in those blue eyes. And then she was on the floor.

“Kara!”

“Move back,” Alex barked, sounding more like a military officer than anything else. Cat complied, and within seconds, Alex had Kara in her arms and out the door, insisting that she had a few “specialists” who would ensure that Kara was okay.

And so Cat found herself with no campaign manager, no political consultant, and no information for hours on end. She tried a supervised visit to the gym for a long run. She tried a scalding shower. She even tried napping—something she decidedly did not do. But nothing could keep her mind from the racing questions about what was going on with Kara, where they had taken her, whether she would ever recover from this—not just physically but emotionally. She knew Kara, the kind of woman she was, and to see coverage of herself nearly killing so many people—not quite innocent ones, but people nonetheless—Cat wasn’t sure she would be able to don the costume again.

A subdued Kara reappeared at the staff briefing the next day, and Cat couldn’t help but notice the four pens in a row that Kara broke as staffer after staffer repeated to Cat that she needed to come out against Supergirl if she wanted to salvage her image, salvage any sense of her as a public figure with an ounce of wisdom.

“You should.” Kara’s voice was rough, like she’d been up all night crying. “She doesn’t deserve your support anymore.”

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“Are you sure you’re okay?” Maggie asked, her hand hovering over Alex’s, not sure whether the touch would be welcome.

“Yeah,” Alex murmured, before shaking her head and nodding resolutely. “Yes, I really am. I want to be here with you more than anything.” Sure, she still felt a bit off balance after her fight with Kara, but there had been no more “Supergirl” antics to be seen, so she at least held out hope that Kara was simply off pouting somewhere and would come to her senses soon enough.

“That invested in happy hour?” Maggie teased.

“Well, I did make a point of looking up the best veggie burgers in the city, so I’m pretty invested in your reaction.”

“Mm, I feel like all that effort needs a reward.”

“That so?” Alex flirted, biting her lower lip and inching closer to Maggie.

“You’re killing me, you know that, right? I’m trying to be the perfect gentlegay here, and you’re making it incredibly difficult.”

Straightening up, Alex shot a soft smile in Maggie’s direction. “I’ll stop, promise.”

“I’m not saying you should stop…”

The return of their waiter broke the spell that seemed to have reduced the restaurant to nothing more than the two of them together. “I have one veggie burger.” Maggie raised her hand and thanked him. “And your Merlot.” With a flourish, he placed the beef burger and a drink in front of Alex. “Your burger, and one Dark and Stormy. Enjoy your meal, ladies.”

Clearing her throat, Maggie raised her glass. “To seeing each other every single day since we started dating in true lesbian fashion.”

“To not wanting to have it any other way.”

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“Where are you??? I’ve had to give up three tables already, and if they call me a fourth time, I’m taking it, and you can go find your own damn breakfast.” Lucy glared at her phone as it remained infuriatingly silent without an immediate response from Alex full of apologies about a work emergency and a promise that she would be there momentarily.

A few minutes later, Alex rounded the corner looking somewhat worse for wear with her hair rumpled and large sunglasses on. “Alexandra Danvers,” Lucy cackled, looking her up and down, “am I catching you just now getting home?”

“No.” Alex hated how gravelly her voice still sounded, having attempted to sleep a few minutes later than she should have to make up for how late she was up with Maggie the night before.

“Oh my god.”

“What?”

Lucy’s eyes lit up as she pulled Alex’s collar to the side. “That’s a hickey, Alexandra!”

“Shut up!”

“Oh my god, did you get laid last night?”

Alex grimaced and batted away Lucy’s hand. “Can you be a little quieter?”

Looking around, Lucy gestured to the crowds of people, all of whom were too engrossed in conversations or their phones to pay attention to them. “I’m taking that as a confirmation.”

“I didn’t say that!”

“You still haven’t said no!”

“Lucy, party of two?”

Grabbing Alex’s hand, Lucy rushed toward the host’s stand. “Here! She finally showed up.”

They followed the laughing host back to their table, and Alex barely had time to take off her jacket and order water and coffee before Lucy resumed her interrogation. “Where were you last night?”

“I…can we start at the beginning?”

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It took every ounce of effort Kara had to keep herself from simply taking off and soaring through the skies in time with her racing thoughts and heart. She had kissed Cat. Barely. But it wasn’t something that could be written off as a mistake or a misread situation. It was quite obviously a kiss. A kiss after a night of flirting after weeks of growing flirtation and too many almost moments for Kara to keep pretending like they were nothing more than colleagues who had kissed once all those years ago.

Every so often a small voice in the back of her head whispered that maybe she was about to go another six years without seeing Cat, though she kept replaying that night in Alabama when she just knew Cat was ready to lean in and finally break the tension that had been building since they took off on that first plane ride to Chicago. Surely she couldn’t cast Kara out of her life for doing something they both seemed to want.

Before she realized it, she was at Alex’s door, knocking firmly.

A moment later, the door swung open revealing an uncharacteristically frazzled-looking Alex. “Hey.”

“You alright?” Kara asked softly, slipping in through the door.

“Fine.” Alex wished her voice’s pitch would lower just a bit. It would go a long way in convincing people that she really wasn’t on the edge of some nervous breakdown. “I didn’t realize you got my texts. You never responded.”

“Oh, right.” Because she’d been a little busy flirting with Cat. And then kissing Cat. And then walking here and mentally dissecting every millisecond of said evening—an evening she most definitely could not tell Alex about. “Sorry about that.”

“What were you up to? Got a hot date, or were you locked up in your room pining over your crush?” Alex teased, laughing at the faint blush that colored Kara’s cheeks. “I can see it now, whole diary pages with, ‘President and Mrs. Grant,’ doodled all across them. Or would you rather hyphenate it? Would it be Danvers, or would you want her to be a Zor-El?”

“Shut up,” Kara grumbled.

“Big sister privileges,” Alex called back, poking at Kara’s side.

“So then should I walk my little sister butt home and leave you all alone to panic about what to wear and say on your maybe-a-date with the woman you’re probably head over heels for?”

“No!” Clearing her throat, Alex scuffed her toes against the floor, the effect lessened significantly by the fact that she was only wearing little black socks instead of her boots. “No, uh, I could…I could use your help.”

“Alright, well, what’d you say when you asked her?”

“Um, something about whiskey and this place being the best in the city.”

“Okay.”

“And I said something about wanting to make sure she gave whiskey a fair chance—let her see it at its best.”

“And you’re worried about the innuendo?”

Alex paused for a moment, suddenly looking stricken. “Now I am!”

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Alex spent the entirety of the next week standing in front of her mirror and trying out different phrases. “I’m…” She shook her head; those words got stuck. “I like Maggie,” she repeated. That one was easy. She’d gotten used to it. It rang true and felt right in a way that the other still didn’t. “I have feelings for Maggie. Romantic feelings. Sexual feelings.” They were still all true.

“I’m not straight,” was as close as she managed when it came to labels. It scared the shit out of her and still left her racing for a drink most nights, but after days of practice, it started to feel like something she could live with, like something that was doable.

On Friday afternoon, after a week of avoiding the woman, Alex asked Maggie if she wanted to go to Jack Rose on Saturday to see if she couldn’t be convinced of the perfection of whiskey that made it the superior drink. Maggie agreed, and Alex found herself frantically texting Kara to try to find out where she was because she needed so much advice so fast. After all, Jack Rose was sort of fancy. And going there together—just the two of them—on a Saturday night, so that she could tell her that she was not straight, something she only knew because she couldn’t stop having sex dreams about her—it all seemed very date-like. And Alex wasn’t really upset about it, but she was also terrified. Because she’d never been excited like this for a maybe-date. And she’d definitely never had a date with another woman. Not that this was a date. She probably would’ve needed to specify that little detail in her question. She wasn’t sure she was ready to take that leap yet.

---

Across town, Kara sat downstairs in Cat’s home office while Cat spent as much time with Carter as she could before he left for a school field trip for an overnight stay in New York City. They’d given the students a half-day to pack, and Cat had left the office promptly at 11:30, ensuring she would be home before Carter even returned and there until she absolutely had to drop him off at Union Station to meet the rest of his classmates for their bus ride up to the city.

After finishing up as much as she could without Cat at the office, Kara had made her way back to Cat’s place, having promised her that she’d be by with any work that Cat would need for the weekend, since the second debate was the following week.

Carter had flung himself at Kara when she arrived, much to Cat’s surprise. Then again, just because six years had gone by, she supposed it made sense that Kara would have made as strong of an impression on her son as she had on his mother.

“You’re so grown up,” Kara had marveled, holding him out in front of her.

“I’m 17,” he’d huffed, looking every bit the part of a teenager who was ready to start being recognized as an adult already.

“Gonna be 18 in time to vote for your mom?”

“Not in the primaries,” he’d admitted, looking rather glum, “but I’ll be old enough by the presidential election.”

“Well then, I have even more reasons to make sure we get her there,” Kara had winked at him.

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Just as Kara had predicted, Cat spent the entirety of the weekend preparing for the debate, going over the extensive research her team had prepared on the issues and Alex had compiled on the weak points in the other candidates’ platforms and personal lives, as well as the narrative Kara had helped her to sketch out for her platform—the same one that would unite her ad campaign and work its way into the imagery and language she used in her stump speeches and rallies from there on out.

Of course, the minute Cat set down her research binders or her computer or her notecards, all she could think about were Kara’s soft lips brushing against her own, the lack of hesitation and the way the whole damn display of confidence left her body on fire. Almost all of the reasons she’d used to justify pushing Kara away before seemed…insignificant now, no matter how devastating she knew the scandal would be to her career if anyone were to find out. Kara was older, more experienced now. She wasn’t some personal assistant who didn’t know what she wanted. She was a damn good campaign manager who had apparently spent just as many years as Cat had pushing down feelings that refused to stay buried. And god, how close they had come in Alabama…

Long training sessions with her pilates instructor and lengthy runs along the Potomac with Vasquez at her side for security could only relieve so much tension. She felt like her whole body was alive with it, like no matter what she was doing, there was always this molten hot desire just below the surface threatening to erupt whenever she was left alone with Kara, which was, of course, almost every waking moment as they prepared for Thursday’s debate.

On Monday, Cat thought it might have been her imagination playing tricks on her when it seemed like Kara sat just a little bit closer to her. She forced herself to be the consummate professional. After all, Kara clearly realized just how insane it would be to attempt something like a tryst during a campaign receiving scrutiny at a national level. Career suicide, really.

On Tuesday, Cat nearly flew out of her chair as Kara’s fingers skimmed across her shoulders. She swore Kara might have been able to hear her heart thundering when she leaned over Cat’s shoulder to read, instead of waiting for Cat to print a copy for her. But god, there was no way in hell she was imagining the soft brush of Kara’s lips against her ear as she murmured something about how good she though Cat’s responses were—to what, Cat couldn’t even remember anymore.

Wednesday evening brought a bit of much needed space as Cat boarded a plane for their flight out to Las Vegas for the second debate of the primary season. Carter had tried to insist it would be a great learning experience for him to come and see American democracy at work, but Cat had simply shaken her head at him and promised that he could come to the ones during his winter and spring breaks. Under the guise of needing to go over opposition research—not that she’d ever do it on a plane, no matter how many rows of seats her team had booked—Cat dragged Alex up to sit next to her instead of Kara. And once they were settled in at the hotel, it was all hands on deck for the last few hours of preparation in anticipation of the following day’s rally and campaign stops before the debate itself.

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