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coralstories · 4 years

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Assignment: Supergirl

CW Supergirl x OC Aurelia Castillo, eventual Winn Schott x OC Aurelia Castillo

A/N: Will probably do a part 2 of this. Maybe. Probably. Maybe.

Word count: 1614

Aurelia Castillo sometimes regretted moving to National City. It was fine before Kara Danvers became Supergirl, but after that, it was like the city became a hotspot for weird. And don’t get it wrong, she was pretty weird herself. But usually, her weird didn’t lead to people being admitted to the hospital in droves, like after Supergirl battled a colorful human-hating alien.

Oh, you caught that? Yes, Aurelia Castillo knew Supergirl’s true identity. No, she wasn’t an alien herself, or some sort of evil mastermind; she worked as a photojournalist under James Olsen at Catco Worldwide Media. Kara Danvers, Jimmy Olsen, and Winn Schott weren’t exactly subtle when they talked about Supergirl.

“Hey, Aurelia, can you bring these new spreads up to James?”

“Sure. I’ll head up now.”

Aurelia took the stairs one floor up, then turned the corner onto the busy floor. Phones were always ringing here, Kara Danvers was always running to and fro and people were always coming and going in and out of the elevators. Aurelia personally liked it better downstairs, but she always got a laugh when she saw Kara, Winn, Cat, and James.

She made her way past the pink lion statue and started towards James’ office. She glanced in Ms. Grant’s office on her way and saw the blonde shark sitting at her desk.

“Kira!” she called.

Aurelia quickened her pace towards the art department, pushing the door open to find James talking to Lucy.

“Oh, sorry, am I interrupting?” Aurelia said.

“No, it’s fine,” Lucy said. “I was just saying hi. I see that you’re busy, so I’ll let you get back to work.”

“See you, Luce,” James said. “Did you need something, Lia?”

“Nope. Just dropping off my team’s new layout.” She placed them on his desk with a smile.

“Aren’t you supposed to be on a plane to Japan?”

“Nah, they needed my help, so I postponed that until next week.” She leaned on a cabinet and looked out over the city.

“Well, we always love having you here when you’re not flying around the world,” he said.

Aurelia laughed. She saw a red and blue blur streak by the window. Speaking of flying around the world, she thought.

“Oh, come on, James, you know I love it. Don’t be jealous, honey.” She winked at him.

“Alright, well, in any case, I’m glad you’re on our team,” he said, laughing.

“Me too.”

She closed the door behind her and made her way to Winn’s desk. He was too focused on whatever he was doing on his computer to realize she was coming up behind him. She crossed her arms and shifted her weight to one leg as she waited for him to notice her. She saw that he was looking at radiation signatures for different elements. Finally, he saw her silhouette in the reflection on his screen. He looked up.

“Oh, Lia!” he exclaimed. “You almost gave me a heart attack, I thought for a second you were Ms. Grant.”

“Nope, just me. Took you long enough to notice me, though.” Aurelia laughed.

She took out the packet of French dragees from her back pocket and handed them to Winn. He gasped excitedly and took them with a silent thank you.

“For helping me last month,” Aurelia said. “You saved my trip. Cat would have killed me if I couldn’t bring her those photos before the deadline.”

“Hey, anything for a friend,” Winn said with false modesty.

“Well, there’s more where that came from if you stop by my desk later.”

“Really?”

“Yup. You’ve always helped me out, ever since my first day here. The least I can do is be your drug supplier, right?”

“Mmm, you do know I need my sugar kick to function at my best. Thanks.”

“No problem, Winn.”

She patted his shoulder and made her way back to the stairs. She noticed Kara was still not at her desk. Aurelia figured she’d probably hear what she was doing later on the news. She went back to her desk, which was decidedly superhero-free.

Her lunch hour was brightened by a meeting with her best friend in all of National City: Ingram Capello. Aurelia and Ingram were basically complete opposites. Whereas Aurelia was tall with light brown hair, dark olive skin, a strong build, and a shapely figure, Ingram was of average height with pale, almost sickly-looking skin and black hair, and she was almost as thin as a stick. Added to that, Aurelia was the outgoing and friendly daughter of an Air Force pilot, while Ingram was the reserved (and often misread as condescending) daughter of two powerhouse business leaders. Aurelia laughed and smiled a lot, while Ingram’s smiles were rare. There was one thing they both had in common though: they both had supernatural abilities. Aurelia had a regenerative healing ability and could heal others at will. Ingram was a witch with the power to alter the fabric of reality itself. Neither of them used their powers often for fear of being exposed and persecuted, but it was becoming harder and harder for them to ignore the sense of responsibility that came with these powers.

“So how was that wedding in Paris?” Ingram asked as she sipped the last of her drink.

“It was a wreck,” Aurelia groaned. “I mean, the wedding was great, I got some great shots and everything, so that part was fine. But, oh my Lord, if I never have to see any of those people again it will be too soon.”

“Uh oh. What happened?”

Aurelia waited to respond until Ingram finished crunching on one of the ice cubes at the bottom of her cup.

“The women in attendance were all bubbleheads and the men were all gross, entitled snobs.” Aurelia shivered.

“Did they touch you?” Ingram asked in a dangerously calm voice.

“Yes, but it’s okay, I handled it.”

“But still, you wouldn’t mind giving me the names of a few of these sticky-handed men, would you?” Ingram’s gaze was innocent.

“Yes, I would. Besides, if you ever read Catco magazine, you would see them there.” Aurelia smiled.

“Ugh, you’re no fun.”

“Listen, I just don’t want to see you go to jail for killing someone whose only crime was to call me a bitch.”

“It’s a punishable offense.”

“So is murder.”

Ingram crunched an ice cube. They sat quietly for a minute after they finished eating, digesting their meals.

“How was it seeing everyone again?” Ingram asked.

“Like I’d never left. What’s the golden girl been up to?”

“Well, today, I saw her thwart some bank robbers.”

“Oh, is that what she was doing earlier? I thought I saw her zip out of the building.”

“Yes, the bank was across from my dry cleaners. J’onn let me go to lunch early so I stopped there first.”

“How unfortunate for you.”

“She actually kept it pretty contained this time. The only thing that left the building was the criminals.”

Aurelia snorted.

Aurelia dropped Ingram off at the bus station before returning to Catco. Winn greeted her at the elevator upon her return.

“Lia!”

“Winn? What’s going on?”

“Ms. Grant was looking for you!”

The color drained from Aurelia’s face. She dragged Winn to the stairway before saying anything further.

“Why is Cat Grant looking for me?” she demanded.

“I don’t-I don’t know, but you should probably go to her office right now. James already told her you were on your lunch break,” Winn said nervously.

Aurelia took a deep breath. She spun away from Winn and marched up the stairs, heading to Cat Grant’s office. She knocked on the glass door before entering. The blond media mogul glanced up.

“Ah, Miss Castillo,” Cat said. “Come in.”

Aurelia cringed at the way she pronounced her last name. She stood a foot away from Cat’s desk.

“Did you enjoy your lunch?” Cat asked, still writing.

“I did, thank you for asking. I just went down to that diner on the corner to meet my friend and catch up. I told her about the assignment I was on.”

“Ah, yes, the super wedding in Paris. It doesn’t seem so super now that we have our own Supergirl, now does it?”

Aurelia chuckled nervously.

“But I looked at your articles. You had some good prose in there and good points. The pictures were beautifully done.”

“Thank you.”

“You did so well on that, I’m going to have to ground you,” Cat said.

Aurelia blinked owlishly, stunned.

“Excuse me?” Was all she could say.

“From now on, you’re not going to be jetting around the world. I have a special assignment for you here at home,” Cat said.

She finally stood and walked around the table. Cat smiled victoriously, one hand on her hip as the other supported her weight on the desk. It made Aurelia curious and slightly nervous.

“What’s the assignment?” Aurelia asked.

“I want you to photograph and write articles about… Supergirl.”

Aurelia burst into laughter. As Cat’s expression fell and her brows drew together, she quickly recovered.

“I’m sorry, but… how do you expect me to photograph Supergirl? She flies at the speed of the wind,” Aurelia said reasonably.

“Not when she’s apprehending criminals or helping babies stuck in cars,” Cat countered.

Aurelia’s mind was racing. It’s not that she was wholly opposed to the assignment. She had been traveling so much for work lately, staying in one place, and not living out of a suitcase, would be a nice change. However, the problem lied with the fact that she knew Supergirl’s secret identity. She didn’t know if she could write articles about the hero without accidentally revealing something.

“You start tomorrow,” Cat continued.

#supergirl #supergirl fanfiction #cw supergirl #kara danvers #jimmy olsen #winn schott #cat grant #oc #original character #aurelia castillo #supergirl x oc #winn schott x oc #reader insert

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anotheraverageauthor · 5 years

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Heart of Steel

When you're born into a family of genius scientists, with a superhero sister blasted to Earth from the stratosphere, not everything is destined to be easy. Frankie, youngest of the three Danvers sisters, had known that from her first day in the world. What she hadn't anticipated was that adult life wasn't going to get much better.

~~~

Ma main man, a Baby!Danvers/Winn Schott work in progress.

Archive: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12987267/chapters/31794351

Wattpad: https://www.wattpad.com/story/119721641-heart-of-steel-~-winn-schott-x-oc

FF.net: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12977897/1/Heart-of-Steel

#supergirl #supergirl fanfic #multi chapter #baby!danvers #winn schott #winn schott x oc #baby danvers

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19mrs-barnes17 · 5 years

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Anything For You

Summary: As Winn’s childhood friend and longtime crush, he finds that he would do anything for Ivae. No matter the danger.

Part: 1/2

Pairing: Winn Schott x Ivae Summers (OC)

Warnings: angsty

Word count: 1,959

A/N: Hello! This will be two parts but I'm thinking part two will be fluffy as hell with only a pinch of angst. Enjoy!

“Ivae?!” Winn was frantic as he ran through the warehouse, scanning aisle after aisle for any sign of his friend. Toys were littered along the shelves and floor. His nerves were spiking alongside his adrenaline as he thought about what he would find. Awful scenarios began flooding his mind, but he shook them out. He needed to focus if he was going to find her before it was too late. There was an intense stress that seemed to dig its way into his heart, burrowing deeper the more that time passed by. The pounding of his heart filling his ears, forcing the slapping of his feet upon the concrete to fade away.

A crash behind him soon silenced his heart as if a hand had reached through his chest and squeezed it tight. He sloppily turned on his heel, nearly falling forward in the process, eyes scanning frantically about the room. Winn noticed a toy box to his right, lying in between two shelves. It felt too obvious, too predictable. Sort of like the point in a horror movie when a character makes their final mistake. His chest felt tight as his breathing became erratic, slowly stepping toward what he knew was a trap.

Suddenly he heard it. A thudding noise emanating from behind the shelf, it sounded panicked and desperate. The grip on his heart grew tighter as he carefully squeezed between the metal shelves, he was so close. He had to believe that you were within reach, that he could save you. Because if you weren’t, if he had to see something he would never be ready to see… Well, that grip on his heart may just crush it altogether.

An air current was barely noticeable as he scanned the wall for any sort of release panel, something to trigger the door. A press to the proper place and music, specifically that of a jack in the box, gradually began to play. The notes echoing down the halls and ringing in his ears as his fear began to grapple for control.

A sigh of relief escaped his lips as he works to pull open the massively heavy, metal door. As soon as the door opens, a trapped wind up toy makes a break for it. Frustration hits him hard as he stares down the newly exposed hallway, dimly lit with glow in the dark stars that cover the walls. He gulps at the sight, his courage slipping a little as he steps inside.

The door slams shut behind him, the thud echoing through the empty hall almost as loudly as his pounding heart in his ears. A deep breath in and out. At the end of the hall was a pitch black room, his hand immediately searching for a switch. Lights flickered on the moment he stepped further inside to continue his search, nearly startling the life out of him. That is, had it not been for the sight he found in front of him.

A giant doll box. His best friend was suspended inside a giant doll box, eyes closed shut. Winn had begun to connect the dots, eyes widening in fear. His father rigged that toy to fall, he wanted him in here. But why? What was he meant to find? Aside from his best friend. Shaking the theories from his mind, he did his best to focus on figuring out how to get her out.

He tore away at the plastic wrap, prying the cardboard apart, and tearing the box to pieces. Around her wrists and ankles were rope tying her to the back of the box, a metal sheet. So distracted by cutting the bonds, Winn failed to notice the figure lurking in the back of the room. Only the sound of a throat clearing would alert him, spiking his adrenaline levels through the roof.

“Dad.”

His smile sent a shiver down Winn’s spine as he held Ivae in his arms, carrying her bridal style and away from his father. Any steps away were matched, so he stood still as she began to stir in his arms.

“Ah, it's wearing off. This should be fun.”

“Why are you doing this? Dad, this is between you and me. Why drag her into this?” Winn’s voice fails him, cracking under the pressure of the situation.

“You’ve been ignoring my messages. So, I found a new media.” His father shrugs off the accusation with ease, simply focused on the fact that his son appeared. “I thought you’d enjoy the theme.”

“Enjoy? How can I enjoy the fact that you kidnapped my best friend, who I love, just to get me here. Don’t you see what’s wrong with that? I mean, can you not understand why this would upset me? What kind of father are you?” Winn was crumbling under the emotional strain, but his anger was fueling him.

“Oh, come now. You’re still my son, I just thought you needed a little motivation to visit, and I have an offer. You’re just like me, my boy, so much potential. I could help with that.”

Tears brimmed his eyes as he stared his father down, brow furrowed intensely. He knew that this behavior shouldn’t surprise him, and yet, it did. Every single time it was a dagger to the heart. It was his father trampling over him like a stampede.

“No.” Winn’s voice was sharp. “No, I am nothing like you. I would never do the things you’ve done. I help people, help save them and you, you destroy. We’re different people dad. You need to understand that my answer is never going to change.”

He was terrified of his father but he would no longer live in fear of becoming him, because he had something his father didn’t. He had Ivae and his friends to ground him. His father could have had that, but he threw it away. That was something Winn would never do, because he couldn’t live without the family he’s built and the home that has been created. So, to protect Ivae, he pressed the button on his watch that sent out his location to the DEO. He would turn his father in to save the people he cared about, because the cost was worth it.

“Winn? You copy?” Alex’s voice sounds in his ear piece, and he remains silent. “Winn if this is an actual emergency I need you to slip the word ‘prisoner’ into the conversation.

“I’m leaving, okay?” He attempted to step toward the door but thought better of it as his father sent him a glare. “What? Are you gonna keep me here as a prisoner, until I meet your demands?”

“If that is what it takes.”

“Winn, we’re sending a team in. Be careful, they’re about 5 minutes out.”

“Who are you listening to? I told you to come alone.” The expression on his father’s face grew more displeased by the minute. “I thought we could work this through, but it seems not.”

“I did and we can. There’s no one here but us three.”

“Three? You didn’t think I’d actually be in here, did you? After last time?” His father’s brow raised before he disappeared entirely. A concrete slab falls down, blocking the hall and the exit. The device on the ground begins to spin rapidly, a gas slowly flowing out and into the air.

~~~

Ivae’s eyes fluttered open, panic flooding her senses whilst she attempted to asses the situation at hand. Taking note of the box she was in and the bindings on her wrists, she struggled against the restraints only to feel a prick in her arm and sleep beckon her.

The next time she felt herself waking, she kept her eyes shut when she noticed she was no longer bound. When she heard speaking she kept deadly still, afraid of it becoming common knowledge that she was conscious. Instead her ears listened to the conversation around her, recognizing the voices almost immediately.

“...you kidnapped my best friend, who I love…” Oh, Winn. It was not the time to be distracted by such words but Ivae couldn’t help herself from wondering, to what degree? As she pushed the thought from her mind she realized that in that moment of shock she had moved. Panic shot through her veins.

“Ah, it's wearing off. This should be fun.” A million different scenarios of what could happen the moment her eyes opened began to run rampant in her mind. She nearly missed Winn’s father pull the rug from beneath their feet.

The sound of gas forced her eyes wide open, it was then that she noticed Winn was carrying her in his arms. She physically shook her head to shift her focus back to the current situation, her feelings would have to wait.

“Ivae? You’re awake. Are you alright?” She nods her head as he sets her back on her feet, eyeing the approaching gas.

“What do we do? Is there any other exit?” Winn shook his head, brow furrowed with worry.

“Winn? We found the control room, you father is gone but we can see you on the monitor. My team is doing what they can to find the room but there are no heat signatures coming up. And the even bigger issue, is that the room you’re in and the rate the gas is coming out…”

“We won’t make it.”

Without really thinking she grabbed his hand, eyes scanning the room frantically hoping for some way out to become clear. But none did. Winn gave her hand a squeeze as Alex continued talking through the speaker overhead.

“Supergirl is on her way but even at the speed of a bullet, I don’t know if she’ll get here in time. So I need you to remember the path you took, how you found the room.”

“I-I can’t, I was running without direction. I wasn’t paying attention to where I was or anything around me.”

“Nothing?”

“There was this toy between two shelves but that’s hardly helpful given the whole warehouse is filled with them.”

“Do you remember the type?”

“Uh, I think, I think it was a beach themed doll.”

“Hang in there Winn, we’re searching for it. Try and see if you can find a hidden panel or a way out.”

Ivae glanced around the room and then to Winn who looked determined as hell to find a way out. She glanced down at her scarf, brain running through possible scenarios. She removes her scarf, handing it to her best friend.

“Hey, what’re you doing?” His eyes were clouded with concern and panic, she knew he’d find a way out. But it was more likely that would take more time and she was determined to give what she could.

“If either of us are going to get out, its you.” He turns to face her and ties the scarf over her mouth and nose.

“No, we both do.” A sense of dizziness settles over the two as they scour the room for a way out, with no luck. Ivae is stuck searching the furthest wall from the device as Winn puts himself closest. She was going to give him a piece of her mind for being so reckless when they got out. If they got out. She pushes the horrible thought from her mind and turns back to the wall.

Winn drops to the floor to the floor moments later, her own body growing weaker as well. It takes everything in her not to run to his side, to keep on with her search. But her body cannot take much more and it isn’t long before she too finds herself losing the battle. She crawls with the last of her strength to his side, before the whole world goes dark and she falls into the nothing.

I hope you enjoy this! If you would like to be added to tag lists for a character or everything send me an ask!

Tags: @qtmeryr @broken-hearted-barnes

#supergirl #winn schott #winn #winn x oc #not requested #fic #cw #deo #alex danvers #OC #no reader #ivae summers x winn schott

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temmie-loony · 5 years

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Dawn and her revelation that her parents either can’t walk or are just doing it to embarrass her whenever she’s in the vicinity.

#SuperflarrowBeingExtra

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heldheartinfo · 2 years

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FULL ACCOUNT SHIP LIST ( @heldheart ) :

CANON x CANON ~

Blair Waldorf x Dan Humphrey

Caroline Forbes x Klaus Mikaelson

Harry Osborn x Mary-Jane Watson

Fleur Delacour x Bill Weasley

Rosie x Otto Octavius

Emily Lyman x Norman Osborn

Pansy Parkinson x Draco Malfoy

Makkari x Druig

Lizzie Saltzman x Hope Mikaelson

Christine Palmer x Stephen Strange

Buffy Summers x Angel

Buffy Summers x Spike

Willow Rosenberg x Tara Maclay

Kiara Carrera x JJ Maybank

Sarah Cameron x John B. Routledge

Rory Gilmore x Jess Mariano

Sigyn x Loki Laufeyson

Davina Claire x Kol Mikaelson

Heike x Baron Helmut Zemo

Ruby 2.0 x Sam Winchester

Pacey Witter x Joey Potter

Caroline Forbes x Tyler Lockwood

Lois Lane x Clark Kent

Heike Zemo x Bucky Barnes

Lizzie Saltzman x Landon Kirby

Love Quinn x Theo Engler

Heike Zemo x Bucky Barnes

Roy Kent x Keeley Jones

Lizzie Saltzman x Percy Jackson

Selina Kyle x Bruce Wayne

Selina Kyle x Matt Murdock

Anna Smith x John Bates

Mary Crawley x Matthew Crawley

Mary Crawley x Henry Talbot

Sybil Crawley x Tom Branson

Anthony Bridgerton x Kate Sharma

Benedict Bridgerton x Sophie Beckett

Daphne Bridgerton x Simon Bassett

Siena Rosso x Anthony Bridgerton

Emily Walker x Cordell Walker

Geri Broussard x Cordell Walker

Nancy Wheeler x Steve Harrington

Joyce Byers x Jim Hopper

CANON x OC ~

Bexley Rogers x Logan Howlett

Sam Salvatore x Clint Barton

Sam Salvatore x Steve Rogers

Sam Salvatore x Klaus Mikaelson

Sam Salvatore x Elijah Mikaelson

Sam Salvatore x Edward Cullen

Sam Salvatore x Tony Stark

Logan Thibault x Natasha Romanoff

Astraea x Ikaris

Bexley Rogers x Tony Stark

Bexley Rogers x Bucky Barnes

Bexley Rogers x Helmut Zemo

Bexley Rogers x Stephen Strange

Sam Salvatore x Enzo St. John

Kassandra Mikaelson x Damon Salvatore

Bexley Rogers x Wanda Maximoff

Bexley Addams x Wanda Maximoff

Bexley Rogers x Natasha Romanoff

Bexley Rogers x Winn Schott

Megan Walker x Eddie Brock

Megan Walker x Peter Parker

Harriet Carter-Rogers x Shang Chi

Jonathan Stark x Kate Bishop

Bexley Addams x Dean Winchester

Elizabeth Taylor x Steve Rogers

Bexley Rogers x Thor Odinson

Sarah Stark x Harry Osborn

Avery Osborn x Peter Parker

Sophia Rogers x Wally West

Mara Winchester x Druig

Karolina Addams x Lucifer

Sam Salvatore x Caroline Forbes

Bexley Rogers x Matt Murdock

Megan Walker x Matt Murdock

Caroline Burton x Matthew Crawley

Caroline Burton x Tom Branson

Anthony Burton x Thomas Barrow

Kathryn Vaughn x Hoyt Rawlins

Jeanette Byers x Steve Harrington

Jeanette Byers x Eddie Munson

Violet Munson x Jonathan Byers

Violet Munson x Steve Harrington

Eddie Munson x Chrissy Cunningham

Andrea Kazanky x Jake Seresin

Caroline Mitchell x Bradley Bradshaw

OC x OC ~

Josephine Octavius x Harley Stark

Josephine Octavius x Harry Rogers

Steven Stark x Melody Barton

Steven Stark x Sadie Barnes

Jonathan Stark x Georgia Maximoff

Freyja Thorsdottir x Daniel Rogers

Elizabeth Taylor x Leo Kennedy

Adam Mikaelson x Alaina Carpenter

Sarah Stark x Viktor Barnes

Sarah Stark x Caliux Darkknight

Sarah Stark x Sord-Menn

Hazel Mikaelson x Caliux Darkknight

Bexley Addams x Caliux Darkknight

Avery Osborn x Caliux Darkknight

Jo Octavius x Caliux Darkknight

Caroline Barnes x Harry Rogers

Evelyn Barnes x Franklin Richards

Connor Lang x James Carter-Rogers

Bexley Rogers x Piotr Koskov

Ellinor Lokisdottir x Tommy Maximoff

Bexley Addams x Stephen Reed

Melissa Masterson x Cameron Kincaid

Sasha Stark x Valentina Silva

Sasha Stark x Valeria Richards

I WANT TO EXPLORE/TRY ~

Jo Harvelle x Dean Winchester

Lizzie Saltzman x Hope Mikaelson

Lizzie Saltzman x Landon Kirby

Lizzie Saltzman x Ethan Machado

Ruby 2.0 x Sam Winchester

Katherine Pierce x Elijah Mikaelson

Katherine Pierce x Klaus Mikaelson

Sigyn x Loki Laufeyson

Haley James (Scott) x Nathan Scott

Brooke Davis x Lucas Scott

Brooke Davis x Julian Baker

Nancy Wheeler x Eddie Munson

WHAT I SHIP: (May be doing already or may be wanting to do)

Jo Harvelle x Dean Winchester

Pepper Potts x Tony Stark

Lizzie Saltzman x Hope Mikaelson

Lizzie Saltzman x Landon Kirby

Lizzie Saltzman x Ethan Machado

Buffy Summers x Angel

Buffy Summers x Spike

Blair Waldorf x Dan Humphrey

Katherine Pierce x Elijah Mikaelson

Katherine Pierce x Stefan Salvatore

Katherine Pierce x Klaus Mikaelson

Heike Zemo x Baron Helmut Zemo

Willow Rosenberg x Tara Maclay

Willow Rosenberg x Daniel Osbourne

Willow Rosenberg x Kennedy

Ruby 2.0 x Sam Winchester

Lois Lane x Clark Kent

Emily x Cordell Walker

Geri Broussard x Cordell Walker

Pacey Witter x Joey Potter

Pacey Witter x Andie McPhee

Sigyn x Loki Laufeyson

Sarah Cameron x John B. Routledge

Kiara Carrera x JJ Maybank

Davina Claire x Kol Mikaelson

Felicia Hardy x Peter Parker

Anne Weying x Eddie Brock

Anne Weying x Dr. Dan Lewis

Makkari x Druig

Haley James (Scott) x Nathan Scott

Haley James x Brooke Davis

Brooke Davis x Julian Baker

Brooke Davis x Rachel Gatina

Brooke Davis x Lucas Scott

Christine Palmer x Stephen Strange

Caroline Forbes x Klaus Mikaelson

Caroline Forbes x Tyler Lockwood

Caroline Forbes x Katherine Pierce

Rory Gilmore x Jess Mariano

Rosie x Otto Octavius

Emily Lyman x Norman Osborn

Roy Kent x Keeley Jones

Rebecca Welton x Ted Lasso

Anya Jenkins x Xander Harris

Pansy Parkinson x Draco Malfoy

Fleur Delacour x Bill Weasley

Daphne Bridgerton x Simon Bassett

Anthony Bridgerton x Kate Sharma

Malia Tate x Stiles Stilinski

Allison Argent x Scott McCall

Allison Argent x Isaac Lahey

Braeden x Derek Hale

Sybil Crawley x Tom Branson

Mary Crawley x Matthew Crawley

Mary Crawley x Henry Talbot

Anna Smith x John Bates

Claire Dearling x Owen Grady

Ellie Sattler x Alan Grant

Padme Amidala x Anakin Skywalker

Nancy Wheeler x Steve Harrington

Nancy Wheeler x Robin Buckley

Cassie Perez x Trey Barnett

Twyla Jean x Cordell ‘Duke’ Walker

Joyce Byers x Jim Hopper

Chrissy Cunningham x Eddie Munson

Katherine Pierce x Stefan Salvatore

Katherine Pierce x Elijah Mikaelson

Max Mayfield x Lucas Sinclair

Natasha Trace x Jake Seresin

Katniss Everdeen x Peeta Mellark

Jessica Day x Nick Miller

Annie Cresta x Finnick O’Dair

Lydia Martin x Allison Argent

Lydia Martin x Jordan Parrish

Jo March x Theodore Laurence

Rachel Berry x Finn Hudson

Rachel Berry x Quinn Fabray

Quinn Fabray x Sam Evans

Quinn Fabray x Santana Lopez

Donna Troy x Dick Grayson

Jade Tulle-Salvatore x Josie Saltzman

Hope Van Dyne x Scott Lang

Tatum Riley x Stu Macher

Mary-Jane Watson x Peter Parker

Mary-Jane Watson x Harry Osborn

Mary-Jane Watson x Gwen Stacy

NOTPS: ( Ships I don’t like for whatever reason and/or have no interest in rping )

Lizzie Saltzman x Sebastian

Blair Waldorf x Nate Archibald

Joey Potter x Dawson Leery

Caroline Forbes x Matt Donovan

Caroline Forbes x Alaric Saltzman

Rebecca Welton x Sam Obsinya

Haley James x Chris Keller

Buffy Summers x Riley Finn

Nancy Wheeler x Jonathan Byers

Katniss Everdeen x Gale Hawthorne

#psa #{re: general}

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saiilorstars · 8 months

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Ch.11: Bitter and Sweet

Story Masterlist ◦ Anais’ Masterlist ◦

Also on: Fanfic • Ao3

Pairing: Winn Schott x OFC

Taglist: @ocappreciationtag @arrthurpendragon @anotherunreadblog @maaaaarveeeeel @stareyedplanet @foxesandmagic @kmc1989

If you’d like to be a part of this OC’s work/edits, let me know!

James gave a light knock on Anais' office door and stepped inside, wearing a bigger smile than usual. Of course, ever since he put Snapper in his place - leaving both men to their respective job roles - who wouldn't be happy?

"What can I do for you Mr. Boss?" Anais pushed her chair closer to her desk, putting her hands on her desk.

"I just sent a reporter to the Children's Hospital new building to see what we can get for an article so I need the pictures to go along with it."

"Oh, great!" Anais winced when she heard her own words. "Not like that! I meant — I'm happy to take the assignment before I lose my mind!"

James chuckled. "I take it Winn is still fixing your suit, then?"

Anais glared at nothing in particular but it was a deep glare nonetheless. "Yup," she muttered and got up from her chair.

Winn had kept his word about not letting her go out in the field until she told the DEO — primarily J'onn, Kara and Alex — about Cadmus' threat. It drove Anais up the wall that she wasn't able to convince him otherwise and the use of the physical threats was no good either as she would have to explain to everyone else why she suddenly decided to kill their friend. So, until she decided to tell the truth, Winn was basically holding her suit hostage.

To everyone else, he was just mending her suit.

"And how's Mon-El doing?" James curiously asked since he hadn't stopped by the DEO in a while. He only knew what he was told.

"Kara and him are learning to get along-ish," Anais said, "And we're testing Mon-El's abilities too. See what he can and can't do. He's not leaving the DEO for a while, I'm assuming. Poor guy must be going crazy too."

J'onn had given the order to test Mon-El in every possible way to deduce the danger he could post if left unsupervised. Winn was put in charge of monitoring him and recording the results to later discuss together.

Anais could only imagine the frustration Mon-El would be feeling soon since he'd already been cooped up in the DEO for days now and training since then. Maybe she could help in some way, she thought before leaving the office.

~ 0 ~

Anais walked down the street before the hospital site, adjusting her clothes and hair since she'd basically sped there from CatCo. As she approached the site, she began to smell the after scent of burnt rubber and metal, along with the horrible sight of the crumbled hospital.

"Oh, what happened here?" She stopped in front of the yellow tape keeping civilians away.

"Aliens happened," a familiar voice answered. Anais whipped her head to the right and saw Lena Luthor approaching her.

"Miss Luthor," Anais smiled politely, "I didn't expect to see you here."

"Yeah," Lena nodded. "No one expects to see a Luthor at accident sites unless they caused it." There was a brief moment of silence before she added, "And just so we're clear, I didn't cause this."

"I didn't think you did," Anais clarified for the woman's sake. "So what is Miss Luthor doing here, though?"

"Please, it's just Lena, I told you," the black-haired woman sighed. "And I was one of the investors of this building. It was brand new when it was destroyed."

"Millions of dollars lost, I assume," Anais gazed at the crumbled building. She could still see some leftover melted medical equipment peeking from under the walls.

"Oh please, it's not about the money," Lena set her hands on her hips. "This building was built because the first hospital was getting overcrowded. Now the children that did survive this, had to return to the first hospital."

Anais pulled her camera in front of her eyes and snapped a picture. "What happened to the building?"

"Your reporter hasn't come to you yet?" Lena nodded to the young CatCo. Reporter talking to a cop at the moment.

"Nope, I just got here, remember?"

"Well, we don't know much but we assume it was aliens judging by the mass strength of whatever hit the walls. Plus, some of the records from the kids say they saw hooded people."

"Ah," Anais started walking a bit to get better angles of the building. "Which could mean it was a regular human crime scene."

"But they didn't steal anything," Lena countered. "They just came in to destroy."

"Well, sometimes people don't need reasons to do something," Anais lowered her camera to see Lena giving her a look. "What?"

"I'm assuming you're like Kara in that you both share pro-alien opinions," Lena crossed her arms.

Anais gave a shrug of her shoulders. "Well, what's wrong with that?"

"Nothing. Everyone's entitled to their opinions and thoughts," Lena looked ahead at the building again.

"It's so refreshing meeting someone like you," Anais chuckled. She felt her phone buzzing and picked it out from her pocket. "Oh, gotta go. It was nice seeing you, though. Wouldn't mind doing this again."

Surprise etched across Lena's face, making her dark eyebrows simultaneously raise. "Really?"

Anaís paused after taking another picture to see Lena's expression. "What?"

Lena smiled warmly. "Not a lot of people would say that. In fact, I don't think I've ever heard that."

"You're nice and you're badass, so...yeah, I'd like to see you around," Anaís chuckled. "You're doing what I'm doing and, as I've said, I admire that."

Lena's smile widened, clearly beaming at the chance of a second friend. She hadn't admitted it but she liked to believe she was friends with Kara Danvers too. "Okay then, you're welcome at L-Corp anytime."

"Cool," Anaís beamed then. "Now I gotta run for real. See you around." She hurried past Lena to get going because if she wasn't at the DEO in the next five minutes, she was sure Arun would come for her himself.

~0~

"Again!" Arun shouted the order without hesitance.

A blonde speedster whipped past him in circles, repeatedly, until she would come to a stop and attempt to throw a lightning bolt she was meant to create during her run. Just as Anaís was about to throw her bolt, it shattered in her palms..

"Dammit!" she growled and glanced back at Arun who stood at the end of the room with his hands behind his back and no emotion on his face.

"Again!" he simply commanded once more.

She sucked in a breath and took off again. She'd been doing this for more than an hour now with no such luck. Arun silently watched as she sped in circles - a long circle too - to see exactly where she was going wrong. He never felt the visitors coming into the room, much less Anaís.

"Woah, that is awe and some!" Mon-El's cheer startled Anaís and caused the speedster to trip over her own feet. She came hurtling into a wall, face first. She groaned and turned on her back to glare at Mon-El then Arun and Winn for not warning her.

"Two things," Winn made a motion for Mon-El to listen, the latter even nodding his head to show him that he was indeed listening. "One: never sneak up on a speedster, especially when she's throwing lightning. And two: it's just 'awesome'. You got to put those two words together and you'll be golden."

"Awesome," Mon-El tested the word out and felt like it did sound better put together. He then looked over to Anaís who was getting back on her feet. "And sorry. Just thought that whole…" His fingers wiggled in the air as he attempted to mimic what she'd been doing, "...the whole lightning thing was cool…"

"You taught him the word 'cool' already?" Anaís dusted her legs off. Winn grinned. "Of course you did."

"If you three are finished talking, Anaís has a lot more practice to do," Arun spoke up with an air of annoyance. He knew well that they had a new alien amongst the DEO but he hadn't actually talked to Mon-El.

"Are you the other Solista?" Mon-El asked, though he was sure of the answer by the looks of his beam. "You got the whole lightning thing down, I assume?"

"Since I was a teenager. Child's play, really," Arun said plainly, shooting Anaís a look that meant to point out she was extremely behind. For that, Anaís looked down.

"W-well, I mean, it is lightning we're talking about," Winn purposely glanced at Anaís in hopes of lifting her spirits. "It takes a while to practice when it's the first try. I-I'm assuming."

Anaís smiled softly at him. She appreciated his attempt to help her out…until she remembered what he was doing with her suit.

"Yes, when we're teenagers," Arun brokered the silence without realizing it. "But Anaís is twenty three now."

"Okay, can we just call it a day with the training?" Anaís decided it was for the better lest Arun wanted a lightning bolt thrown at him instead of the practice dummy. "I'll continue tomorrow."

"Your call," Arun shrugged. "You wanna go get lunch?"

"No, I can't. Supergirl's waiting for me. We have a lead on that dead alien we found in the back of a car."

"Alright then, until tomorrow," Arun said and started heading out. He suddenly stopped though by the doorway and glanced back. "Oh, and Winn, the suit seems to be working fine right now." He made a gesture at Anaís' regular DEO suit she was wearing. "Have you finished mending it?"

"Nope," Winn replied without a second thought, even wearing that big smile Anaís was beginning to hate. "Still got kinks to figure out."

Arun nodded and walked out of the room.

"It doesn't have any kinks!" Anaís shouted after he was fully gone. "You're just purposely keeping it away from me!"

"Me? What?" His pretense sarcasm only made her even more mad. "Never."

"I'll kill you," Anaís warned but all Winn did was ask Mon-El if he wanted to continue practicing. With a shake of her head, she left the room and went to find Alex and Supergirl in the control room. "Anything on our alien perp?" Anaís stopped by them.

"Yes, actually," Kara motioned to Alex, "Alex was just telling me what the lab found."

"The thorn found in the dead body is from a Brevakk. Some sort of biological defense mechanism," Alex explained. "So, yeah, that's new and terrifying."

"Don't suppose there's any ideas where we can find him?" Anaís tried her luck.

"Turns out there's exactly one Brevakk registered in National City for the President's Alien Amnesty Act," Alex moved on over to an empty computer. She pulled up the profile of said alien. "And we got the address ready to go."

"Alright, so what's our first step?" Anaís looked between the more experienced women.

"It's just a check out, so...I think we're good," Alex's words surprised both aliens. "I got someone in mind I'll take."

"Are you sure?" Kara raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, yeah, don't worry," Alex waved her off, really smiling like she meant it. "She's good, trust me." And with that cryptic description, she left.

"You want to train, then?" Kara asked Anaís once they were on their own. Anaís groaned and covered her face. "What?" Kara looked around in case anyone knew what she said wrong.

"I just finished a round with Arun and I didn't get it right."

"You mean the lightning bolt thing?"

"Yes!"

"When we agreed that he would train me, I didn't know Arun would be one of those uptight 24/7 trainers!"

Kara chuckled.

"And he won't get off my back for my pathetic attempts to create and throw a lightning bolt!"

"Don't get so worked up about it, remember how long Barry said it took him?"

"Yeah, but... he's a metahuman and I'm an alien. It's in my biology to get it!" Anaís exclaimed particularly loud enough to draw some attention.

Kara, in particular, was giving her a look. "Some funny words you used there." Anaís dropped her hands to her sides and looked back. "Sounds like something Arun would say." She'd come to learn that Arun's 'words of encouragement' were not so light. They seemed like backhanded insults instead.

"Well, he kind of did, and he's right. It's in my biology to get it and I'm taking longer than a kid would!"

"Okay, maybe you need to reel it back a little," Kara brought Anaís to the side so they could speak better. "You may be a speedster with incredible strength but you still need practice and you know that. I know you know that."

"Yeah, I know…" Anaís sighed.

"Then why don't you let Arun know that? He's the one that needs to reel it back a lot more." Kara suspected Arun was the one putting more pressure on things than Anaís really thought. "He's a hard coach, and maybe a good one, but a hard one nonetheless. He wants you to do exactly what he did and that's not gonna happen."

"Because I'm only half a Solista?"

"No, because you're you and you're different. Everyone is. So c'mon, let's go train nice and easy."

Anaís finally agreed and followed Kara to their training room meant just for them. They trained for about an hour before J'onn called them back to the control room. Alex had returned but not with good news. Their lead on the dead alien had been whisked away by a group of men in a suspicious can.

"Do we know who the men in the van were?" J'onn asked Alex, and the woman shook her head.

"No. But these weren't low-rent thugs. They were definitely combat-trained. They mean business."

"So do we. Or have you forgotten about that?" J'onn's snark startled all three women.

"Hey, what's with the grumpy?" Alex finally noted. "Today and yesterday. Is everything all right, J'onn?"

"I appreciate the concern, but I assure you, I'm fine."

"Don't make us pout," Alex nodded to Kara beside her.

"They're surprisingly good at it," Anaís admitted being victim to it a couple of times.

J'onn knew they would never let it be so it was better to get it out in the open. "I am not the last Green Martian. There is another. Her name is M'gann. Megan."

"It's a miracle, J'onn," Kara's eyes widened.

"I met her at that alien bar Alex spoke of. We talked, but... I think I made a mistake."

"Why do you say that?" Anaís asked. "What happened?"

"I offered to merge with her in the Martian way."

"But you guys just met…" Kara trailed off, thinking of something else.

"Psychically, Kara. The bond is the traditional Martian way of communicating. We...we link minds, share dreams, emotions, memories. We kept no secrets from one another. Imagine a world without ego, selfishness. Without... lies."

"That sounds beautiful."

"She didn't seem to think so. The moment I talked about it, she left. I am grateful to have you all in my life. I truly am. But with Martians, it's... It's different. It's deeper. Deeper than talking. Fuller. With her, there's a chance for me to live how I was meant to live."

Of course everyone there understood.

"Just tell her that," Alex encouraged him to go for a second attempt. "Why don't you try apologizing?"

J'onn seemed to be encouraged enough.

~0~

The night brought Alex and detective Sawyer to an illegal fight club that ended up in catastrophe. Supergirl nearly had her head torn off by a large alien creature, and neither her nor the detectives had luck in capturing the ringleader of the fight club. It did, however, leave them with a new clue that could lead the DEO to capturing the culprits.

It also led to a new wave of anger inside a certain Solista.

Mon-El had just failed to conjure up heat vision on a piece of cement when Anais came storming in.

"No heat vision, no x-ray vision…" Winn was recording the results on his tablet for later study so he was startled when Anais used her own heat vision to destroy the piece of cement. "Hey!" Winn made a gesture but Anais looked far too upset to care.

"Kara nearly got hurt in an underground alien fight club and I couldn't do anything about it and do you know why!?" She came storming up to him, making him backtrack several steps. "Because I didn't have my suit so they didn't call me in for backup!"

"Is she okay, though?" Mon-El thought to ask if only to pull some of that attention off Winn for safety reasons.

"Yes, but she could've gotten hurt," Anais deeply sighed then set her glare back on Winn. "C'mon, Winn, enough is enough. Give me my suit back"

Winn was first and foremost relieved to see that anger fading because it decreased the chances of being heat visioned. "I'll do it as soon as you come clean to Kara and the others."

Anais' hands twitched in the air as she air-strangled him. "I'm gonna—" She started for him again.

Winn jumped back, throwing his hands in front of him. "If you kill me now, you'll never get your suit!"

Anais stopped in her tracks and dropped her hands. "I really hate you right now."

"Yeah, got that," Winn swallowed hard and moved away to put down his tablet. "But you also know why I'm doing this."

Mon-El cleared his throat to remind the two of his presence. "Can I offer my help to Kara as an alternative?"

Anais briefly smiled at him. "Thanks, Mon-El, but I don't think the DEO wants to let you go out until you've finished your examinations."

"Well, I think we have," Mon-El gestured to Winn. "Right?"

"Sort of," Winn shrugged and turned to the two. He brought his fingers up to list what they knew so far of Mon-El's abilities. "No heat vision, no X-ray vision, but you're strong."

"As strong as Kara?" Mon-El curiously asked but Winn scoffed with a great big 'Ha!'

"No, not even close. No freeze breath, which is kind of a bummer, right?" Winn glanced at Anais but she was still kind of glaring at him. "Right. No flight either, but his leaping is fantastic. I'm... I'm talking about like "tall buildings in a single bound" kinda stuff. Yeah, we...we definitely have the makings of a superhero here."

"Superhero?" Mon-El repeated. "Is that what Kara's called?"

"Yeah. You know, you...you go out there, you fight crime, save people, wear a costume…"

"Yup," Anais crossed her hands. "I'm almost there…"

"Speaking of going out there, I'm, uh... I'm going kind of crazy in here," Mon-El admitted. "I could really use some fresh air."

"Yeah, you heard Hank. I mean, you got to stay here at the DEO."

"You know, I'll bet if I were outside, I could fly like Kara and you, Anais," Mon-El put on his best smile for the blonde.

But before Anais could say anything, Winn cut in. "Nice try, buddy. No, we got to stay here. Them's the rules. I mean, I'm new here. I'm trying to make a good impression."

"Failed!" Anais dramatically exclaimed, much to his annoyance. And because she saw his annoyance, she decided to go on ahead and make it worse. Screw being an adult, she shamelessly thought. "And you know what, Mon-El? I'll take you out."

Mon-El looked deeply surprised at the easy give in. "You will?"

Even Winn had the same reaction. "You will?"

"Yup!" Anais grinned from side to side. "I don't think it'll do any harm. But you gotta listen to me, alright?"

Mon-El was now almost grinning like Anais was. "Of course!"

"Anais y-y-you can't do that," Winn started wagging his finger, but by that point it was too late. "You're gonna get in trouble!"

"Feel free to join us, if you're so worried," Anais patted his arm.

"But I - but we can't!" Winn practically shouted in the room while Anais and Mon-El started leaving. He tried to stay put and just let the two aliens figure it out on their own how big of a mistake this would be, but…

He scrunched his face. "Damn you, Anais Allen-Mjorkland. I'm so weak." And he took off to catch up with them.

~ 0 ~

Mon-El didn't know anything about Earth but that didn't stop him from learning in one night. Especially when Anais introduced him to the cellphone.

"I gotta get me one of these!" Mon-El laughed after Anais showed him the search engine for bars.

"I'm sure we can arrange that," Anais tucked her phone into her back pocket and led the way to the bar across the street. "Maybe a small computer for the time being. Or a tablet!"

"You can't make promises like that," Winn trailed behind her, still unable to believe she was pulling this off.

"It's a computer with restricted WiFi," she reminded him that it wasn't a big deal. "Now let loose and have some fun, if you're capable of that anyways."

Winn stopped just by the doorway with a look of offence. "Excuse me?"

Anais smirked with Mon-El. They both knew they'd gotten him now.

"You heard me," Anais crossed her arms and watched as Mon-El went to open the doors for them. "Can you have some fun, Winn Schott?"

"And I continue to be weak," Winn scrunched his face in defeat while Anais yanked him inside the bar.

"Did I ever mention you're my absolute favorite alien in the whole DEO?" Mon-El said to Anais, making the woman laugh. "You are! Totally are!"

Winn did not agree with the sentiment and he definitely did not agree when they somehow found their way to the bar counter. Mon-El was introduced to human alcohol very quickly and he learned that it tasted really good. Anais monitored how much he drank but did let him experiment how much he could tolerate. She figured if anything went wrong she could speed him out of there in less than a second. But so far, he just seemed intent on mingling with the other humans and discovering what human men do for fun.

"Why do you guys like to arm wrestle so much?" Anais wondered out loud and reached for her own drink on the counter. Mon-El had just defeated his third opponent.

"He's cheating," Winn's flat tone made Anais laugh.

"Then go stop him or...have a drink and join him," Anais slid his untouched drink to him. "You can watch him while you're closer."

Winn knew his options were very limited here, and so with a small glare he picked his drink up and got up from his stool. He could hear Anais's second round of laughter while he walked away. She would not win forever, he thought.

Anais took refuge at the bar counter with the only other female in that place. As the hours ticked by, all the other customers started getting more and more annoying, in Anais' perspective. Mon-El had gone past arm wrestling and moved on to good old fashioned drinking challenges, most notably beer pong. But, to his credit, he had somehow gotten Winn to join in.

"Amazing," she huffed while she went for another drink. The two men ended up becoming more buddies than they had been earlier. Now she had become the third wheel. "Men are idiots."

"Tell me about it," the bartender mused when she walked by Anais.

Anais soon learned that, just like herself and Kara, Mon-El could actually not get drunk. However, Winn most definitely could. While they entered a series of drinking games, somehow Winn ended up winning most of them.

"Oh my God, he's a drinker," Anais said with a laugh as she and Mon-El watched Winn go at it against another fellow bar customer. They had a line of shots they needed to get through.

"So, you don't get drunk here?" Mon-El was curious as he gazed at his newly filled cup of beer.

"The earth stuff isn't strong enough for you guys," Anais shrugged, crossing her arms.

Mon-El picked up on her word choice and glanced at her. "How about you?"

"I'm half human, Mon-El. I don't get granted all the perks of a Solista. Don't get me wrong, it takes me way longer to get drunk than an average human but in the end, I can still get drunk."

"Have you ever tested the theory out of how many glasses it takes?" Mon-El offered her his glass of beer, making her laugh.

"My parents would kill me," she said, pushing his glass back to him. "They're humans and they don't really care how alien I am. I cannot drink when I'm supposed to be on business matters."

"I know I'm not from here but is this business?" Mon-El gestured towards the scene. Winn had just won another round of shots.

A smirk crossed Anais' face. "My business, anyways." It was Mon-El's turn to laugh.

A short time later, Mon-El had entered another wrestling match. He'd won every single one but the last man he went up again ended up with a broken elbow.

The man, angry, tried punching Mon-El but then broke his hand as well. His buddy went to fight Mon-El for support yet the Daxamite easily won as well with a simple 'push'. The human man crashed into a table behind them.

Mon-El was overly surprised with his strength but the other men had grown furious.

"Time to go!" Anais hopped off her stool after the strangers had met face to face with a glass table — another accident on Mon-El's part. She scurried through the group - possibly using her alien strength to push some of the men away - and got her two idiots out of there.

~0~

By the Anais returned home, she expected to find a dark apartment most certainly not Kara wide awake in the living room.

"Where were you?" Kara noticed Anais' disheveled appearance.

"One could say babysitting...or one could say proving a point," Anais fixed herself and released a deep breath. "Beginning to think my plan backfired and it was more of the first then the latter."

Kara couldn't and honestly didn't want to try and understand what all that meant. There were more pressing matters to deal with anyways.

"What are you doing up so late anyways?" Anais pulled her jacket off and headed for the couch chair. "I thought Kara Danvers always has a timely bedtime set up." Kara playfully rolled her eyes but even the playfulness faded very quickly. Anais noticed it and knew that the Kryptonian was worried and/or upset. "Kara, what is it?"

Kara hesitated to speak but after a moment of thinking, she figured it was better Anais knew now in case something happened later.

~ 0 ~

Veronica Sinclair - aka Roulette - was a formidable human enemy to the DEO. She proved herself last night when Supergirl made a visit to her and Sinclair only retaliated with confident words knowing she would not be defeated that night.

Kara now relayed her visit to J'onn, Alex and Anais (again). "I should've heat vision'd that stupid champagne glass out of her hand," Kara balled her fists on her sides.

"That's what she wanted," Anais offered a different perspective on the matter. She'd gotten over her anger last night when Kara had told her. "Supergirl heat visions local human and the media has a field day with that."

Kara gave her points on that, but it didn't stop her from wishing she could've used her heat vision. "I mean, do you think Sinclair is right about this? That she's the only one who can offer something to aliens?"

"Not a chance," Alex answered instantly.

"But then how do you stop them from letting themselves be used and exploited?"

"By offering something more powerful than fear," J'onn settled things and glanced at Winn at his desk. "Winn?"

"Nothing!" The man in question startled awake — his hand holding an ice bag on the side of his slipped and he nearly hit his head on the desk. "I'm not hungover! You're the one being defensive!"

Anais barely hid her smile from the others while J'onn approached a hungover Winn.

"Agent Schott—"

"S-sir, yes, s-sir!" Winn dangled a hand at the front of his forehead. "Er, Mon-El is doing great, by the way. He's here in the DEO. He's here. Did you know his heart is on the other side?"

J'onn gave a nod of his head. "That's absolutely fascinating. You know, the DEO received reports this morning of a six-foot alien attacking two men in a bar last night."

Anais' own smile faded upon learning that.

"The news is so very violent these days…" Winn briefly said as he slowly turned his chair back to his desk.

"Apparently this alien had a 5'2" sidekick—"

Winn jumped out of his chair, leaving it to spin from the force just to shout, "I am 5'9!"

"No, wait," Anais slid in between the two men with her hands raised in front of her, "This one's on me. I'm the one who took Mon-El out. Winn actually tried stopping me several times."

"Anais, why'd you do that?" Alex moved forwards with the same questionable face as J'onn.

"Because sometimes I'm an idiot," Anais answered with the simplest of shrugs. "But this was totally on me."

"You know better," J'onn snapped unexpectedly. "Everything we do is under a microscope. We work so hard to make humans trust us. All it takes is for one alien to ruin it for all of us."

Anais' eyes had slowly widened while J'onn scolded her. "I-I didn't mean to do that…"

"You should've thought about it!"

Alex exchanged looks with Kara, both agreeing J'onn was projecting his fight with M'gann on Anais. "J'onn, why don't we go talk somewhere else," Alex held onto his arm and persuaded him to walk with her.

"I'm really sorry," Anais said to Kara and Winn afterwards. "I wasn't meaning to do that. I was just...I was mad at you," she made a languid gesture at Winn, which didn't surprise him. "And I have to apologize to Mon-El too."

As she left, Kara briefly stopped by Winn to ask, "What's she mad at you for?"

"It's...it's just better if I hold off on that," Winn made the call thinking Anais would want to explain it herself once she got the courage to actually accept that CADMUS was looking into her.

~ 0 ~

Kara caught up with Anais in the hallway, and while Anais didn't exactly say why she was mad with Winn, Kara got the jist that it'd been a long argument now.

Anais led the way into Mon-El's training room where the man was currently doing his training. When he saw Kara, he assumed he was in trouble for the previous night.

"I'm sorry," he immediately said but Anais raised a hand to stop him.

"You're good, I'm the one who screwed up."

Mon-El blinked. "You were?"

"Yes," Anais sighed. "I was basically trying to stick it to Winn and I ended up using you. It was very wrong of me."

"Well…" Mon-El bobbed his head, "I've done worse, believe me. But this has helped me realize something neither of you told me about." Anais exchanged a glance with Kara, both confused of what he meant. "Hank told me I needed to stay here because it wasn't safe. But he didn't mean for me. He meant it wasn't safe for humans. From me."

"Listen, we've all been through that," Anais spoke up first and received an agreeing 'mhm' from Kara beside her. "I was taken in by human parents when I was a kid and just got my freedom a couple months ago. The government didn't want to let me out because they were afraid I'd hurt someone."

"After I first got to Earth, I went to my junior prom and Scott Klein asked me to dance. I stepped on his foot and I broke three of his toes," Kara shared her embarrassing yet meaningful story. "It's just gonna take some time to get used to having these abilities and...and living in this world."

Mon-El appreciated both women trying to make him feel better and even showing sympathy for him, but he was especially thankful towards Kara considering their respective backgrounds. "I know it's not easy for you to be nice to me, Kara. Where I'm from and all."

"That's not why I've been standoffish. And don't say I haven't been," Kara sighed and dug her hands into her back pockets. "My parents gave me so much. And I was so loved. My dad was a scientist and my mom fought for justice. They were proud, strong people. Good Kryptonians and even better parents. And that's the way I want to remember them."

"And why shouldn't you?"

"Because...they weren't perfect. And no matter how smart they were, or how hard they tried, they couldn't save us."

"Yeah, you never met my parents. They weren't exactly role models," Mon-El shook his head.

"But mine saw the end of the world coming, and didn't do anything about it!"

"Hey, it's not...it's not your parents' fault. It's not even Krypton's fault. Okay, we shared a star, that's all. I promise that I will do as I'm told from now on."

"And I promise not to be a manipulative bitch," Anais raised her hand but then pointed a warning finger at Mon-El. "Don't repeat that."

"Repeat what?" Mon-El blinked with genuine oblivion. He wasn't up to speed with curse words yet. "Anyways, I heard you survived Draaga." Kara nodded. "I once saw him fight on Warworld when I was, uh, guarding the royal family. Draaga took a blade to the right leg. It hit a nerve cluster. He's favored his left ever since."

The new piece of information was enlightening for Kara. "Thank you."

~ 0 ~

A couple hours later, the group got word that J'onn was missing. The only known person who'd seen him was M'gann and since she hadn't shown up for her shift it led Alex to conclude J'onn was taken by M'gann's boss: Sinclair.

"The fightclub was cleared out," Supergirl returned to the DEO very put out from her failed trip. "It's like it was never there."

"And there's no sign of where they went?" Anais curiously asked since she'd once again been planted at a chair instead of the field.

"No," Supergirl crossed her arms and thought about it for a minute.

"Okay, so where are we going to find them now?" Alex leaned against a table, trying not to look so frustrated even if she was.

"I bet that fight club has a list of recurring invitees and I think we may know one invitee in particular," Supergirl's suggestion made Anais jump from her chair.

"I'm coming! It involves no actual fighting therefore no need for super suit!"

She practically led the way to Lena's office. Kara understood her since Anais hadn't come out to the field in weeks now. She'd feel antsy too if she was cooped up (which then led Kara to feel even more sympathy for Mon-El).

"Excuse me, you can't go in there!" Lena's assistant failed to stop Anais and Kara from barging into Lena's office. "I swear I just blinked and they got right past me!" the poor woman did her best to explain to Lena before she was fired.

Lena, for her matter, was quite surprised at the sight.

"Lena, I'm sorry," Kara apologized first and foremost. "We just need to talk to you."

"Not her fault," Anais jerked a thumb at the secretary.

Lena's calm smile was a sight of relief for the two aliens. "Jess, will you make a note downstairs that Kara Danvers and Anais Allen are to be shown in right away whenever possible?"

Jess was surprised but since it meant she wasn't going to be fired she dutifully noted it and hurried out of the office.

"Woah, thanks," Anais beamed.

"So, how can I help?" Lena gestured for them to come sit down.

"We think a friend of mine has gotten involved in something shady," Kara's excuse was met with a light scoff from Lena. "It's an actual friend, we swear. And he's missing."

Lena got serious fast and nodded for her to continue.

"Do you know of a woman named Veronica Sinclair? She caters to people in your, um, your circles. Tight dresses, tattoos like Lisbeth Salander?"

Lena pursed her lips and played with a pen on her desk. "Yeah, I know Roulette. We went to boarding school together. I never liked her."

"We share the sentiment," Anais nodded. "We need to find her. And since her little fight clubs are mobile, we need to know where she's holding the next fight."

Lena seemed at a cross of amusement and impression. "And you assume I'm on the invite list?"

"Your last name is pretty famous," Anais shrugged.

"We wouldn't ask if we had any other option," Kara promised Lena as a last means to get her to talk.

Luckily for them, Lena was a smart, kind woman. "I'm a Luthor, of course I'm invited to her little pop-up. Not that I'm interested in her type of entertainment." She wrote down the location of the next fight club and handed it to Kara.

"Thank you. We owe you, big time," Kara tucked the paper into her purse and stood up with Anais.

"Not at all. I know you'll be there for me when the time comes," Lena offered them a genuine, friendly smile.

~ 0 ~

Together with the DEO, J'onn and even M'gann, Supergirl managed to put an end to the fight club with minimal injuries. Mon-El's tip about the Draaga came in handy to put the creature down for a bit. She was even more relieved to see J'onn patch things up with M'gann because it meant J'onn would finally have some peace.

This time Kara was the one to get home to find Anais still awake. Of course Kara wasn't surprised since Anais wanted to know the outcomes of the fight club.

"I would've stayed at the DEO but figured there was no use for me anyways," Anais shrugged at the counter where she was having a drink. "Update: I still can't do the stupid lightning bolt trick. I'm considering opening a stupid breach to find my young adoptive Dad for another training session because it is not going well."

"Arun's still too hard?" Kara assumed since Anais hadn't talked about him in a while.

"He expects too much from me," Anais sighed. "But what happened with Sinclair? Is she done for good now?"

"No," Kara ruefully answered. "Alex says Maggie got the orders to let Sinclair go and there's nothing we can do about it, not even the DEO."

"We'll get her one day," Anais assured. "So how come you're coming back late, then?"

"I…" Kara removed her glasses and set them on the counter, "...stopped by Mon-El's room to talk to him."

"What about?" Anais got up from the stool and went into the cupboards for some more wine.

"I offered to take him under my wing, basically, and show him around the city for real now."

"Yeah, because I totally screwed that up," Anais cringed at the reminder and pulled two glasses from the counter. "And the DEO is going to let you do that?"

"Yup, it's sort of what I did with you in the beginning, remember?"

"How could I forget!"

Kara smiled. "I think it'll do him some good. Plus, I can get him a job at CatCo. Maybe not as a reporter but somewhere there should be good."

"Speaking of," Anais returned to the counter with two glasses of red wine, "Your editor called about that new article you sent in. Apparently he expects your rewrite tomorrow morning."

"Mm," Kara sipped some of her wine. "May have sent him a new one earlier at his e-mail which I got off from James."

"Taking initiative," Anais pointed. "Very good. Look at you, Kara Danvers, having all your crap together. I'm jealous."

Kara chuckled and lowered her glass to the counter. "Well, maybe you can unburden yourself a little bit by telling me what you and Winn are arguing about."

"Ooh, smooth," Anais commended Kara for her easy transition but was still reluctant to go into detail about her disagreement. "But it's nothing, and you shouldn't worry about it."

"I worry when my friends aren't okay. Right now, it looks like you're not okay, so...tell me. Please?"

Anais released a small sigh. "I mean, I just don't want it to be made into a bigger deal than it is...just like Winn made it."

"Well, what is it?"

Anais put her wine glass down and prepared to spill the truth. Who knows, maybe it would be better for her. "CADMUS sent a message for me at the DEO." Kara's confused expression implied she hadn't heard that from anyone at the DEO. "Yeah, Winn caught it and showed it to me instead. Apparently, they want to use me as a fuel for their growing army. Whether or not I want to join them is not really up for debate in their perspective. They made it very clear that they were not above taking me dead."

"Oh my god," Kara said, horrified. "So how does this go to you getting mad at Winn?"

"Because he told me to tell you guys and I said no so instead of nagging me to tell you the truth, he is keeping my suit hostage until I decide to tell you the truth."

"Why wouldn't you want to tell us anything?"

"Because you guys would overreacting and keep me on lock-down like Mon-El!"

"If it was to keep you safe then why wouldn't you?"

"Because I just got my freedom, Kara. I don't want to lose it again." Anais picked up her glass but at first glance she could tell Kara was putting more thought into the situation.

"Maybe Winn's making the right call in keeping you out of the field. The less you're out there, the less chances CADMUS will find you or hurt you."

"No ma'am, not you too," Anais shook her head. "I've spent the better part of my life in seclusion. I'm not doing it again."

Kara was not aiming to argue like Anais and Winn. She would rather find an alternative that would benefit both sides. Making peace was her job, after all.

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cardcaptorsakura96 · 4 months

Text

Unwitting Rescue-Chapter 6

Fandom: Supergirl

Relationships: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor

Characters: Kara Danvers, Lena Luthor, Rose Zen (Original Character), Marigold Zen (Original Character), Violet Zen (Original Character), J'onn J'onzz, Winn Schott, John Stewart

Summary: Kara Danvers finds a box of kittens on her way to work. Things don't go according to plan.

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5

Kara, Lena, and the kittens stood back and admired their handiwork. They made a blanket fort that took up 1/5 of the living room. They used 10 different blankets to make the fort. They hung soft yellow Christmas lights on the inside and outside. Inside the fort were multiple soft pillows and bean bag chairs. It had a cozy feel to it. The girls were bouncing up and down at their creation.

“This looks amazing!” exclaimed Rose.

“When do we get to go inside?” asked Violet excitedly.

“Why don’t you guys go and make yourselves comfortable, while Lena and I grab the food and bring it inside,” said Kara.

“Yay!” screamed the girls as they ran inside the fort.

Lena smiled and said, “They look so cute!”

“I know,” said Kara as they walked towards the kitchen.

They quickly grabbed the food, drinks, cups, plates, silverware, and napkins and headed back to the fort. They came back to Marigold sitting on a bean bag chair, Violet laid out across a pillow, and Rose on a pillow wrapped in blankets. Kara and Lena divided the food out. The girls stared at the food with large eyes and mouths watering.

“Oh, what is all of this?” asked Rose as she went in for a bit of food.

Lena smiled and said, “So today, we are having lasagna, a salad, and for the dessert, we have brownies.”

“All of this looks yummy!” exclaimed Marigold.

Violet bit into her food and looked up at Marigold and Lena joyously.

“Thank you Marigold and Lena for making such a good dinner.”

Rose looked up with her mouth puffed out full of food which caused Lena and Kara to smirk.

Rose quickly swallowed down her food and said, “Violet is right. This is amazing. I wish I had the patience to cook with Mama like Marigold did. I always got distracted and started dozing off.”

Lena smiled and said, “It is never too late to learn. I didn’t learn until my 20s because it was my first time living alone and I couldn’t rely on take-out all the time. If you want, I can teach all of you the different dishes I know.”

Rose looked up at her shocked and asked, “You really would do that?”

Lena smiled and said, “Of course!”

Rose beamed and exclaimed, “This is so exciting!”

Violet smiled and said, “Thank you, Lena!”

“Oh, I know the first thing that I want to learn next. Mama always talked about making puppy chow,” said Marigold.

Rose frowned and said, “That sounds disgusting. I don’t like puppies, but I don’t want to see them being eaten either.”

Marigold gave Rose a deadpan stare and said, “No one said anything about eating puppies.”

Rose rolled her eyes and asked sarcastically, “Well, what is this so great dish that Mama talked about?”

Marigold pouted and said, “Well, I’m not telling since you are being a big meanie.”

Rose stuck out her tongue and said, “Fine, be a big baby for all I care.”

Marigold started getting teary-eyed and said, “I’m not a baby.”

Violet looked back and forth between Marigold and Rose and said with her voice trembling, “Please don’t fight.”

Kara scooted over to Rose and placed her on her lap and Lena scooted over to Marigold and placed her on her lap. Marigold leaned her face against Lena’s stomach and softly cried. Lena embraced Marigold and started rubbing her head.

She whispered in her ear softly,” Everything is going to be okay. Please don’t cry.”

Marigold stopped making noise but embraced Lena tighter. Violet moved towards Marigold and hugged her from behind. Kara turned Rose towards her and made sure that she was at eye level with Rose.

Kara said, “Rose, that isn’t nice.”

Rose whined, “But she was not getting to the point.”

Kara said softly, “I get having the urge of wanting someone to get to the point, but we don’t insult people who are being kind enough to provide valuable information. There is a saying on Earth that is popular: You catch more flies with honey than vinegar. Being mean and nasty doesn’t get you the information you want, but being kind and sweet does. Do you understand what I mean Rose?”

Rose looked up to Kara sadly but nodded.

Kara smiled softly, rubbed Rose’s head, and asked, “Do you think there is something you should say to Marigold?”

Rose turned towards Marigold hesitantly while facing her head down and twiddling her thumbs.

Rose looked up after a couple of moments and said softly, “I’m so sorry Marigold for hurting your feelings. Can you please forgive me?”

Marigold leaned back from Lena and turned towards Rose. She looked at her thoughtfully for a moment before smiling softly and said, “I forgive you.”

Rose smiled and ran to Marigold, hugged her, and kissed her on the cheek. Violet got up excitedly and ran towards Rose and Marigold and hugged them both.

“I like it better when we don’t fight,” said Violet softly.

Rose smiled and said, “Me too.”

“Me three!” exclaimed Marigold excitedly.

Rose looked down at Marigold gently and said, “I really would like to hear about this puppy chow that you talked about.”

Marigold beamed and said, “Mama said that her friend once made it for her. It had weird ingredients that I never heard of, but she said that it was yummy.”

Kara cocked her head thoughtfully and said, “I wonder if it is like the puppy chow we have here. It is made using Chex cereal, peanut butter, chocolate, and powdered sugar. It is really tasty. I remember that parents used to make that a lot for school events.”

Marigold’s eyes brightened and said, “Those are the ingredients Mama talked about. I never had the other ingredients before, but if it uses the same chocolate that the brownies used, then it must be good.”

Lena looked at Marigold quizzically and asked, “Your Mama had Earth food before?”

Read the rest on AO3

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deafeningnightcollection-things · 3 years

Text

Hidden Lives ~ Winn Schott

Chapter 6 - A Truth Among Lies

Boom.

Lily rubbed her eyes sleepily as Hank ordered yet another missile launched at Kara. She glanced over to see Alex also rubbing her eyes, it was no wonder considering Hank had dragged them out of bed at the crack of dawn to test the limits of Kara's powers.

"Is that the fastest that she can go?" Hank complained as Kara dodged the onslaught.

"Are these tests mandatory for everyone?" Kara asked over comms, "or is it just because—"

Hank cut her off, "it's not because you're a woman, Ms. Danvers. The DEO requires months of tests and training before allowing operatives into the field. We've accelerated the process in your case, but we still need to be sure."

"I was going to say 'alien'," Kara muttered, a little deflated from Hank's lecture.

Lily grimaced, Hank had that effect on people. He always managed to make you feel like a scolded child.

"We need to be sure you're in full control of your powers. You're no good to us if destroy half of National City on accident."

There was another boom as Kara flew by even faster this time.

Alex laughed as she spoke, "my sister just broke the sound barrier, Sir."

Hank didn't look impressed in the slightest. "Fire again," he barked the words, motioning rapidly with his hands to speed the process.

Lily sipped her coffee, not awake enough to interfere in the conversation.

After a bit more coffee and a few more earth-shattering booms as Hank launched yet more missiles, Lily finally felt awake enough to talk. She sidled over to Alex, who was making notes on a small clipboard, the glass whiteboard she'd previously been using had been shattered by Kara's sonic boom.

"Anything interesting?" Lily asked peering over Alex's shoulder.

"No." Alex shook her head thoughtfully, "it's all at or below Clark's levels. Which is to be expected since she hasn't used her powers in over a decade." Alex's last comment was more of a mutter to herself as she made another note.

Now that Lily was more awake she could truly appreciate that, while noisy and cumbersome, the missiles may have indeed been the best way to test Kara's powers. Their speed and destructive power could very well be comparable to that of some of the Fort Rozz escapees.

Kara landed lightly next to them, looking sore but exhilarated.

"How many missiles is that?" Kara asked resting a head on Alex's shoulder with a sigh.

Alex shook her head. "I lost count after the first dozen."

"Ugh." Kara stretched dramatically, "can't he just accept that I know what I'm doing?"

Lily and Alex shared a look before laughing sarcastically.

"Hank doesn't do trust very well." Lily spoke up first, "he barely trusts us and we've been here for years." It was a bit of an exaggeration, but true enough in this case.

"Hank always wants to see for himself," Alex added, bending down to pick up a piece of the shattered whiteboard. She quickly copied what is said onto her clipboard.

"Sorry about that." Kara offered awkwardly, motioning to the former whiteboard.

Alex shrugged her off, picking up another piece, and repeating the process.

Lily nudged Alex playfully, "Alex loves jigsaws and you've just given her a thousand-piece puzzle."

Kara laughed as Alex stuck her tongue out.

While Alex's attention was focused on another glass shard, Kara leaned towards Lily and whispered. "I'm really glad Alex had someone like you here."

Lily was taken aback by Kara's warm smile, she'd been worried that the Kryptonian would be more hostile about the whole kidnapping ordeal. Lily's cheeks flushed under Kara's kind gaze, still not used to affection from anyone other than Alex.

"It was nothing," Lily responded awkwardly, avoiding Kara's gaze for fear she'd turn even redder.

"Ms. Danvers," Hank barked. "If you're done gossiping we have a test to finish."

Kara groaned, stretching again, before flying off.

Another boom shook the camp and Lily sighed, this was going to be a long day.

———

It was noon when Hank finally let them go back to their location in the city. Kara had been called off to deal with a fire in the port, and there was no point continuing without her. Lily's neck was stiff and sore after staring at the sky for a few hours straight, and she rubbed it as she moved down the hall to her office.

She wanted nothing more than to have a relaxing lunch, but in the chaos of getting up a few hours earlier than usual, she'd forgotten to pack one.

She grabbed her purse, intending to make a coffee shop run when her phone buzzed.

Winn: Are you free for lunch?

Lily smiled to herself as she read the text, she could practically hear the hesitation in his words. Wondering if he was pushing too far too fast. Lily wondered that too occasionally, but something just clicked when she was with him.

Alex's words flashed tauntingly in her head as she stared at her phone. Would they click this well if she told him everything? As her thoughts strayed to her brother, her job, and all the other secrets she was keeping she almost said no.

Her stomach grumbled in protest, reminding her why she was halfway out the door with her purse in hand.

Lily: Have you ever been to Noonan's?

It was about halfway between the DEO and Catco, no more than a 10-minute walk either way.

She played around with the phrasing for a minute before realizing she was overdoing it and just hit send. She poked her Hermione bobblehead anxiously as she waited for a reply.

Winn: A million times. So it's a date?

Lily: See you in 10

Lily headed absently towards the locker room before remembering that she hadn't actually changed into her uniform yet today. Mentally smacking herself, she moved towards the front entrance instead. She paused for a moment as she passed the hub, half of the screens were always devoted to various news channels so they could keep an eye out for alien disasters. One of the headlines jumped out at her, Supergirl: Hero or Ecoterrorist?

She couldn't hear what the newscaster was saying, but Lily had to assume the fire at the port hadn't gone well. Lily quickly pinged off a text to Alex. She'd probably already seen the news already, but Lily wanted to make sure she could be moral support for her sister if she needed to be.

She resumed her path to the door, gratefully turning her thoughts toward lunch.

———

Noonan's was crowded when she arrived after all good food meant a busy lunch rush. Thankfully, Winn had gotten there first and saved her a seat.

"Hi." She greeted as she sat down, still a little awkward. This was the first time she'd seen him since he'd kissed her cheek. "Thanks for getting a table."

He smiled, shrugging. "My friend, Kara, always drags me here so I know the owner." He explained conspiratorily.

Lily laughed, even as a stab of guilt went through her at Kara's name. "Well, since you're the expert, what do you suggest we get?"

Winn adjusted a pair of nonexistent glass and glanced down at the menu. "Wellllll." He drew out the word climactically, "they have very good sandwiches here."

Lily laughed again, it was not the answer she'd been expecting. "Two sandwiches it is."

Their hands lay next to each other on the table as they waited for someone to take their order. Her fingers brushed his lightly, unsure if holding hands was a step too far, but he seemed to get the idea and laced his fingers through hers.

It was a comforting warmth, having his hand pressed against hers as they sat together at the small table.

"How was work today?" She asked gently, trying to keep the calm mood.

He sighed, leaning back a little, but didn't remove his hand from hers. "Stressful."

She squeezed his hand lightly, nodding. "you have no idea." Lily smiled sarcastically, "I was up at the crack on dawn because my boss wanted to get started as soon as possible."

Winn squeezed her hand back in support. "Well, my day beats that—"

The waiter came by then and Winn ordered them two turkey sandwiches.

At the momentary break in the conversation, Lily's gaze wandered around the room, eventually settling on the plasma above the bar. The news-anchor she'd seen earlier was interviewing Maxwell Lord about Supergirl's fumble with the dock fire.

Lily sighed, she knew Maxwell well enough to know that whatever he was saying about Supergirl was for his benefit and no one else's. They'd met on more than one occasion, there'd been a time when he and Lex had been for lack of a better word, close. But when Lex attacked Metropolis, Maxwell had stepped back. Yes, he was self-serving, but not to the point of megalomania.

She shook away the bad memories that threatened to drown her at the sight of his face.

Winn must've noticed where her gaze was because he commented, "they're being too hard on Supergirl. She's new at this."

"Huh," it took a moment for his words to fully register as she shoved the memories back down. "Yeah, she seems like she's really trying."

"Exactly." He clapped his free hand against the table, clearly passionate on his friend's behalf.

Lily giggled, his energy was infectious and it warmed her heart to know how much he cared about his friends.

"Aw. Do you have a crush on Supergirl?" Lily teased lightly even though she knew the real answer.

Winn's cheeks reddened slightly, embarrassed at the insinuation. "No." He mumbled, looking away like a scolded child.

"Good." She squeezed his hand again, "I'd hate to have competition."

Now his cheeks turned really red, and his smile stretched wide, clearly pleased by the statement.

They stayed like that, just smiling and chatting idly until the food arrived.

"Mmm." Lily swallowed her bite before speaking, "that's an exceptional sandwich."

Winn laughed in response, "I told you."

The rest of the meal was spent in satisfied silence as they scarfed their food down.

Tell him, the thought pinged around her head as she finished her food. This really did seem to be going somewhere, and she couldn't build an entire relationship on a lie.

"Winn." Something in her tone must've been graver than she intended because he looked her in concern when she spoke.

"Is everything okay?" His hand found hers again as he spoke.

"Yeah." She squeezed his hand reassuringly. "I just need to tell you something, can we meet up for dinner tonight?"

"Of course." He still looked worried, but less so than a few moments ago.

She was saved the trouble of coming up with a reply when her phone rang. Alex's name flashed across the screen and she answered the phone hastily.

"Hello?"

Lily had barely gotten the words out when Alex barreled into a response, "there's been a firewall breach. Hank wants you to look into it ASAP."

"The firewall?" She echoed, confused. No one had messed with her firewall in a long time. Winn glanced up at her words, an odd expression on his face.

"Yeah, the system was probably glitching, but you know Hank would never take that chance."

"Ok. I'll be there in a minute." She hung the phone up quickly. Honestly, she was glad to leave, the awkward air that had permeated the room at her words was stifling.

Lily turned to Winn apologetically, "I have to go. There's an emergency at work."

He nodded, but that odd expression remained. Unease threatened to grow in the pit of her stomach, but she pushed it away.

"I'll see you tonight." She kissed him on the cheek and was gone.

———

The firewall breach turned out to be much more severe than Alex had said. It took Lily only a few moments to figure out what had been taken, thankfully nothing, but a lot longer to figure out who had gotten in. They'd managed to penetrate the first firewall but had been kicked out by the secondary firewall, meaning that no government secrets had been taken.

It was still alarming that someone had gotten through at all, even if they hadn't been successful in the long run. Someone somewhere had plans that involved the DEO and that couldn't be a good thing...

When Lily was finally able to track the hack she ran the numbers twice just to be sure of what she was seeing.

There had been two hacks. One had piggybacked on the other, so at first glance, it looked like just one. The original hack had a very familiar signature... Suddenly all the pieces clicked together in her head.

Winn...

His reaction at the restaurant when she'd mentioned a firewall suddenly made sense and she wanted to bang her head against the keyboard. It was going so well.

Lily shook the thought away, she had a job to do. After another twenty minutes of staring at the screen and making no progress on the second hack, she knew what she had to do.

It was early afternoon, if she hurried she could still catch Winn at Catco. She didn't really want to do this in a public place, but she knew she couldn't put it off another minute.

She spent the entire walk to Catco mentally playing out the confrontation in her head. Would he deny it? Would he accuse her right back? Why had he done it?

Her thoughts kept running in circles as she walked and it was all she could do to keep her face blank. Whether she wanted to scream or yell or cry, she wasn't sure, but if she stopped clenching her jaw her expression might break.

She'd walked to Catco, but when she arrived she was out of breath as though she'd jogged the whole way.

It was only when she saw the security desk in the lobby that she realized she hadn't thought this through. She rubbed her face with her hand before pulling her phone out.

Kara picked up on the first ring. "Hey, Lily. Does the DEO need me?"

Lily shook her head as she spoke even though Kara couldn't see her. "No. I'm in the lobby, can you let me up?"

"Yeah, of course. Is something wrong?"

"No. Yes. It's complicated, I just need to get up there."

"Ok." Kara sounded like she had a million more questions to ask, but for now, she called down to the desk to buzz Lily up.

Lily leaned against the back wall of the elevator as she wondered, not for the first time if this was really the best course of action. But then the doors were opening and Kara was there, and there was nowhere to run.

"What do you need?" Kara asked in place of a greeting.

"I have to see Winn."

Kara blanched at the name, clearly surprised that Lily knew it at all. "How do you know—"

Lily stopped her. "I promise I'll explain, just right now I have to talk to him."

Kara nodded reluctantly, stepping back and allowing Winn's desk into Lily's line of sight.

Lily marched over. "Winn."

Winn looked up in surprise, multiple expression flashing across his face. "Hi." He tried a poker face, but he looked scared.

"We need to talk."

Winn nodded gravely, "I suppose we do." He stood up, pausing the video game he'd been playing and motioned for her to follow. They ended up in a cramped alcove that Lily suspected was generally used for more intimate things.

"You hacked into a secure government server!" She accused without warning.

"You hacked me first." He shot back just as accusatory.

"I had to see if you were a threat." Winn blanched at the last word, and something in her heart tugged, but she was too mad to listen to it. "You were helping Supergirl and H—my boss wanted to know if we could trust you."

Something clicked behind Winn's eyes and he tossed an accusation at her that she had not been expecting. "When you came to my apartment, that was part of the job too. Was this...?" His voice trailed off as he looked between the two of them and suddenly all her anger was gone.

Lily had been used by too many people not to understand what Winn meant. There was still fire in his eyes but he let her grab his hand as she spoke. "Never. This was all real." His posture relaxed a little, still wary but clearly wanting to believe everything she'd said.

Lily sighed, now was as good a time as any to come clean. "I suppose you want the full story." He nodded once, no less wary. "I work for the DEO. I don't know how much Kara has told you—" his eyebrows shot up, clearly surprised that she knew Kara's identity but he let her continue without comment. "We monitor and police alien activity on earth. I run IT, so it was my firewall you hacked." She couldn't resist being personally offended by that fact. "I was at your apartment that day because I was sent to do a threat assessment of you. It all went out of control from there, I didn't expect to fall for you..." She mumbled the last part quietly.

Winn drew in a long breath before he spoke. "Kara told me about Alex and the DEO," he paused picking his words carefully. "I wasn't going to look into it, but when I saw your trace on my computer I had to do something about it." He rubbed his neck awkwardly, as though it sounded stupid now. "I had no idea it would be you on the other end."

"You're lucky it was," Lily replied, a bit of the fire from earlier returning. "Do you know how much trouble you can get into for hacking an agency that isn't supposed to exist?"

Winn's posture which had relaxed earlier, became standoffish as her words hit the wrong way.

She rubbed her temple gingerly before speaking again. "I'm going to have to explain all this to my boss, but I'll make sure you don't get in trouble."

As the conversation cooled off, Kara appeared nearby and Lily had to resist sighing exasperatedly. "How much of that did you hear?" Kara looked at her and smiled sheepishly. The answer clear on her face, she joined Lily and Winn. Not quite in the alcove because there wasn't room but close enough for a normal conversation.

"How long has this been going on?" Kara asked, trying, and failing, to sound politely curious.

They shared a glance before Winn answered, "a few weeks."

Kara turned to Lily, "and you did a threat assessment of me." Kara didn't sound angry, just disappointed and that was worse because Lily was used to disappointing people.

Lily looked away as she answered, unable to look Kara in the eye. "It was Hank's orders and Alex already punched me for it so maybe don't Kryptonian super punch me—"

Winn turned to Lily, concern on his face. "You said that was a work accident."

"Not exactly, look it's fine I basically invited her to hit me." It was not the first or last time Lily was punched on the job. She tried to get the conversation back on the rails. "I'm sorry I betrayed your trust, both of you." She glanced at Winn and away again, to find him still studying the fading bruise on her cheek. She squeezed the hand she hadn't realized she was still holding.

Kara shook her head. "I trust you and I trust Alex."

Lily smiled at her tentatively.

Winn was studying her like there was more he wanted to say.

Kara seemed to pick up on this as well because she said, "I need to go, Ms. Grant needs another latte."

Winn waited until Kara was out of sight before opening his mouth, he closed it several times before finally mustering the courage to speak. "You did an assessment of me, so that means you know everything about my life and my...my father." His voice trembled on the last word as though it hurt to say.

She nodded, unsure if there was a right thing to say.

"And you still chose to start this?"

So many secrets jumbled around in her brain, demanding to be spoken, to be heard, but she swallowed resolutely before speaking. No one trusts a Luthor.

"Winn." His hand was trembling and she squeezed it gingerly. She placed her other hand on his cheek and his eyes met hers. "You are not your father." His eyes met her, wide and trusting and in pain. She drew him closer to her in the alcove. "Your father left a terrible legacy behind, but you are not a part of it. Look at all the good you've done, you're working with Supergirl."

Winn chuckled wryly at the last part, "my dad would hate that."

Lily smiled, sensing that the mood had changed for the better. She hugged him fiercely, and if she felt a few quiet sobs escape him, neither of them mentioned it.

They stayed that way for what felt like a few minutes but could easily have been half an hour. As they broke apart Lily rested her forehead against Winn's for a moment, savoring each other's comforting warmth.

"I should let you get back to work." She spoke eventually. Slowly untangling herself from him.

He grabbed her wrist as she pulled away, "will I still see you tonight?"

Lily shrugged noncommittally, "if you still want to."

In answer, he pressed his lips against hers gently.

"So that's a maybe for tonight," she commented playfully.

He laughed. "Now shoo, I have work to do."

"I would love to but..." Lily gestured to Winn's hand which was still wrapped firmly around her wrist.

"Right, yeah," he withdrew his hand quickly, looking flustered.

Lily was still smiling to herself as she walked away.