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1. Introductions (part 1) “This is a terrible idea.” “She’s a nice person, Ava. You’ll see.” “Her brother is a terrorist.” “So is my father. You still love me.” Nora points out. “Ava, she’s kind, caring, and one of the smartest people I know.” “How do you know her anyway? You never actually told me that.” “I… We were friends as kids. Our parents knew each other. We were in the same school. I got transferred after an incident.” “WHAT?! You’re telling me this now?!” Ava looks at her friend, incredulously. “When was that last time you saw her?!” Nora tries another way, no way wanting to tell her best friend that she hadn’t actually been with the girl since she was 13, their scarce communications restricted to e-mail and texts every now and then. “Ray met her. At a conference, last year. He liked her.” “Ray likes everyone, Nora.” “Well, he hated her brother, so…” “Great. He hated a domestic terrorist. You realize that the bar is on the floor, right?” “Stein liked her too. He even gave her a letter of recommendation to come here.” Ava rolls her eyes. “If she blows up the school, I’m telling the cops it’s your fault.” “Just be nice to her. Please. She’s been through enough.” Nora walks away and for a moment Ava thinks she got mad at her. Then, she sees her hug a pale brunette with aviator shades on. So, that’s the famous Lena Luthor. For the last couple weeks, she had heard a lot about the brunette. How smart she was, mostly. Also, about how her brother blew up an entire campus building on purpose just last year, because of some immigrant dude he didn’t like was the new head of the class. Apparently, he snapped, when, on top of his favorite teacher telling him off about it and correcting him on his dubious research on genetic mutation, his girlfriend dumping him over his obsession with his fellow student. The girl moved all the way across the country to come to study bioengineering or something in, to be fair, one of the best colleges in the US, and Ava had been loudly voicing her concerns to Nora for the past couple of weeks, when she said her friend needed a house to stay in. Said complaints were almost silenced when Nora’s response to “that family is dangerous” was “so is mine. Are you going to leave me on the street too?”. But it’s different, isn’t it? We know each other since high school. We never lost contact. We spend every holiday together. They haven’t seen each other for over 10 years. God knows what this girl had become since. She doesn’t have much time to dwell further once her friend and the newcomer come closer to her. “Lena, this is Ava Sharpe. Med school freshman, UCLA prodigy, fellow newcomer to Star Tech, and a royal pain in my ass.” Ava rolls her eyes. “You’re one to talk, Darhk.” She turns to Lena. The woman seems to be trying really hard to remain indifferent and distant, as Ava is sure that’s the whole purpose of the shades. She raises her hand none the less. “Nice to meet you.” The brunette nods and shakes it. “Likewise. Thank you for letting me be your roommate.” Her voice is monotone and stoic, but there something in her tone that throws Ava the wrong way. She’s nervous. She decides to ignore it, since she doesn’t know her well enough to make any sort of remarks regarding anything. Hell, she doesn’t know her at all! “Shall we?” The blonde grabs a couple of bags (damn, this chick has a lot of stuff), turns around, leading the way out of the airport. Their apartment was about an hour away, which was spend with Nora choosing the music (some obscure power rock ballads with the occasional 80s classic pop in the mix) and preceding to sing it out the window, as usual, and Ava rolling her eyes through most of it, but singing every time Queen blasted through the speakers. She barely noticed Lena’s presence in the back, the woman just distractingly looking out the window and occasionally write something down on a little black notebook. Ava finds it a bit odd, but, since they don’t know each other, she kind of understands her shutting down when in new situations. They reach their complex in almost record time. Well, a record for Ava. “Finally.” Nora sighs. “You drive like my grandma.” Ava just rolls her eyes. “We’ve been over this, Nora. Traffic laws are there for a reason. Also, you need to come up with new insults. I heard that one 3 times already.” “Yes, mom.” Nora laughs. Lena quietly leaves the car while they bicker and opens the trunk. “You don’t talk much, do you?” Ava asks as she helps her out. “I don’t find talking useful unless there is something to be said. And I also find that, while living with strangers, the less is said the better.” “Don’t be broody, Lena,” Nora says behind her. “She doesn’t bite. And she’s free of judgment. I made sure of it.” She gives Ava a look and heads to the front door of the building. To her surprise, the Luthor snorts. “Right.” Ava is about to say something, but the brunette is already headed to the front door. I swear to God, Nora. They exchanged maybe 20 words in total to each other. How the hell does she already hate her?! They put everything in Lena’s new room pretty much in silence. Ava leaves to give her new housemate some space and sits on the couch to surf through Netflix. 10 minutes later, Nora sits basically on top of her, as per usual. “Do you already hate her?” She asks like she’s scared of the answer. “’Cause she really isn’t a bad person, you know. She’s just a bit defensive. When we were kids, she was like that too. She always lived in her brother’s shadow. She-” “Nora. Nora. Stop. I don’t hate her.” She reassures her. “I don’t have a formed opinion of her. We hadn’t got acquainted with one another yet. She’s quite closed off, in case you didn’t notice.” “Ava.” Nora looks at her seriously, something very rare in her. “Besides you, she was the only friend I ever had before college. The only one. We kinda lost contact for a while, that’s true, but she’s good, and she’s really important to me. She’s the one person outside my family that didn’t run as soon as they heard my last name when I was a kid. And she’s been through a tough time recently, so, can you please give her the benefit of the doubt? Please? For me?” Ava sighs. How can she say “no” to those big, bright, green eyes? “Fine. I’ll try. But she needs to at least listen to the house rules.” “Did you really think I’d bring a stranger into Ava Sharpe’s almost pathologically neat house without e-mailing them rules?” Nora laughs. “C’mon, Ava. Who do you think I am?” They binge “house hunters”, their go-to-show when they’re bored, until Nora randomly gets up. She comes back a few minutes later, with a very reluctant Lena on a tow. “Let’s go have dinner out.” They go to the local diner, where Ava and Nora had been eating practically every night for the past 2 weeks. After a few burgers ordered and a few minutes of awkward silence, Nora decides to intervene. “You two need to know each other.” “Why?” Is Lena’s immediate response, as she put down the burger. “Lena-” Nora cautions. “It’s a real question, Nora. Logically, the more we know about each other, the less likely it is we will like each other.” “Look, Luthor, Ava is trying. So should you.” “Is she?” Lena fills a kick under the table almost immediately. “Fine.” The brunette turns to Ava. “What do you want to know?” Ok. Fine. “Why did you move here?” “Because my brother blew up a lab.” She answers almost immediately. “No, I kn… I meant why here?” “Oh. This school has one of the best bioengineering and nanotech labs in the country. And professor Stein was kind enough to offer me a recommendation. Of course, I still need to find a mentor, but I’ve been e-mailing this professor. I don’t know if you know her. Gideon Hawkings? We’re schedule to meet-” “Oah, hold on. Hawkings teaches grad students. She only takes doctorates to mentor.” “Yes. So?” “You’re getting a Doctorate?” Ava looks at her, disdainfully. “Yes. Bio nanotechnology engineering. I thought Nora told you that.” “I thought it was a major. How old are you?” “23.” “Then how can you-?” “She graduated at 20. On MIT. She just got her masters. Got published with that too. That’s why she was at the conference. That’s how she knows Stein and Ray.” Lena gives her a look. “What? I don’t have many friends. Excuse me for keeping up with what you’ve been up to these past few years. It’s not like I can count on you to tell me shit.” Ava barely pays her any attention. “WHAT?! You graduated at 20? From MIT?! Wait.” She does the math in her head, remembering all the research she made on Star tech before she applied. “How did you even get published with a masters in such a short time?” She’s sure that’s the only way to get into a Doctorate’s program here. “I was inserted in a study with… a colleague. ‘The use of nanoparticles to induce apoptosis’. The final goal was to cure cancer. It got published and he insisted on putting my name as co-author. That’s what got me into the conference. For now, what I’m trying to achieve is a standard interface to control the nanoparticles, get them to choose the cancer cells.” The passion in her voice is undeniable, but one little detail is bothering Ava. “And he’s fine with letting you extend your research on a different school?” Ava asks. “He’s-” Lena gulps, looking down, looking vulnerable and not in control for the first time that day. “He died. He was in the lab when it blew up. Excuse me.” She says as she gets up. As soon as she’s out of sight, Ava feels a hard slap on her arm. “Ouch! What was that for?!” Ava asks, incredulous. “Stop making her feel uncomfortable!” Nora whisper-shouts. “Why did you have to bring up her dead friend?!” “How could I know he was dead?!” She retorts. “You could’ve been more careful!” Ava sighs. “Nora, be rational here. You’ve been practically staking this girl since you two were kids, and you didn’t know. How could I?” Nora takes a deep breath. “I’m sorry. I just really want this to work out.” Ava signs. Nora hadn’t had the easiest life. Her father being the mob boss of Star City, Nora had a hard time making friends. Even in a boarding school 500 miles away, her father’s fame chased and cursed her. Only Ava, who she shared a room with for 5 years, had been close to her. It had taken a while, since Ava had as much knowledge of Nora’s family as the rest of the school. But seeing how the girl cried at night and was bullied or, more often, cast aside broke her heart. Two girls locking her up in a classroom’s storage closet was the last straw. She had ratted the girls out and vowed to protect the older girl any chance she got. As a payback, Nora hid her friend’s gayness to the priests and would cover for her and take the fault every time Ava sneaked out to make out. They were labeled “the weird sisters” by their classmates and they couldn’t care less. They had each other. That was all that mattered. Ava reaches to hold her friend’s hand. “She seems like she keeps to herself. I can see that being beneficial to our living arrangements.” That makes Nora smile, which doesn’t as often as she likes, so, that makes Ava happy enough. “Thank you.” She whispers. Lena doesn’t take long to come back, seemly not changing her demeanor. “I apologize.” She says, stoically, as she sits down. “I’m sorry, Lena.” Ava immediately says before she gets kicked by Nora. “I didn’t know. I shouldn’t-” “Nonsense.” The woman dismisses. “You couldn’t know. Do not worry about it.” She smiles. It doesn’t reach her eyes, but it’s better than nothing. “So.” Ava restart, trying to run away from the previous subject as much as possible. She may not trust the woman yet, but she doesn’t want to make her uncomfortable again. “What are your hobbies?” “Mainly puzzles and chess. And I also like to build and fix things.” Her voice is calm and stoic, almost cold. But there’s something else there. Some sort of openness and willingness to talk that doesn’t discourage Ava. “Yours?” The brunette adds. Ok. She’s trying. That’s a good sign. “Combat sports and studying. I’m thinking of joining the gym here. Maybe kickbox or muay thai.” “You like studying?” Lena askes. She’s clearly surprised, but not judgmental, like people usually are when they hear it. “I do. I love learning and I like to make sure I know everything essential.” Nora, however, described it slightly differently. “She’s an organization freak with a huge brain. And an accidental gunner.” She comments as she sips on her drink. “Hey!” Ava complains, but Lena laughs. “How are you an accidental gunner?” She asks instead. Ava doesn’t even have time to process the question. Nora, however, was apparently just waiting for it. “Well, she’s doesn’t goal to have straight As per se, she just has them. She’s just the best student and doesn’t even try. And she hates when someone cheats.” “Do you rat them out?” Lena asks, but more in a challenging manner than a disapproving one. “Of course not!” The blonde exclaims, offended. “Unless it involves me and my exam, of course. I just make sure I don’t relate to that person.” “Why do you get along with Nora, then?” She asks, smiling genuinely for the first time. Nora doesn’t seem to like it. “Hey!” However, the conversation flows like she isn’t there. “I took her in, thinking I could change her. By the time I realized I couldn’t, it was too late. Now, she won’t leave, and I have to feed her and everything. She’s quite messy too. Such a hassle.” The blonde playfully rants. “Hey!” She repeats, louder now. “I know, right?” Lena responds as if Nora hasn’t said anything. “When we were kids, she used one notebook for every subject, and then asked for mine when she couldn’t understand her own notes.” “You offered to…” Nora starts but gets interrupted by Ava. “She did that with me too!” She exclaims to Lena. “I don’t know who she copied from in pre-law, but now, she does the same with Ray! And Ray isn’t even in IT! Or arts! He just makes the notes for her!” “Will you stop doing that?!” Nora finally shouts, getting up. They both look at her and laugh. They know she hates this. “We’re kidding, Nor. You know I love you.” Ava reassures her, taking her hand. The woman has enough social insecurities as it is. “How come that two of the most important people in my life bond over talking shit about me?” She complains, sitting back down, and Ava does feel bad for a second. Nora is the worst person she knows when it comes to social interactions. The only reason she even has a boyfriend was because she was dating a 6ft tall teddy bear who didn’t get scared by the multiple slaps in the arms the girl would give him every time he would talk to her. She hates people in general and she’s convinced people hate her too. And, along with Ray, Lena and Ava seem to be the only humans to get even close to her. The poor woman had enough. Apparently, Lena thinks the same way. “You are what we have in common, Nora.” Lena explains. “We still love you. You know that.” Nora nods slightly, looking down at her food. So, Ava does the only logical thing. She starts to tickle her on the ribs. It only takes a few seconds to turn the brunette’s frown upside down. “Ok, ok! Stop it!” She almost screams, laughing. “Hey! That’s my job, Ava!” A voice comes from behind her. And it’s like Christmas lights just turned on behind Nora’s eyes, and Ava can’t help to roll hers. Damn it, Ray. The big man sits down next to his girlfriend, who immediately leans in to kiss him. God, they’re gooey. Her thought gets interrupted by a smart remark from 3 tables down, coming from a group who entered with Ray. “Ray, one of these days, you’re gonna get killed in an alley, and I’m not going to your funeral.” It comes from a blonde with an ice pack on the side of her head. She had seen her around campus for the past week or so. “What the-?” Ava starts to get up but gets stopped by Nora. “Don’t.” She says. “It’s fine. She’s allowed.” “And why is that?” Lena steals the words from her mouth. “My father shot her sister and killed her father. She can say whatever she wants.” Nora states, sounding so determined, yet so defeated her heart breaks. “They’re my friends.” Ray continues, taking his girlfriend under his arm. This gets Nora in a weird position, but the brunette doesn’t seem to mind. “The buff guy with shiny hair and the shorter black guy in the red jacket are my roommates. They’re nice. It’s just Sara. She’s just-” “Rude?” Ava finishes. “Disrespectful?” Lena continues. She’s starting to like this woman. “Hard.” Ray choses instead. “Her father was a cop. Her life got turned upside down because of Damien Darhk.” He holds Nora tighter when she feels her flinch. She moves closer to him as he starts to stroke her arm, comfortingly. Suddenly, Ava is glad Ray is so gooey. “She herself almost died a couple of times because of him. She’s not a bad person. She’s just… angry.” “You can’t let her take it out on Nora, Ray.” Ava scolds him. “She’s not responsible for her family’s crimes.” Lena adds, looking angrily at the blonde behind her. This seems to hit a nerve with her. “Oh, look who’s talking.” Nora retorts, looking directly into the brunette’s green eyes. “It’s different.” She responds, shaking her head. “Is it? ‘Cause last time I checked, you didn’t put the bombs there.” “No, but I-” She stops herself, looking around, suddenly aware of her raised voice. Her eyes focus once more on her friend, cold and stoic. “I should’ve known. I should’ve said something. You had no say in your father’s businesses.” “But you did on Lex’s?” Nora retorts. “Maybe.” Lena responds promptly. “We’ll never know.” “Oh, c’mon, Lena. He was nuts. That’s not on you!” “Then how are your father’s crimes on you?” Lena asks. “They’re not. It’s just…” Ava signs. She knows what’s going on. “Nora, you can’t be the revenge punching bag because your father is a dick. And you,” She smacks Ray’s arm, “You shouldn’t allow her to be either.” “And you think I got a say in the matter?” Ray asks, looking at her pointedly. Ava ponders over that for a few seconds. “OK, fair enough.” She grants him. “I just don’t like that-” “Oh, trust me, I don’t either.” Ray interrupts her, with the kind smile her always has on his face. “But I know Sara. We know each other since we were kids. The more you push, the more she pushes back. She’ll come to her senses. She always does. This is just a more sensitive subject, so, it may take a bit more time.” Ava just nods. There’s no way she’s going to win this argument. Not now, at least. The lunch goes on without much mishap. She gets to know Lena a bit more and finds a lot in common with the brunette. She learns the woman likes comedy shows and Star Wars and is a cat person. They talk about science and politics, and completely ignore the two love birds that apparently forgot they were with company. By the end of the meal, they are arguing so loud it catches the attention of the two gooey occupants on the table. “What? What is it?” Nora asks. “Oh, now you’re interested?” Lena mocks, laughing. “What’s the best Heist?” Ava asks instead, deciding they’re done messing with Nora for the day. “Forth. Easy.” “What? No way!” Lena refutes. “Third one. By far the best. Completely impromptu, no months of planning…” “So, we’re going to just ignore the careful year plan of revenge perpetrated all according to rules and manipulation?” Ava argues. “They both had a year to plan, and Amy beat them both in one night!” Lena counters. “They didn’t even know she was playing!” Nora shouts. “So, to be clear, no one finds the cute proposal the best?” Ray asks. “No.” All three answer at the same time, laughing. Of course, that would be the big teddy bear’s favorite one. The conversation gets interrupted by a blonde with glasses just behind Ray. “Sorry. Hi. Can I borrow some money?” She asks Ray, with a hand on his shoulder. “I forgot my wallet and Alex doesn’t let me use her card. I swear I pay you back.” She seems familiar. Ava is pretty sure she’d seen her around, but can’t quite place where. Ray is immediately fumbling through his pockets. “Why doesn’t your sister pay?” Nora asks. “’Cause she eats for 4 and never pays me back!” A tall brunette with the gayest haircut Ava has ever seen promptly responds, as she pays for her own food, making the blonde with glasses roll her eyes. “I don’t eat that much!” She retorts, causing the entire table 3 tables down to shout “Yes, you do!”, which only makes everyone laugh even more, and the blonde to adorably blush. “There you go.” Ray says, giving her his card. “Oh. Sorry. Guys, this is my friend, Kara.” He introduces. “That’s Ava and Lena. They’re Nor’s new roommates.” “Oh, I’ve seen you around.” She says, looking at Ava. “We’re neighbors. I live upstairs from you! Nice to finally meet you!” She extends her hand, with a smile so big it can only be described by the embodiment of sunshine. “Nice to meet you too.” Ava shakes her hand, noticing that Kara’s smile is very contagious as she looks at Lena. The other brunette shakes her hand as well (lingering a bit too long, Ava notices), before Kara asks: “So, why don’t you guys join us?” It’s Nora who answers. “Lance is there. I don’t wanna die today. Plus, your table seems quite full.” She adds, looking at their table as that Alex girl, who just won the last seat over a punk girl half her size (who apparently put one hell of a fight), sits down, while the punk girl’s identical twin sits on pointy haired guy’s lap. “Oh. Right” Kara seems disappointed at that. “Well, I hope to see you guys around.” She says, as she walks away, joining the over crowed table, now completely full, with the punk twin pulling up a chair and barely squeezing in between rude blonde and the clearly gay brunette who just stole her seat. “Yes, she’s single.” Nora quips when the blonde is no longer close. “Not sure she’s gay, though.” Ava is about to riposte when she notices Nora isn’t looking at her. So, it wasn’t just me who noticed. “And why should I care for any of that information?” Lena asks. Ava must admit; Lena’s good at this. “Riiiiiiiight. Sure, Luthor. Whatever suits you.” Nora smiles, finishing her drink (for style, Ava guesses).
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2. Introductions (part 2) “I’m sorry.” Kara repeats, sinking her head into her hands. “Day one, Kara. Day. One.” Alex mocks her. “I didn’t mean to!” “Well, I sure hope so!” Sara complains, laughing. “It’s ok, Kara. It happens.” She comforts the girl. “Getting knocked out with a kick during practice on a rookie’s first day happens a lot to you?” Jax asks, only to immediately get hit behind the head by the blonde. “Kara, you’re out of the gym.” Her sister says. “What?! No! please!” She looks at Sara, her eyes pleading. “Alex, really. It’s fine.” Sara states. “It happens. It’s a combat sport. Accidents happen. She didn’t exactly mean to hit me that high, and I got distracted anyway.” Kara suddenly notices Ray, Nora and the other 2 women (Lena and Ava, right?) leaving and waves them goodbye, getting a wave in return from the big guy, and a slight nod from Nora. “One day, that dude is gonna end up on a shallow grave. Mark my words.” Sara warns. By this point, everyone at the table knew about Sara’s history with the Darhks. And thanks to Ray, over the past six months, all of them, in one way or another, had come to know Nora Darhk herself too. “She’s nice, you know.” Alex says, maybe for the 1000th time. “She’s rough and strange and socially awkward, but nice.” “Agreed.” Charlie comments. “She’s a weirdo, but a cool weirdo. Like Constantine.” However, Sara, being Sara, only doubles down. “She’s the daughter of Damien Darhk. She’s a psycho and she’s gonna kill you all one day, just for the hell of it.” “Have you ever actually talked to her?” Jax asks. “I don’t need to.” The blonde shrugs. “Yes, you do.” The twins answer. “Wow.” Sara smiles. “Is this how important this is for you? That Charlie and Amaya are agreeing on something?!” She laughs. “Sara, seriously.” Nate joins in. “At least ignore her. You don’t need to get along, just pretend she isn’t there. You’re really hurting Ray, you know?” Sara looks down, in shame? I didn’t know she could feel that. “Ray is a teddy bear, and he’s gonna get himself hurt. What kind of friend would I be if I didn’t try to stop that?” She asks, repeating the same speech she’s been reciting for the past six months, since they found out Nora and Ray were dating. “She’s gonna hurt him, or her father is gonna hurt him, or something. I don’t want to lose Ray.” “Her father is in jail, though, right? What can he really do?” Kara asks. She distinctively remembers the news of his arrest. He surrendered himself up 2 years before, after months on the loose, plead guilty to every accusation the DA thought of putting in in exchange for a life in prison without parole. It took less than a week for him to get convicted. No one has heard from him ever since. “Yeah. He was in jail 3 years ago too. Then, suddenly, out of nowhere, I run to the hospital to say goodbye to my father while I wait to hear if my sister survives the night. Days later, I get shot too. He’s evil. She’s evil. And someone is going to get hurt. I just hope it’s her.” And just like all the other attempts, the conversation gets dropped then and there. “So, where’s Zari?” Kara asks. No one batter to change subject than the sunshine of the group. “Introduction meetings.” Amaya responds. “She’s showing the freshman how not to die on their first week.” “Or how to die.” Charlie adds. “Depending on who you ask.” “She’s probably coming. Intro should be over by now.” Amaya continues, looking at the clock over the counter. It doesn’t take long for the woman in question to arrive. After a small fries war (that Sara ended by throwing ice chips at Alex) and some small talk involving classes, schedules and new apartments (apparently, Zari, the twins Kara met today and Sara were all going to share one, which, according to Nate, was a catastrophe waiting to happen), Zari shows up unannounced at their table, with a tray full of donuts, and sits in Kara’s lap. “Did you miss me?” She asks, as she quickly hits Kara’s hand out of her tray. “Leftovers I stole from Intro. Don’t you even dare. Oh, this is Nia and Barney. He says to call him Brainy.” She adds, pointing at the 2 awkward kids that came behind her. “Hi. I’m Kara.” She smiles at them. The girl seems quite scared. The boy just looks confused. “Do you wanna join us?” “There is no room. And I believe we need to order in order to stay.” He answers matter-of-factly. “Right. Kara, help me.” Zari stands, pulling her arm. She pulls a loose table next to the wall and drag it, as Zari pulls the chairs. They get a stink eye from the waiter behind the counter, but Zari just smirks and winks at her. “There. now there’s enough room.” “Each table is made for 4 people, so, now there’s 8 seats. There’s 10 of us.” He counterpoints, making everyone but Zari to look at him, confused. Zari, however, seems to have it figured out. “Yeah, but see, Amaya is sitting in Nate’s lap, and I’m gonna sit here in Kara’s, so, now, you have 8 seats.” Zari explains as she sits back on her lap. It’s weird to see patient Zari. Zari is sarcastic, nonchalant and sassy, not patient and nice. But that seems to satisfy the kid, who nods and grabs one of the available chairs. “So, these two have no room yet. For reasons neither of them wants to share, they didn’t apply for the dorms, and now they’re homeless.” Brainy seems to flinch at that, but remains quiet. “Who wants them?” “What?” Just about everyone asks. “Zari, they’re not lost puppies.” Sara says. “You can’t just offer them to us.” But the brunette flat out ignores her. “Nia is a journalism freshman.” She says as she turns in Kara’s lap. “Oh, no.” Alex immediately says. “Really?” Kara asks, turning her head to the new girl. “Me too! That’s awesome! Why did you choose it?” “I… I just want to tell stories. Show new realities to people. Make them see a new perspectives.” She just about whispers, but she speaks with passion and a glow in her eyes, and… Kara just can’t leave this girl homeless. She turns to Alex, puppy eyes locked on. “No.” Her sister shakes her head. “You can’t leave her on the street. We even have an extra room.” “That is full of boxes you still haven’t unpacked!” “I’ll do that tonight!” “You can barely fit a bed there!” “’Barely’ still fits! We’ll make it work.” “I’m not sure Nia would want to live in a closet.” Alex looks at her, apparently asking for support. Unfortunately… “Wouldn’t be the first time. And I have money for rent and everything. And I can cook.” Nia looks at her, hopeful. “Damn. She has those pleading eyes just about as bad as you do, little Danvers.” Sara smirks. Kara smiles for a second before turning her own puppy eyes back to her sister. Alex was still not convinced, though. “Why didn’t you apply for a dorm?” She asks, skeptical. Every head at the table turns to Nia as if watching a live movie, no one daring to open their mouths. “I… I wasn’t comfortable sharing a room with a stranger.” The girl is clearly very uncomfortable talking about this but, keeps going. “All freshmen are assigned a 2-bed bedroom. No exceptions. In my defense, I thought it would be easier to find a vacant room.” Alex is clearly not happy with the answer, so, the girl pulls up her phone. After typing for a few seconds, she extends her phone to Alex. She looks at it, back to the girl, then back to the phone again. Then, she makes up her mind. “You can come live with us.” She decides, giving Nia’s phone back. The table erupts in cheers, mostly from Kara, who almost knocks Zari over from her lap in order to hug her sister. “Great! Nate, Jax, you take him.” Zari decides, pointing at the other kid. “What?!” “Huh?!”
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3. The mighty Cat Grant She’s waiting outside Car Grant’s office. And she hates it with every fiber of her being. She was supposed to officially meat the head of the Lab she was going to work on. Instead, she get’s an e-mail from Miss Grant saying her meeting was moved to her office. And her last few days had been going great. Her furniture, books and massive computer rig had arrived all intact and on schedule, she’d been enjoying walking around campus and getting to know Ava, she talked to Ray a bit more (he even took her to his lab for a bit to show her the massive project he’s been working on) and cough up with Nora… not to mention the cute smiles she would get the couple of times she crossed paths with Ray’s sunshine of a friend, Kara. (There were also the wary glares she would get from her sister, but she tends to ignore those. she's used to it). So, of course everything has to go to shit. How could she even think she could get comfortable in an amazing place like this?! “You can come in now.” A cheery voice calls her back to reality. She immediately looks at the person in the door frame. Kara. She looks different now, though. Older. More… professional. Her hair is up in a neater ponytail and she’s wearing a simple, white button shirt, tight pants and high heels, which makes her hoover a few inches above Lena. She smiles at the blonde as she enters the room. Car Grant is sitting at her desk, her arms on top of it, with her fingers locked. It’s amazing how such a small woman can irradiate so much power. Sitting on her desk, there’s a slim brunette in in a tight crop top, leather pants and stilettos. Hadn’t she known any better, she would never say she was a professor. “Professor Hawkings.” She says, raising her hand. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.” “The pleasure is mine.” The professor shakes her hand, smiling. “Professor Stein has said wonders of you. I was very impressed with your paper.” Miss Grant clear her throat. “Miss Luthor.” She stands up. “Glad you could join us.” Lena’s back goes stiff. This can’t be good. “So, what is this about, Headmaster?” She asks politely, but with an edge in her voice. If she’s going to get removed from the program, she wants to know it right away. “Straight to the point, I see.” Miss Grant nods. For a lack of a better word, Miss Grant owns the university. After years of managing a media empire, apparently, “managing an academia is a vacation”, in her words. It’s known that she’s an incredible smart woman who had managed to turn the mediocre Star Tech Institute into the prized Star City University (even if everyone still calls it by the old name) in just 10 years, and with only a journalism degree. What once barely had technical degrees to offer, now has full-fledged, respectable programs in science, humanities and even some sports, as well as equally prized professors and researchers. The woman is an unarguable genius. However, it is also well known her infamous animosity with Lillian Luthor, and her heavy criticism on Luthor Corp and the roll of scandals that comes with it. “Let’s get this over with, then.” Miss Grant continues. “I want to make sure aren’t your family.” “I assure you I am not.” Lena responds promptly. “Apparently not.” She agrees. “I’ve been hearing nothing but good things from your previous professors, and from Professor Stein and his assistant.” Lena fights her eye rolls. Of course the “Queen of all media” had run a full background check on her. “Regardless, as a high-profile student, it’s apparently my job to welcome you.” She herself rolls her eyes at that. “I usually just ignore the boards useless advices but decided to make an exception for you miss Luthor. And I’m sure, being the smart woman everyone says you are, you can guess why.” “You want to make sure I won’t blow up your installations.” Lena states coldly, even in she understands the reasoning. She notices professor Hawkings smirking at that, but choses to ignore it. “Preceptive.” Miss Grant nods, sitting down and pointing to the chair in front of her so Lena would do the same. The brunette doesn’t want to, but she doesn’t see much of a choice. Anything but accepting the invitation would be considered rude. “Indeed. And I would love to hear about how a multimillionaire with a personal state-of-the-art laboratory available to her decided to develop her project in our humble facilities.” She smiles. Damn, this woman is good. “If I want to get away from my family’s reputation, it doesn’t seem wise on my part if I ran a project on a private lab during the restructuring of said multimillion-dollar company, Headmaster.” Lena explains. Miss Grant nods in agreement, so Lena continues. “And I need knowledge in computing, programing and nanoelectronics I don’t yet acquire.” “According to your file,” this time, Lena does roll her eyes. Surely, the headmaster of one of the biggest institutes in the country does not check the file of every single doctorate applicant that shows up at her door. “You took engineering at MIT. Took you only 2 years to finish.” “Yes.” Lena confirms, already guessing where this was going. “They teach physics in that course, if I’m correct?” She asks. “In deed.” The brunette confirms again. “Then, could you enlighten me on why a young prodigy such as yourself, goes back to Metropolis and takes 4 years to finish a degree theoretical physics, a subject she already mastered?” She asks. Well, it’s a fair question. Not one she really wants to answer, however. “I took time to also take-.” “2 minor degrees on biomechanisms and nanotechnology. I’m aware. It’s still a downgrade, don’t you think? Before you answer,” she raises her finger when Lena opens her mouth. “we both know what I’m asking, Miss Luthor. Don’t make a fool out of me.” Lena looks around. Professor Hawkings had moved to be laying against the wall, her arms crossed and her eyes on her. She’s no longer smiling. Kara is sitting next to the door. She can hear the keyboard clicks, but she can’t look at her without seeming too obvious. She can’t run from the question. She can’t avert it, and she can’t lie. Miss Grant would know. She got her trapped. “Can I trust that what comes out of my mouth won’t end up in a magazine somewhere?” She asks before she concedes. “If it does, it won’t be for the words you pronounce in this room.” She promises, adding: “This conversation is private, and I want it to remain so. After all, what kind of image am I passing if it’s found I interrogate doctorate students on their first day?” Well, she has a point. She sighs. “Me and Lex were taking most of the same classes. He already had a degree in engineering, like me, and my mother” Cat visibly rolls her eyes at that, and Lena has to try really hard not to smile. “thought it would be a good idea for us to accompany each other. And I couldn’t surpass him.” “Couldn’t or wouldn’t?” She asks. Lena mutters over the question for a bit. It’s clear to her what the woman is asking. Lena not surpassing her brother was her choice or imposed by the circumstances? Was he really smarter and more hard working than her, or was she advised not to surpass him? “Wouldn’t.” She conceded, already sure the headmaster knows the answer. “Lex was a genius-.” “But was arrogant and lazy.” Miss Grant finishes, to her surprise. “I’m aware, Miss Luthor. Please, continue.” “He hated studying and tests. But he hated more when someone was better than him.” “So, your darling mother forbade you from being so.” The headmaster concludes. She nods. “Is that why he blew up the Lab? Because someone was better than him?” Professor Hawkings asks. “With all due respect, professor, I don’t see how that’s relevant to the evaluation of my character. I was under the impression that was the point of this meeting.” She states coldly again, without looking at her. She only hopes neither of the women in the room takes her answer the wrong way, but she can’t talk about that. She won’t. “So, to recap,” Miss Grant continues like nothing happened. “The reason you took so long with your last degree wasn’t because you were helping your brother, but because Lillian had a favorite child. Is that correct?” “Yes.” She confirms promptly. There’s no point in denying it at this point. Miss Grant checks her note, before asking the dreaded question Lena was trying to avoid. “Who’s Jackson Spheer?” She asks. The brunette rubs her eyes with her left fingers. Knowing Car Grant, she already knows. “He was a doctorate student from England. Was developing a nanotechnology to cure cancer. We had a few classes together and he liked my ideas. Asked me to join in on his project.” “You two were the only ones in the project. You inherited it once he passed.” Miss Grant states. Lena resists the urge of throwing the stapler right in front of her to Car Grant’s head. “Jack was a genius, miss Grant. A true genius. I would much prefer having him alive, even if you think so little of me to think that that’s the only quality about him that I cared about. I’m not even sure this project can be continued without him.” She tries her best to hide the pain in her words. For most people’s ears, she’s sure she has. For Cat Grant, though? Not so much. The headmaster gets up. “It was a pleasure meeting you, Lena. You can see yourself out. It’s your first day. You need to get acquainted with your new workplace, after all.” Miss Grant waves her hand to dismiss her. She hears Professor Hawkings laugh. “C’mon, miss Luthor. I need to show you the lab.” She smiles and nods to Kara before following the professor out. What the hell just happened?
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4. Someone who speaks nerd “I had a key made for you.” Professor Hawkings says as they walk across the campus into the biggest and most modern building of the university. Some students look at her figure with bugged eyes, but the teacher seems to either be unaware, or just plainly ignoring it. “The lab has the certification for everything you need, but you may need equipment from other labs too. Your friend Ray can help you with that, I think. You can make any programing and building on the lab, just be aware of the other students, specially when it comes to noise.” She opens the main door and turns left in direction of the basement stairs. “Like I’ve told everyone else at the lab, no outsiders are allowed, though, judging by the behavior of rest of the students, you will largely ignore that particular rule as well.” She laughs, and Lena can’t help but to smile. The more information she gives Lena about the rules and her fellow students sharing the space, the more apparent it is how much the professor cares for her students. It’s almost motherly like, it’s quite fascinating to her. They reach 2 large green doors and the professor passes a card through the reader. She extends the card to her. “Please, do not copy or share it. It has been tried before, and I always know.” She gives her a knowing, yet amused, look. “Moving on.” The lab is unusually huge… and cold… and unusual. The center is assembled like a metal maze, full of metal boxes and server closets with the weirdest tech like things Lena has ever seen, and giant, even weirder machines, some with full-on wires sticking out, with a couple of students around a particular one that looks straight out of some villain’s secret lair. The ceiling is over 5 or 6 meters above the brunette’s head, where a metal ring full of server boxes forms a sort of gallery. To her left, there’s a mostly empty space surrounded by a net hanging from the gallery, with a few orange cones on the floor and hanging mid air with some thin wire. To her right, where they’re headed, it’s even weirder. It’s built like a 2-story, regular building, and at the top, it’s clearly visible a bunch of bookshelves though the large window. Below, besides the regular desks and lab class style stands on the space closer to the door, there are giant monitors, desktop towers, a ton of air conditioner machines and a mini fridge full of snacks. A black-haired woman in a red padded shirt is there, her back facing Lena, while a punk rock girl is sitting on the table right next to her, something that catches her professor’s attention. “My tabletops are made to hold computers and paperwork, Miss Chace, not your ass.” The professor scolds, prompting the girl to immediately jump down. “Gideon!” The black-haired girl turns around, a cheeky smile on her face. “I… thought you might take longer.” “I can tell, miss Tomaz.” She turns back to the Chace girl. “Don’t you have a class you’re already late for, Miss Chace?” “How…?” Miss Hawkings gives her such a pointed look she doesn’t even finish the question. Lena notices a weird accent in that one word. British, maybe? “Oh, c’mon, Gideon! It’s just intro!” Yep. Definitely British. “I already know what those wankers are gonna say anyway.” The professor doesn’t budge, however. “Out.” She points to the door. The girl huffs, but does as she’s told. “See ya latter, Zari.” She says, before heading out. “And if you skip, I will know!” The professor shouts, earning a sound of protest from the punk girl who’s just about to close the door. “Yeah, she’s definitely gonna skip.” The black-haired girl, Zari, comments. “I’m aware. But she’ll feel guilty about it. She will go next week.” The professor smiles, before proceeding to introduce them. “Miss Luthor, this is Zari Tomaz. Miss Tomaz, Lena Luthor, the new addiction to the lab.” Zari takes a look at her. “Luthor as in…?” “Yes. My brother.” She responds, stoically. The woman stares at her for a few seconds before shrugging. “Ok.” She shrugs and turns back to Dr. Hawkings. “Gideon, Brainy is upstairs. He was stressed out down here, so I let him up.” What kind of name is brainy? Lena asks to herself, but has the presence of mind to keep her mouth shut. The professor nods. “Make yourself at home, Miss Luthor. Miss Tomaz will show you around to get you acquainted with the place.” She instructs before heading to the winding staircase in the corner, probably not even registering the ‘I’m doing what now?’ from Zari. “I guess I’m showing you around.” She sighs as she gets up. They walk around, with Zari describing the weirdest gimmicks and machines who look anything but safe, and who Lena, even with her vast knowledge in physics and engineering, has no idea how they work. “Oh, me neither.” Zari responds when she comments on it. “The computer does it. There are fairies working inside it, for all I know.” Lena smiles. She’s liking the sassiness of the other woman. Apparently, Zari Tomaz is an Electronics and computer engineering double major, with a huge brain and a no-nonsense attitude Lena is seriously liking. Professor Hawkings (or just Gideon, as Zari insists she prefers to be called) took her in after she shut down the entire school’s internet mid class so her friend could make it to the test she was late to. There weren’t many students in tthe lab. Zari introduces the 2 boys around the weird machine Lena saw earlier as Winn Schott and Cisco Ramon, 2 PhD students under Gideon’s guide, and a bunch of overconfident nerds on the flying cones area (“drone test site”, Zari had informed her) who’s names she had already forgot. They come back to their spot on the right, where Zari helps her get settled and shows her the way around all the different computers there. Overall, their little corner seems by far the quietest, and Lena is more than happy to just stay there unless absolutely necessary. “So…” Zari starts, sitting in the table, right next to her laptop. “I’ve been holding off this whole time. You gotta give me something, Luthor.” “Well, I’m sorry to disappoint you, Tomaz, but I don’t know what you mean.” She states, as she configures the desktop to her liking. “Really?” She gives her a pointed look. “You don’t know what I mean? That’s what you’re going with?” Lena thinks for a bit. Zari is clearly a smart, resourceful woman. And they both know what she means, so, what’s the point? “I don’t want to talk about it.” She decides to go with a truth. “You’re a stranger. I don’t know you or what your intentions are, and that’s a very personal topic.” “Alright.” The woman nods. She sits back in her chair and reaches inside a drawer in front of her, pulling out a controller. “We usually play upstairs, but since that’s occupied…” She offers her the controller. “Apex or pubg?” They had admittedly lost track of time. All Lena knows is that they’ve been playing for a while. And that now she’s hungry. Really hungry. “Yes!” Zari jumps from her chairs once she shoots the last guy alive. Lena is admittedly terrible at it and had been shot long ago. Fortunately, her partner is not only great at it, but a very patient teacher as well. Not that it does much of a difference. Lena is still trying to differentiate the guns in game. “Miss Tomaz, for the 100th time, these are work computers.” She hears professor Hawking’s voice coming down the stairs. “Well, you were upstairs, so…” Zari justifies it, putting the controller down. “Miss Luthor, I’m glad you’re getting accustomed to our facilities, but, for future references, in here, we reserve all entertainment activities to the library upstairs, is that clear?” “Yes, professor. I apologize.” She immediately says. “That’s alright.” The professor nods. “And please call me Gideon. ‘Professor’ is not just too formal, it’s also too long.” She laughs. “Go have lunch. We’ll talk about your project and schedule later.” She heads to the door, but not before turning back and adding “Miss Tomaz, Mr. Dox is your responsibility until I come back.” Zari huffs and shakes her head. “Every time.” She whispers and turns to Lena. “Lunch?” “I was actually planning on having lunch with my roommate.” She answers, apologetically. “Ask her to come here.” The brunette shrugs. “We usually just grab pizzas and eat upstairs. Is that ok, or you wanna go somewhere else?” “That’s fine.” She nods to Zari, but the woman is hallway up the stairs already. She texts Nora with the change of plans and follows Zari upstairs. The first thing Lena notices is the smell. It’s light, but definitely weed. Second thing she notices is how weird the room looks, especially compared to the weirdness downstairs. The room is as long as the entire length of the lab, and yet not more than 5 meters wide, and almost entirely is covered in bookshelves, which have books, obviously, but also the most bizarre items, from little miniature rockets to what looked like an eye made out of copper wire. Only the widows and the far wall, where 2 giant TVs sit, aren’t covered. The center of the room is divided in 2. The first half, closer to the stairs, has half a dozen fully equipped wooden work desks with a comfortable distance between them. The other half, however, it looks strangely like a normal living room for an overcrowded house. Giant couches, computer monitors and towers, consoles, a huge fridge and food boxes everywhere. “Welcome to the library.” Zari says, dramatically gesturing around. “That kid over there who didn’t even noticed we’re here” She points to only occupant of the room, a boy with giant headphones covering his long hair and a controller in his hands. “is Brainy. He’s weird, but nice. Somehow.” They restart a new game, now in the large TV and with brainy as a teammate, which helps Zari a lot, giving Lena’s general lack of ability. The two boys from downstairs join them a few minutes later; and it doesn’t take long for the pizzas to arrive. But Lena really can’t hide her surprise when the person who brings the pizzas (along with Nora on a tow) is none other than Kara Danvers. “Oh, Apex?! I’m next!” She shouts, placing an egregious amount of pizza boxes on the little coffee table. “Oh. Hi again.” She smiles at Lena when she lays eyes on the brunette. Is this girl always happy? “Hey.” She murmurs, not able to think about anything else to say. I’m never out of words. What’s happening? “I thought you sucked at videogames.” Nora comments as she sits next to her, bringing her back to reality. Lena can tell she’s anything but comfortable. “She does.” Zari answers, nodding at the TV on the left, where Lena just killed with a punch. “But it’s still fun, so, it’s fine. You play?” She asks, her eyes never leaving the screen. She slightly nudges Nora when her friend doesn’t answer. “Oh. Huh… Not really. I’m not very good at FPS.” She answers quietly. “You can’t be worse than Lena.” Winn, the nerd from earlier, throws an extra controller in Kara’s general direction, who catches it in one hand without barely looking, like it’s the simplest thing. “Use hers. Kara, your screen is the table one.” Lena immediately gives her friend the controller with an encouraging smile. She takes it hesitantly, while Zari quits her own game so they can play squad. Zari is clearly the leader, and gives a few commands to the ones playing, which basically consists on yelling at Winn for ammo, since he couldn’t aim for the life of him, and instructing Kara to instruct Nora. The blonde and Zari are very in sync and that gives Kara the extra time to teach Nora any strategy or gameplay. She seems to be really comprehensive, but Lena can tell Nora is getting increasingly worked up. When she’s killed, she’s on the verge of tears. “Hey.” Lena touches her shoulder when her friends throws the controller to the couch’s arm rest next to her. It’s clear this has nothing to do with the game. “Are you ok? And don’t bullshit me.” “I-.” Nora gulps. “I’m just-.” “I’m not gonna freak out on you, Nora.” Zari says, her eyes never leaving the screen. “I’m not Sara, and you make my friend happy, so, you’re good in my book. Kara, to your left!” “You know the blonde bitch that’s messing with her?” Lena asks, her voice going back to cold and stoic without her noticing. Zari doesn’t seem phased by her tone, however. “She’s my roommate. Well, one of them. She has some issues, and she’s probably the most stubborn human being I know, but she’s not a bad person. Just a dick, sometimes. YES!” Zari jumps up when Kara shoots the last guy. “So, you all just let her bully Nora because she has issues?! How is that her fault?” She’s been having this conversation with Nora (and Ray, by extension) for the past week. She hadn’t seen the blonde bitch since that first day, but her rude comments and how they made her friend feel didn’t leave her mind. “Look, we always do our best to make them avoid each other. They never go to the same parties or take the same classes… Sara will get it, eventually. It just…” “Takes some time.” Lena finishes her sentence, rolling her eyes. Everyone has been consistently saying that, and to be honestly, she is getting quite sick of it. “So, she just gets outcasted until your idiotic friend realizes she’s being a dick?” Zari turns to her, an angry look on her face. “You don’t even know her. Don’t you think we all know how fucked up this all is? Don’t you think we tried to talk to Sara? I’ve talked to Nora a total of maybe 10 minutes, and even I know Sara is wrong. Do you think that matters to her? You’ve been here for what? A week? You never spoken to my friend, and you think you got all the answers? You don’t. Nora’s dad did a lot of fucked up shit. Now, that’s not Nora’s fault, and everyone with common sense knows it. Sara will too, but she has traumas she needs to deal with first, and no one can force her to do anything. No one but herself. So, until then, we just keep them apart. There are a lot of us, the campus is huge, and our apartments are on opposite sides of it. It’s not that hard.” She turns back to the screen and restarts the game. Everyone goes extremely quiet. Lena can feel 4 pairs of eyes on her (since the Brainy kid was focusing on the game with Zari). Nora, Ray, her neighbors, and now Zari. Every single one of them had defended the blonde. Everyone was sure Sara would come around. And yet, Zari is the first one to point out one obvious flaw in Lena’s reasoning: She didn’t know Sara. She heard one snarky comment from afar. That’s all. All other information on her came from people telling her she wasn’t that bad. Even Nora agreed. “You’re right.” She says. Zari turns her body for a second, letting her know she was listening. “I don’t know her. I never met her. I shouldn’t be judging her character on the one sentence I heard. Specially if you’re all defending her. I’ll try to keep a more open mind in the future.” At this point, the two nerds’ attention is divided between their own game and the pizza, while Kara is looking at her with a surprised gaze and half a slice in her mouse. Nora relaxes back on the couch and takes the slice Kara offers her, the blonde not moving still her gaze and merely extending the food in Nora’s general direction. That’s when it hits her. They thought I was gonna explode on Zari. They were waiting for a fight. She realizes, disappointedly. She’s not exactly surprised, given her name. But it hurts a bit. She’s used to it, but still… Zari sighs. “Hey, I get it. She’s your friend. This is hard on us friends too. But it will work out. I have faith in Sara.” “Ok, so…” Kara says quite loudly. “How about you teach Nora how to play and I take Lena and we play for a bit? Just the 4 for us, until they get a grip of the game.” She smiles that sunshine smile again and, next thing Lena notices, everyone is laughing, eating pizza and having a good time. All thanks to that woman. When Kara leaves for her afternoon classes, Lena is not disappointed their time together ended so soon. Not at all.
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5. The world doesn’t deserve him Classes suck. Nora knew this already. She always hated classes. 100 morons closed in a room listening to another moron without questioning always gave her the chills. Furthermore, she hated physics. She hated knowing how things work. It took away the magic in life. And yet, somehow, Professor Stein was different. Professor Stein made quantum physics… likable. Of course, she also didn’t mind that the professor’s assistant was her very hot boyfriend she could steal the homework from. The class had finished early (in Stein’s words, “You don’t get to enjoy college for long. Might as well be today.”), so, she and said very hot boyfriend were (obviously) making out in the now vacant classroom. She’s sitting on his lap in the professor’s chair, him holding her back, her holding his face. “One could argue we’re too old to sneak out to make out.” Ray says when they briefly parted lips. “One doesn’t have an assassin wanting to murder their guts.” Nora argues. “She’s not an assassin, Nora.” Ray argues, even though they can both see her point. Sara is deadly. She’s a black belt for at least 3 different martial arts, she’s somehow a throwing knives expert, and national MMA champion for college division. She can kill her with her eyes closed. And she wants to. “Debatable.” “She’ll come around.” Nora has to laugh at that. “When did that woman EVER come around in her life? Give me one example.” “You didn’t do anything wrong.” He argues. They had talked about this before. “Neither did her father. Or her sister.” She counters. And that’s usually how the discussion ends. No coming out of the classroom make-outs until boyfriend’s assassin friend stops the murderous looks in her direction. “Now, less talk, more kissing.” She adds, rejoining their lips. But of course, like all her plans, this one isn’t very thought out. For example, one thing neither of them considered was Jax having the key to Stein’s classroom. Another irritating detail is that said classroom was where Jax stored his weed (with the professor’s permission, of course), since it was against his landlord’s strict rules to have it in the house. Finally, to put the final nail in Nora’s coffin, of course Jax and his friends chose this precise moment to come pick the stash up for their Thursday night game night at Lance’s place. “You have got to be kidding me.” She hears Sara’s voice exclaiming. I’m dead. Fuck. I’m dead. She’s gonna kill me. Nora bolts out of the room before either Jax, Nate, the twins or the tall girl behind Sara the brunette has no idea who it is, have any time to react. She runs until she legs give out and she hides behind the taco truck just outside the building. After that, she doesn’t see Ray for 2 weeks. Not that it was his will to do so. She turns off her phone, sends an e-mail to every teacher detailing exactly how sick she (straight out of WebMD’s gastroenteritis’ page, of course) and doesn’t leave her dorm room other than to pick up junk food from the vending machines down the hall. Ray, being the angel that he is, keeps e-mailing her with the missing homework she’s supposed to deliver, as well as calling take out to her dorm every now and then, because he knows there’s no food in there, and gives her just the right amount of space. That is, until he can’t take it anymore. “Nora, open up! Please!” He shouts from the other side of her door one random afternoon. Nora is laying on her bed, watching Apex predators (after being done binging 2 full comedy shows, trying to cheer herself up, and several horror and drama shows, to fit her mood), laptop on her lap, her blinds fully closed and her room a full mess. Fortunately, she scared the roommate she was supposed to have into moving with her boyfriend 2 weeks after the first semester started, so, no need for worry on that end. She doesn’t answer. She’s too embarrassed to even respond. “I’m gonna stay here until you open, Nora. However long it takes.” He warns, which only makes her sigh. I’m more stubborn than you, Ray. Ray talks to her door for a while, detailing his day and what weird things have been happening while she’s been in hermit mode. Apparently, Nate was caught with weed again, Amaya somehow got him out of it without any repercussions, Alex met a new girl (she resists the urge to ask who the fuck Alex is) and is no longer screwing Sara, and Charlie blew up a classroom “on accident” (Ray made sure to tell her that that was quoted) with paint and an air brush. Nora hates how good it feels to have him on the other side of the door. She hates that he knows how much she hates being alone. She hates that he knows she would love him there. It takes her a few moments to realize she can’t hear him anymore. The dorm is quiet. She looks at the clock. 19:31. He must’ve left. He got tired of waiting. And she can add one more thing to the list of things she hates on herself: how disappointed and sad she feels about her realization. It takes a few hours for her to run out of snacks. She leaves her bed when her stomach rumbles for the 10th time, fully aware she doesn’t have any food left. She looks at the clock. 1:24 am. The vending machines get restacked around midnight, and no one should be in the corridors by now. She can sneak into the common room and get all the good ones. But as soon as she opens the door… “Oh my god!” She jumps back as Ray’s back falls into the room. “What the hell are you still doing here?” She whispers. “I told I was going to stay here.” She responds, his voice rough. Oh my god. He was asleep. He fell asleep on the hall. She feels guilty now. It’s Ray. Of course he would stay. Her guilt only intensifies when he reaches for his bag. “I brought burritos. We need to reheat them, though. Oh, and your notes.” “Wh- What notes?” She asks, not looking at him. She’s too embarrassed for that. He reaches inside his bag and takes out a bunch of small colored binders. “Well, you skipped class. I only sent you the homework. I thought you might need the notes too.” She’s on the verge of tears now. He’s too good. Way too good for this world, but specially, way too good for her. She doesn’t deserve him. No way. “You have to leave.” She mumbles, as she puts her arms around herself. She’s going to fall apart for doing this, but she has to. It’s for his own good. She has to protect him. It’s the least she can do for this gentle, kind man that stood in her doorway for hours just to give her class notes and burritos. “You shouldn’t be here, Ray. You have to go.” He puts the bag down and backs up, his hands raised in surrender. “I’m going, Nora. I’m going, but can I ask why?” That’s all it takes. That breaks her. The tears she was stopping leave her eyes. The sobs she was holding for the past 2 weeks break out. “Because you can’t be with me, Ray!” She shouts. She knows she can’t scream in the dorm building this late in the night, but she doesn’t care. She’s been boiling this, avoiding this for too long. “You’re too good for this. You’re too good for me! Even your friends see it, why don’t you!? I’m messed up. I’m bad, Ray. I’m only gonna get you hurt, and I don’t wanna do that.” She takes a deep breath and sits on the bed, defeated. “Your friends are right, Ray. We don’t work. I should’ve known.” “Nora, screw her.” She looks up in surprise. Ray never curses. Not even close. ‘screw her’ is very, very close. She hides her head again, in shame, when she sees the tear tracks down his face. He sits by her side and takes her hand. “I’ve talked to Sara. She’ll come to her senses. She’s just stubborn.” He gently touches her chin to pull her head up and, to her surprise, he’s smirking. “Jax and Nate want to meet you, though.” “Why?” She can’t help but ask. “Well, they’ve been wanting to meet my ‘mystery girl’ for about a month now. They were quite surprised it was you, but that wore off quickly.” He makes that smile that leaves her knees weak and she can’t help but to lean in. He puts his arms around her and pulls her down so they’re lying on her bed. He swiftly kicks the door shut as she adjusts to the new position. He’s so big his feet barely fit on the bed, but the man doesn’t seem to mind. “I don’t deserve you, Ray.” She whispers to his chest. “You deserve everything, Nora. I’m just part of the package.” He shrugs. “I didn’t mean that in a dirty way. I only meant it as…” She kisses his jaw, squeezes her arms around him and closes her eyes. This is the most comfortable she felt in weeks. “Shut up.” They’re both starving, so they don’t stay like this for very long. They also don’t talk. They just warm up Ray’s burritos in her microwave and lay back on her bed, laptop in front of them, watching Star Wars. Ray falls asleep not 30 minutes into the first one, so Nora wraps everything up, brushes her teeth and lays her head on his chest again after, pulling her absurdly thick blankets with her. As soon as she makes contact with him again, his arms go up around her and he pull her closer, and Nora can’t believe how in love with this amazing man she already is. She truly doesn’t deserve him. The world doesn’t deserve him.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
6. Welcome to fight club It’s gonna be fine this time, she tells herself, as she wraps her hands. You’re not gonna give your coach/friend a concussion. You’re gonna be careful. You’re gonna do great. “You ready?” Sara calls her back to reality. She picks up her training gloves. Sara is holding pads at head height. “Are you sure this is a good idea?” Kara asks again, for maybe the 10th time. She’s been avoiding the gym for days, after the first lesson fiasco. Sara groans. “Do you wanna learn how to fight or not?!” Kara nods, more to herself than the other blonde. “Good.” Sara hits the pads on each other before holding them up again. “Left-right. Remember what I thought you.” “And what I thought you.” Alex shouts from the sandbags behind her. “Please, don’t break her head this time.” Sara rolls her eyes. “Shut up, Danvers.” She turns her attention back to the frightened blonde. “Focus on my hands, Kara. C’mon.”She throws a right hook carefully. Sara smiles and keeps encouraging her, moving around and forcing Kara to keep up. “C’mon, Danvers! You can do better that that!” After a few minutes, Kara gets a bit more confident in her moves. She had been getting used to her sister’s gym and her friends. They were pretty nice overall. Of course, Kara already knew most of them, through either Alex or Zari, but most of them were older and such a large group was a bit intimidating for her. Not to mention that she wasn’t exactly socially self-assured like her sister. No, she was nerdy and awkward and for 2 years only hung out with Zari and the nerds from the Software engineering lab (which for her was fine, really. She loves playing videogames with them after hours, in those big computers of theirs, eating pizza and chatting around). But her sister had enough of the “antisocial nerd vibe”, as she called it, and decided to drag her into the gym after a week in their new home. “You need to meet people, Kara. And no, Zari and the nerds aren’t enough.” Her sister stated, as she pulled the surprisingly strong blonde into the locker room. She was pretty much left alone for the following week, since she accidentally kicked her teacher’s head, but Alex wouldn’t quit, so, there she is, slowly but steadily practicing in a practically empty room (except for Alex, her girlfriend, who is holding the sandbag her sister is working on, and Zari, who’s sitting in a corner with her laptop and only came to see if Sara would get kicked in the head again). “Alex?” A voice calls from the corridor and it couldn’t be in better timing, because, after 15 minutes punching Sara’s hands in the most diverse ways, she’s drenched in sweat. Seconds later, Nora Darhk’s blonde friend, Ava enters the room. She has a gym bag on her shoulder and is wearing a black sports bra and leggings and orange running shoes and Kara has to thank her for that, because it makes Sara drop her hands and stare at the newcomer. “Hey!” Alex greets her. “Glad you could make it! Guys, this is Ava Sharpe. We met in class, and she’s also our new neighbor. Well, one of them. Ava this is Sara, Zari, my girlfriend Kelly and you already know Kara.” She introduces them, pointing at each occupant in the room. “Pleasure.” Her eyes linger a bit on Sara, a hard look on her face, but she makes no comment what so ever. But of course, Sara can’t keep her mouth shut for the life of her. “You’re one of Nora Darhk’s new roommates?” She asks. “I am.” The woman doesn’t back down. “And I’ve heard all about you, Lance.” She adds in a low tone, threateningly. She then turns to Alex. “Maybe I should come back another day.” “No! nonsense!” Zari intervenes from her corner. “This is the only place you can legally punch her. Why do you think we all come here, anyway?” “Hey!” Sara complains. “Oh, C’mon, Sara!” Her sister says, laughing. “This can’t be news to you!” “You’re all jerks.” She pouts but can’t hide the smile. She turns back to the newcomer. “Do you have experience in combat sports?” Ava pauses a bit before answering. “Mainly judo and boxing.” Sara raises her eyebrows, smirking. She takes off the pads and goes to her bag to pull out her training gloves and mouth guard. “Let’s see what you got.” She challenges, putting her gloves on. Kara takes the opportunity to get her bottle and practically drops next to Zari, her arms still feeling like Jell-O. Ava rolls her eyes. “I know who you are, Lance. I’m not going to fight an MMA champion. I have a functioning brain.” “Oh, c’mon!” Sara laughs, tightening her gloves. “You have at least 3 inches on me. You’re clearly in shape. You have fighting experience. It’s just for fun!” “Are you serious?” Ava asks, incredulously. “Yeah!” Sara smirks, really excited to have a new opponent. “Just to see what you got. C’mon, Sharpe. Are you scared?” Ava looks her down for a few seconds before putting her bag down. “Fine. What are the rules?” She asks, defiantly, as she takes off her own wraps and gloves. After establishing a few ground rules, they stand in front of each other, with a smirking Alex in the middle as a judge, and Kara can’t help but to be a little worried about Sara. Sure, she’s a champion, but Ava has way over 3 inches on her, despite what Sara said, not to mention way longer arms and legs, and looks just as much in shape as her opponent. Sara is going to have a hard time. Not that that ever stopped her. They start relatively tamed, circling each other, testing each other out. A punch here, a kick there. Ava is the first to strike. A right hook right on her forehead makes Sara stumble a little. And off they go. They both get hit pretty hard at least a dozen times each. Ava appears to be fueled by anger, Sara by pride. Their movements get faster and more complex. Ava mainly punches and occasionally grabs Sara and throws her to the ground when she gets too close. Sara quickly figures out Ava doesn’t defend kicks very well, so that becomes her main go-to move. It’s a weird combination of styles that Kara watches in both awe and fear.Alex gives up judging half way though and goes sit next to Kelly. Kara doesn’t exactly know when, but next thing she notices, Zari has her phone up, filming with a huge grin on her face. For the life of her, the blonde couldn’t tell if her friend is rooting for Sara to win or lose. The two women keep pushing each other, throwing each other to the floor, only to escape in a convoluted counterattack and start all over again. Ava’s legs already have bruises forming all over, while Sara’s left eyebrow is bleeding, but no one, not even themselves, dares to stop them.After around fifteen minutes of non-stop combat, somehow, they both end up punching each other at the exact the same time, making them both fall to the ground with both their noses bleeding. Zari bursts out laughing. “Oh, I’m so glad I caught that on camera.” She grins as Sara shoots her a glare. The smaller blonde gets up, massaging her nose as she extends her hand to Ava.“You’re good.” She acknowledges, smiling. “I think I may have gotten less bruised than you, though. You need to train on defending your legs. Your balance is good, but the constant hits will wear you out.” Sure enough, Ava was breathing heavily, while Sara seems to have barely broken a sweat. Ava takes her hand and removes her mouth guard. “Were you even trying?” Sara laughs. “Of course I was! It’s bad practice to not give 100% every time. But I don’t know you. You’re taller and probably heavier than me, and have experience. I need to safe my strength against an unknown adversary.” She shrugs and walks to her bag to have some water. “That reminds me. You also put too much effort in faux attacks and move too much to avoid mine. That wears you out too. And lift your knees to defend your legs. Don’t use your arms.” Ava looks dumbfounded. Maybe she wasn’t expecting Sara to be nice. To be fair, I wouldn’t either if I had met Nora first. “Why are you giving me advice?” The blonde asks. Sara smirks. “You came here to train, right? What kind of practice is it if we don’t tell each other what we did wrong?” She responds, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “You… you want to teach me?” The blonde shrugs while smiling. “Sure. Why not? You’re good.” She raises her hand for Ava to shake. “Welcome to fight club. But.” She turns to Kara, who instantly recoils in her place. “That blonde first. I want payback.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
7. The rise and fall of drunk Danvers Kara isn’t a fan of drinking. She never liked the taste. So, usually, on a night out such as today, she would just snack with Zari and film her friends being idiots. But today is slightly different. Half the gang stayed home today. Including Sara. Meaning Nora can go out with them. Meaning so does her cute roommate, who Zari invited out. There aren’t many of them out today. Just Ray’s roommates and the twins, plus herself, Nia and Zari, who just came from a pizza eating Netflix marathon. Alex and Kelly were supposed to come with them, but they decided to Netflix and chill instead. On normal nights, Cisco, Winn, maybe Felicity or Barry would join them as well, and the entire group would fill half of the bar. But most PhD students are currently busy losing their minds over teaching for the first time. But, at the moment, Kara is kind of glad none of them are there. Most of them would be making fun of her for stressing out over a girl by now. What if she hates me?
She’s way too cool to like me.
But she was so nice the other day.
She’s probably not even gay.
No, she’s definitely queer. Sara told me so, and her gaydar is never wrong.
But Zari isn’t gay.
Well, Zari isn’t out, but Sara said…
“KARA!” The blonde jolts up to Zari’s voice. “Damn, girl, where did you go?” “Sorry.” She says as she adjusts her glasses. “You were saying?” “Do you still have class notes from your freshman year?” Zari asks, while Nia, who’s been talking to Zari since they got there, looks at her, hopefully. “Oh. Yeah, I may have something on my computer. I’ll give them to you.” She smiles to the girl, reassuringly. “Ok. What’s up with you?” Zari turns her full attention to the blonde. “You didn’t even eat that much at dinner. Are you ok?” “What?! I ate as much as you!” She protests. “And I clearly remember, because we share the pizza AND the donut box.” “Kara, you usually eat a whole pizza by yourself, and the only reason you don’t eat more is because your sister starts punching you for stealing her food. What’s up?” “I…” She takes a deep breath, and, before she notices it, she’s venting. “Your friend is coming, and I don’t really know her, do I? And what if she doesn’t like me? What if she doesn’t fit in the group? What if…?” “Danvers!” Zari stops her rambling like she usually does: with a shout and both hands on her shoulders. “You played Apex with her literally 3 days ago. She’s your neighbor. She’s… well, she’s not nice, but she’s polite and funny, and she likes you. Stop freaking out and speak like a human being, for a change.” Wait. Time out. “She likes me?!” “Yes, dummy! She couldn’t stop looking at you. Now, relax and enjoy the night, ok?” Zari rolls her eyes. “Why am I only friends with idiots?” “Well, because you like us like that, don’t ya?” Charlie gets up from the table and hugs Zari from behind, and it’s too dark for the blonde to be sure, but Kara could’ve sworn she sees her friend blush just slightly. “Now, booze or weed? Chose.” She asks, looking at the blonde, still holding her friend’s waist. “Oh, no. I don’t…” “Girl, you’re a nervous wreck. You need to relax.” Charlie insists, letting go of Zari to push the bottle in her hand toward Kara. “At least drink a beer. It’ll do you good, I promise.” Kara looks around. Everyone was drinking or smoking. Nia just accepted Jax rainbow bong from Nate (since she still count’s drink), Amaya is clearly baked too, which is a weird mind melt, but she seems as calm and relaxed as ever, and Jax took another sip of his beer. She takes a deep breath before accepting the offer. She doesn’t drink. She had never been drunk in her life. But she can’t afford to put her foot in her mouth when Lena gets here. So, she takes the beer and shrugs it down in one go, too fast for her to even taste. “Hell yeah!” Jax shouts excitedly through a cloud of smoke, reaching for the blonde with his rainbow bong. “Now do this!” But Zari takes it from him before Kara even registers his words. Wow, drinks do make everything cloudy. “You’re not getting her drunk AND high. Are you nuts?” She returns the bong to her friend before turning to Kara again. “How do you feel?” How does she feel? She needs to reflect on that for a few seconds before deciding on a word. “… Floaty.” Yeah. Floaty. That seems right. “Ok. You’re done drinking.” Zari decides as she takes away the second beer Charlie was about to pass on to Kara. “Oh, c’mon!” Charlie protests, and Kara is about to join her (for some reason she can’t quite figure out yet, she feels like that’s the right thing to do), when they get interrupted. “Hey, guys!” An every cheerful Ray comes from the crowd, with his girlfriend in tow and the brunette that has gotten her in this mess. Indirectly. “Hi!” Kara squeaks, looking mostly at Lena. She tries to avoid the brunette noticing, but, judging by the grin on her face, she isn’t exactly successful. But she can’t help it. The tight burgundy suit is making her mind melt. “Hello, Kara.” She answers, never losing her grin. She looks around, for the people she presumably doesn’t know. “Oh. Right.” Zari proceeds to introduce everyone else. “That’s Nate and Jax, Nia, Amaya and you’ve met Charlie.” “Pleasure to meet you all.” The brunette says politely, which could only result in one answer from the boys. “Weed?” Nate asks, offering her the joint. “No, thank you.” She refuses. “I would take a drink, though.” Charlie proceeds to somehow balance 4 different bottles of different shapes and sizes in her hands. “Pick your poison.” She challenges with a smile. Lena goes for the fancy bottle in the punk girl’s right hand. “Whiskey! Brave girl. I like her.” Charlie smiles. “I’ll get you a cup.” Nora and Ray sit down next to Nate as Charlie and Jax disappear to get drinks and glasses for everyone else. As for Lena, she sits next to her. Like, right next to her, which makes her wish Zari hadn’t taken away her drink. It usually makes everyone else brave. Why not her, right? “So, you work for Cat Grant? What’s that like?” The brunette asks casually, with an enigmatic smirk. “Yeah, uh… Hard, I guess?” She responds as she adjusts her glasses. “You guess?” She laughs. Charlie and Jax back with all the drinks, and the brunette takes a whiskey glass and fills it halfway through, before taking a long sip like it’s nothing. Kara takes a beer to not feel left out. If this woman drinks whiskey like that, she has to keep up, right? Zari won’t take her beer again if she’s just trying to keep up. “Yeah, I mean… It’s hard work, she’s cold and exhausting most times, but I learn a lot and I feel like she cares.” She smiles. She likes Cat. She’s probably one of the few people that do. She loves working for her, even if she wants to kill her boss once a week. “Cat Grant cares? Really?” She laughs again, unconvinced. “I thought she only cared for money and power.” “She not like that!” She argues, maybe a bit too loudly, judging by Lena’s arched brow. She takes a long sip and shakes her head before continuing. “She’s… hard and demanding and distant, but she has been teaching me a lot, and she didn’t have to. I’m just an assistant. She could’ve just bossed me around, but that’s not all she does. She lets me into meetings, gives me advices, introduces me to people… she doesn’t really have to do that, you know?” She takes another sip, apprehensively. She still doesn’t like the taste, but it’s starting to feel right. Warm. “Wow.” She laughs. “I can honestly say I’m surprised.” “Because of the conversation you two had?” “Well, yes, part of it.” “She’s a good boss. It’s just hard to get used to it.” She shrugs as she takes another sip. “How did you start working for her anyway?” As they continue talking about the virtues of Cat Grant, school and other mundane topics, Lena keeps taking sips of her whiskey while Charlie continues to slyly push new bottles in front of Kara as she finishes them. After a while, both women end up losing track of time. While her friends keep dancing and shouting and playing dumb drinking games, her focus is solely devoted to two things. One is the gorgeous brunette women in front of her. Every new detail she shares of herself seems to make her cooler and more intriguing. From fencing champion to the MIT, double majors and science innovations she doesn’t understand. She’s even good at gaming! And loves sci-fi too! And N’sync! How can a person be this cool!? Her other focus is beer. That has her attention as well. She doesn’t exactly know when. But after some time, she finds herself having a hard time forming sentences. “And m-my sister could h-help you too.” She suggest when Lens mentions her nano-something cancer research. “She’s gonna b-be a doctor. She’s really smart.” She smiles. Her sister could drink drinks better too. She can definitely drink a lot of drinks. “I bet.” Lena smiles as she takes another sip of what would be her 5th glass without even flinching. How does she drink so much, and it doesn’t do anything? Lena laughs out of nowhere. She has a beautiful laugh. She wants to hear it more. “Why, thank you.” The brunette laughs again. “For what?” Kara asks, confused. Lena looks at her with confused eyes. “Kara, I think you should stop drinking now.” She says, as clearly as she can make it, arching her eyebrows as a small smirk picks up on her lips again. “What? No, why?” She makes her signature puppy pout. “Cause you’re blabbing your inner thoughts, dummy.” Zari interrupts, taking her beer away, much to Kara’s dismay, before turning to Charlie, whose arm wrestling a slightly drunk Jax while holding another bottle of scotch. “And don’t you dare give her another one! Bad enough the damage you done already.” “Oh, c’mon!” The twin protests, still grinning. “It’s not often you get to see her drunk. At least let me have some fun.” “Great.” Zari replies. “When she gets home trashed, I’ll tell Alex it was you.” “Please, don’t.” Charlie immediately begs, as her arm gets slammed into the table, all color draining from her face. Kara can’t blame her. Alex is scary sometimes. Zari rolls her eyes before turning to the blonde, a basket of chips already in her hand. “Ooh, chips!” Kara’s mood immediately lights up. She loves chips.--- Kara’s sudden focus on food only makes her grin wider, and she should school her own face, but she finds herself not really carrying. (She’ll have to unpack the why of that latter). “In case you’re wondering,” Zari tells in a lower voice, and it takes a second for Lena to realize she’s talking to her, “the way to her heart is food.” They both look at Kara, whose attention is now equally split between her beloved chips and the arm wrestle tournament going on on the other side of their table. “Just keep her well fed and you’ll have her forever. It’s what I do.” Lena doesn’t have the time to deny whatever the other woman was insinuating. “Me next!” The blonde suddenly shouts when Nate’s hand smashes Jax’s arm on the table. “Are you…” She starts, trying to grab the girl’s hand, but gets immediately stopped by Zari. “Let her. Nate needs a little humility every now and then. Especially when he’s baked.” The brunette smirks knowingly as she watches Kara wobblingly sitting down where Jax was a few seconds ago. Everyone sets their bets (mostly on Nate) and they get ready. Lena can’t think for the life of her how this will go well for the blonde and yet, when Ray yells out to start, both their arms stand still. Nate quickly loses his smile, as he makes an egregious effort to maintain his arm up. Kara, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to notice the match has begun for the first few seconds. “Oh, right.” Kara nods to herself and, slow and steadily, drives Nate’s arm down, the only signs of effort being the focused expression and the slight crinkle on her forehead. After a couple of minutes, Nate’s arm is flush against the table, and everyone around erupts in cheers and laughter. “How…?” Lena asks Zari. “Well, Nate is not as strong as he thinks he is.” She laughs as she collects her friend’s money. “But Kara has always been strong. Super strong. Don’t know how. Don’t care. It’s just fun to watch.” Of course, the fun immediately stops when Kara throws up on the floor not 2 seconds later. “Oh, boy.” Zari immediately gets up to go help her friend. “Ray, can you get something to clean this up, please? Nate, stop laughing and move your ass.” She orders as she pushes the frat boy looking man away from the damage. “I’m dizzy.” The blonde says, like she’s surprised by the fact, and her eyes close slightly. Ray comes back a minute later with a mop and a water bottle. “There you go.” “Thanks.” She drinks the whole bottle in one go before turning to Lena with a dopey smile. “You’re pretty.” “I love drunk Danvers.” Nate comments between laughs, prompting a slap on the arm from his girlfriend and a heated discussion between Zari and Amaya and Charlie and Nate. “I wanna go home.” The blonde comments factually, not paying one ounce of attention to the commotion around her. “Do you want to walk it off?” Lena asks, getting closer to her. She and the couple had walked there, it wasn’t too far away, and the Greek avenue where they came in was well lit and fully of drunken life. It was a bit dangerous maybe, but she couldn’t force the blonde stay here if she wanted to leave, much less leave her to her own devices. “Walk what off?” She asks, turning to Lena again. “Wow. You’re pretty.” “Ok, c’mon, supergirl. Time for bed.” Zari intervenes, clearly trying her best to not laugh at her friend, and puts herself under the drunk girl’s armpit. “Let’s go.” “Ok. Where we going?” “Jesus.” Lena laughs. Lena walks out with Zari and Nia, who are carrying a very inebriated Kara that can’t walk two steps without striping, and Jax, who decided the night already gave all it had to give. Nora wouldn’t be going home anyway, so she should probably leave accompanied by someone else. She’s casually talking to Jax, who, despite not being exactly well balanced physically, seems to have a fairly coherent speech. “So, you basically found a mentor.” Lena comments after hearing his story. “Yeah, pretty much. Grey felt guilty. I never thought it was his fault, but I lost my scholarship, since I couldn’t play anymore, and he just said ‘I’ll pay for it’. And, not happy with that, he also made sure to help me with a job, apartment and all the notes I’ll ever need as well.” He laughs. She laughs with him. When she first met him, Doctor Stein had seemed like the typical arrogant, indifferent, mediocre college professor. But as she discussed her and Jack’s project with him more and more during that convention weekend, the more intelligent, fascinated and fascinating the man seemed. Overall, definitely one of the most interesting people she ever met, made even more interesting now, by hearing Jax’s speak of him. “I’m fine. I’m fine.” She hears Kara slur to Zari. “Where did she go?” “She’s right there, dumbass.” Zari mocks, pointing to Lena. “Oh! Hey.” She waves at Lena, smiling. “It’s just that she’s really pretty and, and, and cool and, and I don’t want her to run away, you know.” She adds, presumably to the girls carrying her, but way too loud for them to be the only ones hearing it. “Drunk Danvers is the best thing to have happened this week.” Jax chuckles. “Do you think she likes me, Zari?” Kara asks, absently. Her friend turns to Lena, raising an eyebrow. Lena takes a few seconds before answering. The fact that she can’t stop smiling should probably be a good tell of what the answer is, but she’s not sure she’s willing to admit that to strangers. She’s still what’s to be considered “in the closet”. She never exactly hid it, but she doesn’t go out of her way to tell anyone anything, much less something as personal as her sexual orientation. None the less, she decides to take the risk, and nods. “Yeah, she likes you, dummy.” Zari confirms to the blonde, who squeals in delight. “Now, shut up and drink your water.” “M’kay.” She takes a small sip before starts talking again. “Hey, do you think she’ll go out with me?” “Not in this state, no.” Zari laughs, making Lena sigh in relief. She wouldn’t want to be put on the spot again. “Maybe ask her tomorrow, when you’re sober. How about that?” “Yeah, that’s better. You’re smart.” She smiles at Zari, who just rolls her eyes. “You’re never drinking again.” Zari comments, but Kara is not paying any attention. “Do you think she likes karaoke?” She asks, this time turning to Nia. “I don’t know. Maybe you should ask her.” Nia responds between giggles. “Oh God, don’t encourage her.” “I would loooove to sing with her. Ohhh! Or a movie marathon! That would be cool!” She divagates, leaning more and more into the girls. “Ok, Danvers. I’m not walking for you. Stay up. C’mon.” Zari admonishes. “So, you’re interested in our little Danvers, huh?” Jax takes her attention again. “Oh, no, I-“ “It’s ok, don’t worry about it. Just be careful with Alex. She’s been known for being… let’s say protective.” They arrive to Jax’s door, so he leaves with a smirk and a wave, leaving only the girls to go the rest of the way. “Now, here’s the problem.” Zari starts. “I live in that building over there” She points at the pink building across the street, “and I don’t want to get back alone. So, either you can walk yourself home, or imma take over your bed, Danvers.” “I c-can walk.” The blonde affirms confidently, releasing herself from her 2 friends, only to lose her balance not 5 steps later, falling straight to Lena’s arms. “Ups. Sorry.” She smiles dumbly at the brunette. “Hi.” “Hi. How about I give you a hand?” Lena smiles back. “Ok.” She shrugs, and immediately swings her arms around Lena’s shoulders, to the brunette’s surprise. “Smooth, Danvers.” Zari shakers her head, chuckling. She then looks straight at Lena. “When you get home, she’ll wanna take the stairs. Don’t fight her too much on that. If she’s hell bent, it’s not a fight you’ll win.” “I’ve never met a drunk that was a fan of stairs before, but ok.” She laughs in response. “Goodnight.” She waves to the other woman, who waves back as she crosses the street. “Goodnight, Luthor. And good luck with that.” With the help of Nia, they manage to get to their building after about half an hour, between singing in the middle of the street (Nia isn’t really much help there, since not only does she sing with Kara, she also avidly encourages it and makes suggestions, which results in them both singing Disney song all the way to their complex), more drunkenly confessions (including asking Lena what she likes to do on dates), and a very hard time to keep their balance (the girl is freakishly strong for her size). And sure enough, Kara utterly refuses to get into the elevator. “Nuh uh. Nop. Stairs.” She mumbles, half asleep by this point, and takes a sharp turn to the stair’s door, making both Lena and Nia lose their grip on the woman. She falls to her knees not 2 seconds later, giggling all the way down. She drags herself to the wall and lies there, a dopey smile on her face. Lena rolls her eyes. Oh, this is going to be hell. “How do you usually get her home?” She asks Nia, who seems to be enjoying herself way too much. “I don’t know.” She shrugs, laughing. “I’ve only met her a week ago. But this is fun.” Lena can’t help but to roll her eyes. She likes the younger girl, she’s clever and fun, but she’s way too chaotic good to be useless right now. She decides on a closer approach, and crouches before the drunk blonde. “Kara, we have to get you home.” She whispers, extending her hand. “Ok.” She smiles again, and Lena can’t help but to smile back. She gets up with a little help and immediately leans into Lena. “You smell nice.” “But we need to take the elevator, ok?” She says slowly, as they walk away from the stairs. Where they’re going doesn’t seem to fully register in Kara’s mind, but she doesn’t protest, so, a win in Lena’s book. They get in without much of a problem, Kara basically balancing herself on Lena. Nia presses the button, and they go up. And they stop. The door doesn’t open. The lights go out. And next thing Lena knows, Kara is on the floor.