Chapter Text
Kara Danvers studied herself in the mirror of the Kent-Lane household’s guest bedroom and frowned at what she saw. She’d come to Metropolis for the summer where she’d felt distinctly out of place right away and now, she was about to start a new job.
This would be her first job not counting working on the Kent Farm in the summers, well not really a job, but an internship. To be specific, it was a summer internship at LexCorp thanks to her cousin Clark’s connections to the Luthor family going back years. But regardless of the slight nepotism at play, she had a burning passion for science and technology, and this could be her ticket into that field.
Having already spent the warm and sunny spring at the Kent farm like she did every year, she sported a ruddy farmer's tan which she hated because it made the freckles on her shoulders and arms stand out. Running her rough fingers through her unruly blonde mop of hair she sighed.
At nineteen, almost twenty, she knew she wasn’t like the other girls in Midvale or Smallville, but what she was exactly she didn’t know yet. The whole power to crush a lump of coal into a diamond using only her fist thing wasn’t helping her figure that out either.
Wearing only a tight white tank top and boxers she looked over her pile of clothes on the bed. A dress wouldn’t do, in fact, she hated dresses, but that left her only a white dress shirt and her best pair of jeans with sneakers. Alex would tell her to wear the blue dress to keep up appearances, Martha, and Eliza too because it looked pretty, but Metropolis wasn’t Midvale or Kansas, no this city was her chance to be herself at long last.
Pulling the shirt on without a bra on felt good, right almost in some strange way, and buttoning it up, she smiled at the reflection in the mirror. It showed off her broad shoulders and narrow waist and somehow made her feel at peace with herself.
Pulling her unruly blonde hair into a tight ponytail she put her glasses on and studied her reflection again. She knew that she was tall and strongly built, just like her aunt Astra had been back on Krypton, but whereas that wouldn’t have mattered back on the planet of her birth, on Earth, it labeled her as a weirdo and a freak. Shaking off those feelings she practiced her introduction.
“Kara Danvers, at your service,” she said, forgoing her usual cheerful tone of voice for one that was firm and strong and emanated from deep within her chest.
Slipping into the jeans she tucked in the shirt and pulled on a thick leather belt to complete the look. Sitting down she laced up her best pair of sneakers and debated leaving the glasses off for today, but in the end, those old fears won out and so the glasses stayed.
A knock at her bedroom door made her stand up straight with one shoe unlaced when her cousin’s longtime fiancée poked her head in. Lois Lane was everything she was not, petite, feminine, and totally in charge no matter what the situation. Her dark-haired and violet-eyed honorary aunt smiled at her and was holding a brown paper lunch bag in one hand and car keys in the other.
“Hey farmgirl, are you ready for your big day?” Lois asked and she nodded while relaxing her stance somewhat at seeing the reporter dressed in a smart black pantsuit with heels, she could never pull off nor did she want to.
“Yep, ready and able!” she said cheerfully as her cousin’s wife-to-be gave her the once over with the trained eyes of a seasoned investigative reporter.
“I love the shirt, very bold statement there although we do need to get you a better pair of shoes,” Lois commented sweetly following the inspection and smiled putting the brown paper bag down on the dresser.
“Well, you know us farmgirls, all we need is a pair of boots to ride in and good sneakers to run in,” she laughed and rubbed the toe of her sneaker against the back of her leg to polish it.
Even though she’d spent winters with the Danvers family and summers at the Kent farm she strongly identified as a farmgirl, she loved the open space, the sunshine, and the hard work and it showed in her strong arms and ruddy face.
“Well sunshine, you’re in the big city now and I’ll take you shopping as soon as I can. Oh, and I made you lunch. I know how you El’s like to eat,” the reporter said, sounding a bit nervous, almost like she was about to give her some bad news, but she gave the woman a smile.
“Clark busy again?” she asked, and she wasn’t even upset about it, her cousin was Superman, after all, the Man of Steel and thus perpetually busy.
“Emergency on the Moon or something, but don’t worry I’ll gladly give you a lift,” the reporter offered and gave her an understanding smile. Being Superman’s cousin hadn’t been the easiest way to grow up but Kal had always tried to be there for her with summers spent together on the Kent farm and now letting her stay the summer in Metropolis.
“I’d like that, and you really think this outfit is okay?” she asked and now she felt self-conscious about her attire. Maybe the blue dress was the right choice?
“Kara, you’re a strong and beautiful young person, no matter what you wear, but you could use one more thing. Stay put!” the reporter told her firmly before darting to the master bedroom and returning with a red tie.
“Here, if you’re going to wear a man’s shirt you should wear a tie,” Lois said and put the tie around her neck. Eliza nor Martha had realized it was a man’s shirt when she had bought it along with the blue dress, but of course, Lois Lane, intrepid investigative reporter, spotted it right away.
“I… thank you… but I don’t know how to tie it,” she stammered looking at the red silk tie around her neck and the reporter chuckled.
“Neither did Clark when I met him, he used to wear clip-on ties! Here let me show you, I know a great trick to do it,” the reporter said, and she nodded while bending down so she was at the same level as the shorter woman.
“Once around the tree, the fox chased the rabbit;” Lois sang as she started making the knot and she found herself fighting back a laugh.
“Twice around the tree they ran,” the reporter went on as she tried to watch and memorize the movements.
“The rabbit scooted under a bush, away from the fox and the little rabbit got away!” Lois then giggled sensing her barely suppressed mirth and she let out a peal of laughter.
“And dived right into the safety of his cool and dark hole,” the reporter finished by tightening the knot of the tie and straightening it while smiling up at her.
“There, now you look ready to take on the world,” the reporter declared as she looked at herself in the mirror. The tie really did make her look different and completed the look perfectly, now if only she had a blazer.
“Thank you, but I’m still nervous, I just don’t want to mess this up you know,” she admitted and squared her shoulders after rising back up to her full height.
“You won’t, Clark and I have so much faith in you and I know that Alex does too,” Lois said softly and fixed the front of her shirt and tie again in an almost motherly fashion.
“So, I guess I’m ready?” she asked while eyeing the brown paper bag on her dresser and she could smell salami on rye.
“You’re more than ready, you’re going to knock them dead!” the reporter told her, and she felt herself almost believing that.
“I’m not so sure that I’m going to knock anyone dead,” she muttered with her self-doubts creeping into her voice yet again.
“Oh, you can do better than that Danvers, let me hear some of that Kansas-strength,” Lois laughed and slapped her on the arm.
“I’m going to knock them dead!” she declared but her voice was still shaking but she laughed as she felt a rush of relief.
“I can’t hear you soldier!” the reporter and the daughter of an army officer exclaimed in her best drill sergeant voice.
“I’m going to knock them dead!?” she shouted and punched the air with gusto now laughing and feeling much better about all of this.
“There is the girl I know, now come on you don’t want to be late for your first day,” Lois said and put an arm around her shoulders.
“Again, thank you, but you don’t have to be so nice to me,” she said shyly because she felt very small right then, but the reporter laughed.
“Kara… you are family and probably the closest to a daughter I’ll ever…” the reporter said and then stopped before finishing that thought while looking dejected and a little bit embarrassed.
“No, it’s okay,” she assured the woman who would one day be Clark’s wife. One could never have too many moms was her way of looking at things.
“It’s just that having you around is what I imagine it will be like if Clark and I have children one day,” Lois finished, and she gave the petite reporter a hug.
“Hey, it’s okay, you two will figure it out one day and I’ll even help,” she said softly, and the woman gave her a grateful smile.
“Sorry… I didn’t want to put my toe over some imaginary line,” the reporter apologized softly and sniffled with her violet eyes glistening with unshed tears.
“You didn’t, now how about that ride to LexCorp?” she asked to change the subject and reached out to snatch the brown paper bag from the top of the dresser as the petite woman nodded. Lois probably understood her better than the rest of her extended family thanks to her background and she was very grateful for having the reporter in her life.
Arriving at the towering and glistening chromic skyscraper that was the LexCorp building in the middle of Metropolis she gulped in the front seat of the car and fiddled with her glasses as Lois gave her a reassuring smile. Clutching her brown lunch bag close to her chest she gave herself a few internal you can do this Zor-El’s along with a hearty bitch up Danvers!
“Remember, knock them dead!” the reporter told her with her usual spunk, and she gave a nervous smile, feeling very silly in her shirt and tie now.
“I will text you at lunch?” she asked as a part of her wanted to slam the passenger door shut, hyperventilate, and shout for Lois to just drive. But her bravery won out in the end.
“Text me if you need anything Farmgirl,” Lois said, giving her shoulder a reassuring squeeze and she got out of the car as people in suits and skirts filed past her in the morning rush hour. Again, making her feel very much out of place here.
With Lois driving off she was left all by herself and walking slowly into the building she headed for the reception desk. Standing up straighter because she felt kind of small among all these sharp-dressed people, but she flashed the girl who was polishing her nails behind the reception desk a quick smile.
“Hi, I’m Kara Danvers and I’m here for the internship introduction session,” she said formally and held out her phone with the email on the screen to show the blonde girl behind the desk that she was really supposed to be here.
“Take the elevator to the fifth floor and… oh hello there,” the receptionist, who was admittedly very pretty, said sounding very bored before she looked up at which the tone of her voice changed to something akin to flirty, or so she thought. She really was very bad at the whole flirting stuff or talking to pretty girls stuff or boys for that matter.
“Umm, hello,” she said and again felt very self-conscious. Why was the girl looking at her like that? She was nothing special and truth be told any attention usually made her nervous.
“Fifth floor, down the hall and it’s in the Blue meeting room. Now, do you need anything else hun?” the blonde receptionist asked, now being very helpful and looking at her like she was a snack.
“Nope! That’s all! thank you... miss,” she blurted out nervously while being polite like both the Danvers and the Kents had taught her to be.
“Well please come back if there is anything you need,” the girl drawled and winked at her and she felt herself starting to blush as she beat a hasty retreat for the elevators. What the frick had just happened?
Finding the elusive Blue meeting room after a few false starts and one interrupted meeting of a group of very annoyed looking people, she found that she was the last to arrive. Quietly she took her place among the other interns who were all talking among themselves and flat out ignoring her as she said her sorries as she made her way to the back of the packed meeting room.
Fixing her glasses, then her ponytail and making sure the buttons of her white shirt were done up right before hiding her brown lunch bag behind her back, she looked around at the other interns waiting for the orientation to start.
Most of her fellow interns were handsome guys in suits or preppy looking girls in designer outfits and she felt deeply out of place in her only good shirt, new jeans and her best pair of sneakers while wearing a red tie borrowed from her cousin. Also, truth be told, quite frankly they all looked boring.
Before she could study them further, the doors to the meeting room swung open and looking down the line she was at the end of, she saw a pale-skinned girl with sparkling green eyes and raven-black hair blow into the room like a tornado of sass and personality.
“Oh, joy, a gaggle of suited idiots for me to shepherd this summer, oh well, listen up! For those of you who don’t know already, I’m Lena Luthor and for the next three months I am in charge of your lives, any questions?” the raven-haired girl wearing a jade blouse that showed plenty of ample cleavage, and tight black jeans declared.
Failing to rein in her wandering eyes she also noticed the scarily high black heels the girl wore and thought about how without them she’d tower over this very bossy girl. But also, something clicked in her brain at the sight of this girl who looked to be about her own age.
With her brain bits a bit overwhelmed, it was hard to tell the girl’s exact age though and what it was that had clicked in her head she wasn’t sure of yet, but all she knew in that moment was that she couldn’t stop staring at that pale and regal face with its sharp jawline. The girl walked down the line of interns asking various questions of them as she moved ever closer until those sparkling green eyes met hers.
“And you, what’s your name?” the bossy girl asked, no she demanded it from her, with a pale hand sporting several rings resting on a curvy hip, but all she could do was watch those ruby red lips move which was better than looking at the silver and emerald stone necklace resting between the girl’s breasts.
“Kara… uh ma’am, Kara Danvers, ma'am, at your service,” she squeaked, sounding nothing like she’d practiced and stuck out her hand which the raven-haired girl regarded with amusement before taking it.
“Polite, I like it, and maybe this summer isn’t a total loss after all,” the girl laughed in a rich voice that was like audible chocolate to her ears and all she could think about was how soft the girl’s hand was compared to her rough farm work calloused bear’s paw-like mitten of a hand. Lena Luthor was clearly everything she was not, and it fueled innate fears of being inadequate.
“I’m just here to try my very best ma’am,” she said earnestly and that made a few of the stuffed suits in the room chuckle, but Lena Luthor didn’t laugh.
“You’re earnest, I like that too,” the shorter girl said firmly and that stopped the chuckling in the room for which she was grateful.
“You should all be getting emails with your assignments right about now, but you Miss Danvers, you’re coming with me,” the raven-haired girl declared to the room and right on cue every phone in the room vibrated except hers.
“What are you waiting for people, move, move!” the girl then shouted when the suited interns didn’t move fast enough for her liking and that sent the stuffed suits scattering to their assigned tasks leaving her alone with the green-eyed girl.
“What… what is my assignment ma’am?” she asked and managed to keep her eyes focused on a point just above the girl’s head as she stood straight with her arms behind her back. It was just that she’d never seen anyone like this girl before and maybe she was going to tell her that there had been a mistake and that she didn't belong here?
“At ease Danvers, I’m curious that’s all and then I’ll send you off on your assignment,” the girl laughed sweetly while clearly sensing her discomfort and that made her relax somewhat.
“Sorry ma’am,” she said and flexed her fingers nervously around the brown paper bag while wondering what was going on with her brain today.
“Why are you here?” the girl who would be in charge of her for the next few months asked out of the blue while studying her face and she could see a sharp mind at work behind those green eyes.
“Well it’s kinda embarrassing…” she admitted and fought back a blush as she scratched the back of her neck.
“Don’t be embarrassed, I want to hear it, so go on give me some more of that refreshing earnest speak-your-mind attitude that you got there,” the girl laughed again and she took a breath before giving her answer.
“I want to study engineering or physics or both! I want to build things that make the world a better place and solve problems that haven’t even been thought of yet, but short term I really want this internship because it would help me get into a good school like MIT or Metropolis Tech,” she blurted out and that made the girl smile at her to which she smiled back nervously.
“You know what, I think you and I are going to get along just fine,” the girl said and motioned for her to follow.
“Thank you, ma’am, I mean Miss Luthor, or do you prefer ma’am?” she asked, still feeling a bit unsure of herself and followed the pale-skinned girl out of the meeting room.
“Miss Luthor will do and I’m afraid your first task isn’t that glamorous, but it is important.” the pale-skinned girl said while sounding a little bit apologetic as they headed for the elevator.
“I’m ready to start at the bottom, hard work is what my family has always taught me,” she said and that earned her another one of those mysterious smiles.
“Oh, you’re definitely like no other intern we have this year,” the girl commented ruefully, and the elevator took them down to the building’s sub-basement.
“Thank you... I think,” she replied when the doors opened with a ding and they were greeted by a long dimly lit corridor.
“This isn’t the dungeon is it?” she asked, and Miss Luthor shook her head with a grin but on the inside, she was trying not to panic because this place was a tiny bit claustrophobic.
“No don’t be silly that’s two floors down. This is where we store our patents, contracts, internal communications, research notes, you name it, if it’s on paper it’s down here,” Miss Luthor explained and led her to a door marked only with the number forty-two.
“I got a suspicion where this is going,” she whispered when the door swung open revealing a massive room filled wall to wall with shelves full of filing boxes.
“I know this doesn’t seem important, but this is the heart of LexCorp, sure it’s not getting coffee or being bossed around by a VP or an executive, but trust me when I say this is important work,” the pale-skinned girl explained and there was an earnest tone to her voice that she believed and appreciated.
“Yes ma’am, sorry, Miss Luthor,” she apologized again and fixed her tie looking at the mountain of boxes that awaited her while trying not to crush the brown paper bag in her hand.
“Here, I’ll give you the rundown on what you need to do,” Miss Luthor said and stepped into the room which felt bigger on the inside somehow than the tiny door would indicate.
Watching the shorter girl pull a box from one of the shelves and place it on a desk next to a computer and a scanner that had seen better days. She did a quick count of the boxes. At human speeds, this would take a month, but she could do it in a week she reckoned if she did a bit of Kryptonian cheating.
“Your job is to scan these in, make sure they’re correctly entered into our databases and then file them back into the box with this stamp,” the pale-skinned girl explained showing her the steps with graceful pale hands and never had tedious filing work sounded as good for some reason.
“Understood,” she nodded while already sneakily planning to cheat more than a little bit on this task.
“You got a phone?” the pale-skinned girl then asked suddenly, and she nodded while pulling her beat-up cell phone from her pocket.
“Great, can I have it so I can give you my number?” the perplexing girl asked next and she unlocked it and handed it over without hesitation.
“Cute girl, is she your girlfriend?” the pale-skinned girl then quizzed her with a raised eyebrow seeing the background picture showing her and Alex from the last time her sister had been home from her post-grad studies and she blushed furiously.
“No, no, no, that’s my adoptive sister, Alex, I don’t have a girlfriend or a boyfriend or anyone really,” she blurted out and watched as pale fingers entered the girl’s digits into her phone.
“Well, this is my number, if you have questions or run into any problems, call me,” the girl said while politely not pressing on the subject of her lack of a dating life and handed her back the phone where a new number had been saved under the heading of LL.
“Thank you, if that’s all I won’t keep you longer, as I’m sure you’re very busy,” she nodded back politely and sat down behind the desk with a smile while placing her brown lunch bag neatly next to the keyboard.
“Like you wouldn’t believe, but call me if there is anything,” the pale-skinned girl laughed and headed for the door before turning around suddenly which made her jump slightly.
“And I like the tie, very bold, but maybe invest in some better shoes and a blazer and we do have a cafeteria you know,” the girl with those sparkling green eyes suggested with a smile and all she could do was nod before she was all by herself again with only the humming fluorescent light above her head for company.
It wasn’t glamorous, but it was a start and she believed Lena Luthor when she said that this was important work, so booting up the computer she started speed reading each piece of paper that emerged from the box before scanning it into the system. The hours actually went by fairly fast once she got into the rhythm of her work. Read, scan, enter, stamp, and file. Rinse and repeat.
It was past five in the afternoon when she dragged herself back outside into the sunshine and saw Lois waving at her from the car. Her borrowed tie now hung loosely around her neck with the top buttons of her shirt undone and her shoulders hurt a little bit but she’d gotten through a staggering amount of files on her first day which gave her a small sense of pride. Still, she was glad to be under the open air once again and she slipped into the passenger seat while buckling her seatbelt.
“How did it go?” Lois asked and she noticed that there was still no sign of Clark anywhere, but she was used to that by now.
“Good… I think, but the girl in charge of the interns is… strange,” she said diplomatically as she’d not quite figured out Lena Luthor yet. Granted they’d only spoken for a few minutes, but the girl was like nobody else she’d ever encountered on Earth or on Krypton.
“Who is she?” the reporter asked as they drove through the congested streets back to the Kent-Lane household as she hunched over her phone checking her messages for the first time all day because the sub-basement got almost no reception.
“Lena Luthor,” she muttered and texted back to Alex’s message asking how her first day had gone. Her adoptive sister was spending the summer as part of some government program that all sounded very hush-hush.
“The kid-sister herself, didn’t know that she was taking an active hand in the company,” Lois commented dryly and that made her look up from her phone.
“What do you mean? She seemed to be totally capable,” she blurted out in defense of the pale-skinned girl she’d barely exchanged more than a few words with. But she had a habit of defending people that seemed good and honest.
“According to Cat Grant and I can’t believe I’m quoting the Planet’s gossip columnist here; she’s a bit of a wild child that’s all,” the reporter filled her in and it did make sense, the no-nonsense attitude, the jewelry, the cleavage flaunting blouse and tight jeans.
“I wouldn’t know about that…. but she was very nice to me at least and even liked the tie,” she said with a smile and held up the untied red tie like a trophy.
“That’s good, so what do they have you doing there?” the reporter asked as they waited at a red light.
“Filing mostly, I was reading through all these patents and did you know that they’re working on all these medical advances?” she asked and she’d been fascinated by some of the patents she’d scanned and filed today.
“Mostly Lex likes to focus on electronics and software, but it doesn’t surprise me that they’re working on other things,” Lois replied, and she suspected something more was behind that statement.
“LexCorp isn’t like doing shady stuff is it? I mean Clark has known Lex for a long time, right?” she asked as her curiosity got the better of her. From how she understood it, the relationship between Clark and Lex Luthor was a weird sort of a quasi-friendship even though the two men had very different backgrounds while Superman and Lex occasionally worked together.
“Clark, he trusts people, but me not so much,” the reporter replied but before she could press the woman on the topic the ground shook slightly.
“What was that?” she asked and resisted the urge to use her X-ray or telescopic vision to check. Years of being conditioned not to expose herself needlessly kicked in hard too.
“Probably your cousin, come on,” Lois replied with a rueful sigh and pulled the car to the side of the road before retrieving a camera from the glove compartment.
“Where are we going?” she asked but followed the woman out of the car as they ran down the street as another tremor shook the ground.
“To hopefully get tomorrow's front page,” the reporter explained as they rounded the corner and right on cue, there was Clark, Kal-El, Superman, fighting a lumbering mechanical monstrosity with a grin on his face.
Feeling a pang of jealousy, she watched as her cousin traded blows with the nearly nine feet tall robot while decked out in a blue suit and a red cape with the crest of the House of El displayed proudly on his chest. From the looks of the robot, it was one of the Toymaker’s creations and she knew that because at home she had a scrapbook full of Kal’s exploits under her bed. The mechanical monstrosity sparked and creaked as it exchanged blows with the Man of Steel and she balled her hands into fists so her knuckles turned white because a part of her wanted to wade into the fray and help her cousin.
As she’d gotten older, she’d started questioning the need to keep her powers hidden, but both Kal and the Danvers insisted that she wasn’t old enough yet and that the world already had a Superman. Meaning that she could have a normal life, but nobody had asked her if that was what she wanted.
While she fought the urge to join the fray, in the end, it didn’t matter since the fight was rather one-sided and over quickly. Lois did get her scoop and Kal even winked at them during the middle of it while he was engaged in a test of strength with the towering mechanical rock’em and sock’em robot. What followed was a blast of heat-vision, a puff of freeze-breath and the partly destroyed robot was delivered to the authorities.
“Hey, are you okay? You looked to be pretty far away back there,” Lois asked her while looking through the photos on the camera when they were back in the car and she hadn’t said a word.
“Yeah just tired that’s all,” she lied, she hated lying, but it was better than admitting her jealousy at being unable to fight evil like Kal did.
“Let’s get you home then, Clark should be back home soon as well and I’ll have him pick up Chinese,” the reporter nodded either believing her little white lie or letting it slide.
After dinner and a family movie night, which had been pleasant, she found herself back in the small guest bedroom and again looking at herself in the mirror. The white shirt hanging off the back of a chair along with the borrowed tie. Flexing her arms, she studied the outlines of her muscles and squeezed her fists together tightly. She knew she was strong, heck last summer she had taken down a stampeding bull using only her hands and although she couldn't quite fly, yet, she could jump long distances and understood the basics. But all that had to be kept hidden, for reasons that no longer held the same strength of convictions as they once had.
Pulling her blonde hair above her head she pretended to cut it off with her fingers, imagining it short and spiky and that made her smile, but then she dropped it down again and shook her head. One day maybe, one day, but not today. Discarding her tank top, she crawled into bed in only her boxers she tried to sleep but her ears kept picking up random sounds from miles away. Tossing and turning she pulled the pillow over her head and finally was able to fall asleep. This had been a long day and tomorrow would probably be the same, but at least she would get to talk to Lena Luthor a bit more, she hoped.