Little!Luthor Reader
One where L!L struggles with an eating disorder, but it had gotten somewhat better after moving in with Lena because Lillian isn’t there to always make fun of her weight. Everything is fine, until someone in game night makes an off handed joke about L!L always eating sweets. It triggers her, and she starts skipping some meals. It’s not so often at first, but then she starts going three days without really eating. Lena gets suspicious, and asks about it, but L!L just brushes it off. Since it’s been so long since she’s really limited her diet, L!L gets lethargic and cranky. One day, while she’s hanging out with Lena at work, L!L, lacking nutrition, passes out. She’s taken to the hospital where the doctors tell Lena based on her blood work she has several nutritional deficiencies, a sign that she hasn’t been eating. Lena talks to L!L about it when she wakes, she won’t talk about it. Lena, trying to make her feel safe, admits she also had an eating problem because of Lillian, which she only got over with the help of friends. L!L finally opens up that point. Lena promises to help L!L through her issue and the night ends in cuddles with Lena getting L!L to enjoy a little ice cream, but also understanding there’s a long road ahead
- requested by @qualitytrashtho
TW for eating disorders
The food at the latest game night was running low, and there were only two cupcakes left. You looked up from them and saw Kara eyeing them from across from you.
You smirked and grabbed them both, licking the frosting off of the first one.
“Y/n/nnnn,” Kara whined.
“I’m just teasing, Kara,” giggling, you handed Kara the untouched cupcake so she could have it.
Kara took it with a toothy grin and chuckled, “Thanks, you’ve been stealing all the sweets tonight, kiddo, you’ve gotta leave some for me.”
“Oh, um - sorry, if you want i can take the frosting off and you can have the rest of my cupcake,” You said almost immediately, suddenly, you didn’t want the cupcake anymore.
“You’re all good, Y/n/n,” Kara smiled and winked at you, taking a big bite of her cupcake.
“No, I’m serious I actually don’t want it anymore, I think the sugar is giving me a stomach ache,” You shook your head and held the cupcake out for Kara to take.
“Okay,” She said hesitantly, taking your cupcake, “Thanks for the cupcakes, squirt.”
“Sure thing, Kara,” You nodded and sighed when she turned around to go back to the couch.
—
The next morning you opted out on eating breakfast, not wanting to worry Lena, you just told her that you weren’t in the mood and that you would just have a big lunch.
After a few weeks you’d gotten into a habit of not having breakfast at all.
The first week was just two days, but soon you’d cut out breakfast altogether.
Lena was pretty surprised and kind of confused because you loved breakfast, especially when she made you her infamous toast (it doesn’t sound like much, but she has this way of making it taste so good). She didn’t want to nag or bother you, so she just let it go, still offering to make you something, or even just give you a granola bar to snack on at least.
It wasn’t hard to start limiting the amount you ate during lunches and dinners, Lena was always focused on work, and when you did eat lunch together, you always finished last anyway, Lena would get caught up in whatever she’d be talking about and wouldn’t even notice how little you ate.
After a few days of eating just a few small snacks throughout the day, Lena decided to ask you about it. Her concern had grown a lot since you stopped eating breakfast. She took the chance to try talking to you while the two of you were watching TV and a commercial came on, “Hey, Y/n/n, you haven’t been eating that much lately, what’s that about?”
“It’s nothing, I guess I just haven’t been that hungry,” You shrugged and got up, “I’ll go make some popcorn.” That seemed to be the easiest way to end the conversation and get rid of Lena’s concern for the moment, as long as you just ate a little of the popcorn.
—
The next day you ate lunch with Lena at work, taking a break from your homework to do so. When Lena looked up from her work, she saw you sitting on the couch quietly, playing with the sleeve of your sweater.
“Y/n, you look a little pale sweetheart, are you okay?” Lena asked, getting up from her desk to sit beside you.
“I’m fine, just tired,” You said, trying to end the conversation as quickly as possible.
Lena just looked at you for a second before nodding and standing up to get the food, “Can you grab us waters from the mini fridge, please?”
“Yeah,” You rolled your eyes, feeling grumpy as hell, but got up anyway and opened the fridge to get two bottles of water, kneeling down to see what you were grabbing.
You felt lightheaded as it was, but it got worse when you stood up from the fridge.
Your legs gave out and you fell to the ground, dropping the waters.
“Y/n?” Lena went wide eyed when you collapsed and hurried to your side.
—
You woke up in the hospital a few blocks away from L-Corp. You could feel Lena’s head resting in your lap and her hand in your own. It only took a few moments for you to become aware of the uncomfortable IV in one of your arms, making you groan softly.
Lena lifted her head when she heard you and she seemed to relax when she saw you awake, “Thank god, Y/n, you scared me so bad.”
“I’m sorry,” you said, looking away from her face to avoid feeling guiltier.
“No, don’t be sorry honey, just - why hadn’t you been eating?” Lena asked softly, like she was nervous to hear your answer.
“It wasn’t really anything, Lena, I’ll eat more,” You squeezed Lena’s hand gently, looking up for a moment and feeling another wave of guilt when you saw her expression.
“I know living with Lillian was really hard, Y/n/n. She is undoubtedly the worst mother there is to have. I didn’t know it when I was living with her, but a little while after I moved out of the Luthor manor, I’d realized that because of Lillian I developed an eating disorder,” Lena sighed softly and looked up at you, chewing on the inside of her lip. “It lasted a really long time, I’ll be honest, but I was able to get over it with the help of our friends. And I think if this sounds somewhat like what you’re feeling now, I promise to help you for as long as you need me to.”
You looked at Lena gratefully, “Thank you, that means a lot to me.”
Lena smiled and nodded a bit, “You ready to go home?”
“Oh yeah, I wanna get out of here,” You chuckled.
—
By the end of the night you and Lena were in her bed watching Guardians of the Galaxy (she let you pick the movie) and eating ice cream. You guys were using the fluffiest blanket in the apartment and you were tucked into Lena’s side the whole movie.
