tagged by @sideguitars to post a random wip snippet - thank you for the tag!
Continuing with sideguitars' theme and in honour of rojascorp day (because it may not be the same day anymore, but only on this planet. On Venus a day lasts 243 Earth days, so who's to say how long this one can continue for?) here is the rojascorp-i-est snippet currently in my WIP folder.
(is it going to be rojascorp? Is it actually supercorp? idk, endgame undisclosed so interpret it how you like I guess? Either way Kara is not having a good day 😔)
(also fair warning it's more of a whole scene than a snippet, but since there's a chance the longer fic it's part of will never make it to completion, I'm posting it anyway).
-------
Kara watched from her lowly corner of the bullpen, arms folded tight across her chest to avoid inadvertently breaking yet another keyboard, while her boss and her former best friend hugged goodbye.
It was an unnecessarily long hug (seriously, they had just spent an hour and a half together and had made plans to meet again for drinks that very weekend, a 27 second goodbye hug was just excessive), but eventually they broke apart, and with a final press of Andrea’s lips to the delicate pink of Lena’s cheek (was she blushing, or just wearing a touch of blush?), Lena stepped into the elevator.
The doors had closed behind her and Kara was just daring to ease the death-grip she’d been maintaining on her own biceps throughout the little scene, when Andrea turned back to face the office. The soft expression she had had for Lena was entirely gone now, and instead her features wore the kind of resolve that suggested she’d heard a rumour about the Superfriends’ favourite ice cream flavours and was determined to beat everyone else to the scoop as she made a beeline for Kara’s desk.
‘A word in my office please, Ms Danvers.’
Kara scowled as she got to her feet, though she couldn’t help casting a furtive, guilty glance towards her already-behind-schedule article, the cursor blinking accusingly from the exact same place on the page it had been at the start of Lena and Andrea’s extra long “working lunch” (a working lunch that had – Kara couldn’t help overhearing – involved spending a good half of it or more reminiscing about old boarding school hijinks without so much as a word of actual business talk exchanged).
She was so busy taking in the empty boxes of (extremely high end) take out sushi still scattered across the table that it was a moment before she realised there was something… off about this meeting.
Instead of delivering a few clipped words of command followed by a prompt dismissal the way she usually would, Andrea’s stern expression had melted into a genuine-seeming sympathetic smile as she leaned back against her (Cat’s) desk, fingers tapping what would to anyone else have been a near-inaudible tattoo against its edge.
‘Do you know why I asked you here today, Kara?’
‘Because my article is late?’ Kara suggested, trying to head off trouble before it could begin. ‘I know I said this morning, but I’m nearly done, I just need-’
‘It’s not the article – although since you’ve been nearly done since I first asked how you were getting on at 10am I did think you’d have it ready for my review by now – but no. I called you in here because I have an assignment for you. It’s an important one, and I need you to try to see it as an opportunity to learn, and do your best to make the most of it. Do you think you can do that?’
Kara perked up at once. A new assignment, especially an important one with learning opportunities, would actually be exactly what she needed to distract herself from-
Well, from everything else that was going on in her life at the moment.
‘Of course I can! What do you want me to do?’
Andrea sighed, and though her expression remained unchanged, the tempo of her finger-tapping increased from a steady 90bpm to a more frenetic 180.
‘I’ve arranged for you to attend a seminar next week on appropriate workplace conduct, with particular regards to sexual harassment.’
‘You- I- what-?’ Kara stammered, so completely taken aback that if it had been a physical possibility for her, she would have been convinced she had misheard.
‘Andrea, I haven’t harassed anyone!’
‘You didn’t intend to do it, I understand that, but intentions and outcome are not the same thing. It’s standard in every case of reported sexual harassment, no matter how mild you might have considered your actions to be, for the employee in question to attend a seminar. It’s a way for us to make sure that everyone who works here – and their guests – can enjoy a safe, mutually respectful environment. I’m sure that’s what you want too, isn’t it?’
Kara shook her head slowly – not to deny the overall point (because yeah, obviously she agreed that no one should be sexually harassed at work, she wasn’t a monster), but because the idea of applying it to her of all people made no sense. She was super respectful. She was like, the most respectful. If Catco held a contest for the person least likely to sexually harass someone, it would be a tie between Kara Danvers and that guy from finance whose species reproduced asexually and didn’t even have a concept of sexual attraction, let alone actual-
Anyway, the point was, she would never.
She put her hands on her hips and glared back at her boss, chin jutting in defiance.
‘Who reported me? Because I can guarantee that they’re either lying, or mistaken.’
‘Is that right?’ Andrea cocked an eyebrow (though without the impressive level of control and finesse that Lena could manage with the same gesture, Kara couldn’t help noticing).
‘Then explain to me why, earlier today, I personally witnessed you barge uninvited into a closed office where I was having lunch with a guest, and try to pressure her into going into the stairwell with you?’
Wait.
What?
‘You mean Lena?’ Kara sputtered, ‘I just asked to talk to her! Since when is that sexual harassment?’
‘I would say demanded, more than asked, but regardless of the semantics, you then refused to take no for an answer, refused to leave when asked, and stated your intention to continue your advances in future, no matter how unwelcome they might be.’ Andrea said, ticking off each point on her fingers. ‘If you can’t see that that’s inappropriate, it just goes to prove my point about how sorely needed this intervention is.’
For a full 10 seconds after that, Kara didn’t dare do anything but hold herself rigidly controlled, every ounce of her attention focused on not breaking anything (or anyone, with particular reference to Andrea Rojas, who although no longer smiling, was still gazing at Kara with a sickeningly sympathetic look, like she was looking down on her from her comfy position as Lena’s new best friend, and she pitied her). She closed her eyes against the suspiciously kiss-shaped faint red smudge marking the otherwise perfectly porcelain skin of Andrea’s cheekbone, and just breathed.
In.
Out.
In.
Out.
In-
‘Lena is my best friend.’ She tried again, sounding impressively calm to her own ears despite the fact that just below the surface her blood was still boiling like an active volcano on the brink of eruption.
‘I know she’s mad at me right now, and okay, maybe I should have listened when she said she didn’t want to talk, but I wasn’t harassing her. She knows I would never, ever hurt her.’
As soon as the words came out of her own mouth they hit Kara like a truck to the chest, and it was all she could do not to flinch away from them. Because who was she kidding? Of course she had hurt Lena.
She had hurt her so badly that the two of them had been shattering and re-shattering the shards of each other’s hearts ever since, and just a few days ago when Lena had offered her a way to make things right (a terrible way that would never work and would probably make everything a whole lot worse for the entire world when things inevitably went wrong, but a way, all the same), she had had to hurt her all over again.
Claiming that she never had – that she never would – was the grossest of injustices to all the pain they had both been enduring ever since Lex’s death.
But still, it hadn’t been like that.
It had never been like that.
‘Did she really report me?’ Kara asked at last, the question wobbling more than she would have liked in the face of Andrea’s apparently boundless composure.
‘No,’ Andrea admitted. ‘Actually, I reported you. What I witnessed this afternoon made it clear to me that you need some training on appropriate boundaries and consent, so I thought it best for us to nip this in the bud now, before anything more serious happens.’
Kara let out an exhale that was half relieved sigh that it hadn’t been Lena after all, half frustrated growl that they were here in the first place, and just barely resisted the urge to stamp her foot. Now that she knew the complaint hadn’t come from Lena, this whole situation was back to being plain annoying. And stupid. And just- GAAAH.
‘Andrea, this is ridiculous!’ she exploded. ‘You know it wasn’t like that, you’re taking everything out of context!’
‘No means no, Kara, no matter what the context. That’s something you’ll learn in your seminar on Tuesday.’
‘I am not going to a seminar!’
‘It’s not optional. Either you attend, take what you learn on board, and you can put this behind you without a black mark on your record, or you don’t, and this will escalate to a disciplinary. It’s up to you which you choose, but I take harassment in my company very seriously, and I would suggest you accept the option I’m giving you to resolve things informally.’
‘But-’
‘That will be all, thank you Ms Danvers.’
With that Andrea pivoted to seat herself behind her desk, her fingers beginning a rapid tapping at the keyboard so immediately that Kara suspected she was just typing nonsense to make the point that she should leave now.
After another long, furious moment she did, ears already straining to pick up even the barest hint of trouble out in the city.
She needed something to punch.
no pressure tags: @fazedlight, @theredcapeofk, @cynicalrainbows, @kj-yikes
I've tagged people I know probably have wips, but if you want to play and I haven't tagged you, please join in and tag me, I'd love to see your snippets!
Hi hello Way! I thought it was a really interesting question so I thought I'd ask you the same if it sparks joy!
Do you have any fun holiday headcanons for [character/ship of your choice]?
Hi! I'm going to be really boring I'm afraid, because I don't think I DO actually.
... No wait, that's a rubbish answer, I'll come up with something.
Hm.
Okay here's one:
Lena observes the 12 grapes new years tradition, having had it ingrained in her by Andrea to such a degree that it feels WRONG not to do it even when she spends new year's eve alone in her office.
Also when they were young and in a state of mutual but still semi-unacknowledged crushing on each other, Andrea told Lena about the underwear colour tradition, and then secretly semi-seriously credited it for their first kiss later that same night (ANOTHER very convenient new year's eve tradition, as it happens).
Prompts: Vignette / Only survivors of a plane crash (I took a lot of liberties with this premise) / Love triangle / Puzzle cube
Word count: 750 (if you don't count the lyrics at the very beginning)
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Razing cities to dust, faces dripping in lust
Fallen empires and raging bushfires
All your words unfounded, secret lives bound and hid
Living backwards in tangled back words
---
Lena stands on the balcony gazing at the Tiber River. The sun is dipping low painting the sky in shades of dusty rose and vibrant orange. The water’s surface acts like a mirror reflecting the sky’s beauty. It’s almost ethereal how the edges of the city are softened by the warm glow of the golden hour.
Rome.
Andrea had picked it—their first stop of many on their little romantic getaway. It's ironic, Lena thinks, to be in the city of a fallen empire. An empire brought to its knees under its own crushing weight.
Lena hears the balcony door open and soft footsteps before arms wrap around her waist, lips pressing gently to the edge of her jaw.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?”
Lena hums in agreement, letting her head fall back to rest on Andrea’s shoulder. It’s quiet. Only the occasional faint sounds of the city below. She tries to melt into the moment, to release the tension in her shoulders, the tension in her heart. She knows Andrea can sense it because she’s always read Lena like an open book.
“Still shaken up from the plane?”
Lena is and she isn’t. Not in the way she should be at least.
---
“The captain has instructed everyone to buckle up as we begin our descent,” the stewardess tells them.
Lena buckles her seatbelt, hears the satisfying click, and pulls the strap as tight as it will go. She fishes a puzzle cube from her purse and starts fidgeting with it—a distraction. She hates flying and landing and takeoffs are the worst.
Andrea watches from beside her. A smirk on her lips and a brow quirked. “Told you it would come in handy,” she says.
Lena rolls her eyes but doesn’t still her hands.
She can feel each drop the plane takes in the pit of her stomach. Then the entire plane jolts and she knows it’s not the usual turbulence even before she hears the loud cracking sound. Knows it before the captain announces over the loudspeaker:
“We’re experiencing an engine malfunction. Please brace for an emergency landing.”
For a second she panics. But only for a second because she knows. She knows she’s not in any real danger. Knows that she’s going to show up. No matter how much Lena tries to push her away she keeps showing up.
---
And sure enough, Supergirl—Kara—she thinks bitterly, swooped in to save the day.
Lena turns in Andrea’s arms and finds pretty blue eyes watching her softly. Feels guilt twisting in her stomach like a knife because it’s not the same shade of blue she sees when she closes her eyes at night.
Blue eyes that were cold as steel when they saw the way Andrea embraced Lena once they were safely on the ground. Those eyes that are always a little too gleeful and too eager. Lena was overcome by a sickening sort of rush at the sight of those too earnest eyes hardening.
Good, Lena had thought spitefully. I hope it hurts. I hope my pain ricochets. I hope it lodges like a bullet in your lungs and you feel it with every breath you take. If I have to live with the scars of betrayal then so do you.
“Lena?” Andrea coaxes her back to the present. Andrea’s soft expression has tightened with concern, brows furrowed, the corner of her lips turning down.
“I’m fine, darling,” Lena reassures her and gently wraps her arms around Andrea’s shoulders. Lets her fingers play with the soft hairs at the nape of her neck. “How about we stay in tonight? We can relax, order room service, and then tomorrow we can hit the ground running.”
Lena punctuates her proposal with a long, slow kiss that Andrea immediately sinks into. Her hands resting on Lena’s hips, pulling her closer until there’s no space left between them. Lena revels in the warm press of her body, already starting to forget. That knot in her chest releases just enough so that she can breathe more easily.
Andrea pulls back with a playful nip to Lena’s bottom lip, a lazy smile spreading across her face.
“I think you make a very compelling offer,” Andrea teases.
Lena lets Andrea kiss her again. Lets Andrea tilt her head back and deepen it, licking into her mouth, softly gasping for air. Lets herself get lost in the intoxicating feeling of being wanted. Lets Andrea slowly lead her back inside.
Doesn’t let herself think about how she wishes it was someone else.
