Ooh, can I have "Alex Lois thing" for 200? It makes me think of Cool Aunt Kara AU, but I'm sure whatever you've come up with is fabulous
In a shocking turn of events, it was actually a canon thing! XD Long, loooooong ago, I noticed this parallel between Lois and Alex and I started brainstorming a crossover fic. But then I fell behind on Superman & Lois and thus the motivation to see it through kinda petered out. XD
Here's what I had:
“Are you going to tell him?”
They're standing in what remains of the main cavern of the Fortress. Alien weaponry and salvaged Kryptonian artifacts litter the floor, the shelves that once displayed them reduced to slushy masses of ice chips.
As Alex surveys the damage, she wants to laugh at the question. Are you going to tell him? Clark will know, the minute he returns to the Fortress, that something has happened.
But she sincerely doubts she'll get a questioning phone call.
“No,” Alex tells J'onn, her voice sounding much stronger than she currently feels. “No, we—we don't know anything—won't know anything until Brainy is finished with the diagnostics.”
J'onn's expression is skeptical, and she can tell he wants to press the issue further, so she moves to start putting the scattered items back...somewhere. Anywhere. Anything to keep her hands and mind occupied, away from the only concrete thought she's had in the last hour or so.
Kara is trapped in the Phantom Zone. She's gone. She's—
“He needs to know, Alex.”
J'onn's voice is low and gentle. She shoves aside a pile of snow with her bare hand, ignoring the way the chill is starting to settle into her arms and legs. A stark reminder that this place...really isn't meant for humans.
“Not yet,” Alex says. She briefly worries that J'onn will argue with her...and that she'll lose that argument, because she can't come up with a single, compelling reason as to why she shouldn't tell him.
She just...she can't. Because the only time they call Clark is when the world is ending—literally. Clark is a last resort. Clark is...he's...
Next of kin is the phrase that comes to mind.
And Alex refuses to even acknowledge that possibility.
J'onn must sense her thoughts—an impressive feat, given how hard she's trying to suppress them—and simply nods.
“Alright,” he agrees. “Not yet.”
--
It's a bright, beautiful, downright pastoral day in Smallville. Not that Lois would know, as she's spent the greater part of the last...seventeen? hours? Seated at the kitchen table, pouring over the collection of files Maxy was able to dig up and send her way.
She finishes skimming another accounts report, and checks it against another document on her laptop. Notes the inconsistencies, moves on to the next.
Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
“Mom. Mom.” Lois blinks, and looks up from her mountain of files. Jonathan stands at the far end of the table, holding a bowl of cereal. “You're using like. The whole table.”
“Oh,” she stands and starts to try and clear a space for him. “Sorry hon. Let me just—”
“Actually, I think I'll go...” he nods towards the family room, wearing an amused look. “Coffee table looks safer.”
“Yeah, yeah,” she waves off his gentle teasing. “Use a coaster!”
He disappears into the family room, and Lois smiles, ultimately grateful for the interruption; the mention of the coffee table has made her acutely aware that some caffeine would be...pretty good, right about now.
She moves to start a pot, checking her phone as she pulls the filters and grounds from the cupboard. The usual alerts appear on her notifications screens—The NY Times, Gotham Gazette, National City Tribune...
In fact...there have been a lot of alerts from the Tribune, of late, and yet hardly any coverage of Supergirl exploits.
She skims the top stories—a few mentions of other meta-human heroes. Nothing about Kara.
Gonna have to tell Clark his cousin is slacking, she thinks as she turns on the coffee maker. ...Maybe have him call—
“Mom, mom!”
It's Jonathan again, but his voice is high and distressed, coming from upstairs. Lois drops her phone on the counter, all thoughts of the Tribune and coffee forgotten as she hurries for the stairs. There's only one thing on her mind, only one thing that could make Jonathan call out like that.
Jordan.
--
Probably won't return to this but would love to (maybe? someday???) write more Lois. She's such a great character, and so often underserved in the actual comic books. DC greenlight a new Lois books you COWARDS. XD Thanks for sending this in!
