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“No capes!”
“Isn’t that my decision?”
“Do you remember Thunderhead? Tall, storm powers? Nice man, good with kids. November 15th of ‘58! All was well, another day saved, when… his cape snagged on a missile fin!”
“Thunderhead was not the brightest bulb…”
“Stratogale! April 23rd, ‘57! Cape caught in a jet turbine!”
“She’s got a point, you know? Maybe we should have invited Supergirl to this Disney marathon of ours.” Kara took a deep breath. She would not fall into this trap again. Alex would have her head if she—
“Metaman, express elevator! Dynaguy, snagged on takeoff! Splashdown, sucked into a vortex! No capes!”
“I know we’re watching a kids’ movie, but—”
“It’s not a kids’ movie!” Kara protested, giving her a fake pout. Lena rolled her eyes, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips.
“Okay, darling,” Kara’s heart fluttered at the term of endearment. “A family movie. Anyway, like I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted,” a mock glare was sent her way. “I would love to pick the brain of whoever designed Supergirl’s suit. Or Superman’s suit, for that matter. There is no functionality to capes, at least that I can think of, so why incorporate them into the final designs at all?”
“They help with aerodynamics.” Kara responded, way too quickly. Damn it. “… Or so Supergirl told Winn that one time we had lunch together. Like, all three of us. Together.” Her hands started fidgeting with her glasses. Winn would mope for a week if he found out that (1) this conversation had happened, (2) this conversation had happened without him, and (3) this conversation had happened without him and his friend had downplayed his role in designing the supersuit. “Or maybe it was Winn who told Supergirl, I don’t remember, really, it happened so long ago.” That wasn’t any better.
“Really?” Kara could hear the skepticism in Lena’s voice. “It helps with aerodynamics?”
“That’s what they said, I wouldn’t know. Why would I know? Hey, do you want more popcorn? I’m starting to get hungry again.” Kara grabbed the empty bowl and made her escape to the kitchen without waiting for Lena to answer. She took her time, heating the popcorn in a normal, look-at-how-human-I-am-exclamation-point, way hoping —praying— Lena would let the topic go.
But, when she walked back into the living room:
“Wouldn’t a cape be detrimental to aerodynamics?” Not letting it go, then.
“Well—”
“Oh.”
“Oh?” Kara repeated, confused as to what conclusion Lena could have reach—
“It’s for the aesthetics of it! Of course.” That is so not it. Satisfied with her conclusion, Lena grabbed a handful of popcorn and popped a few pieces into her mouth. Kara didn’t like the direction this conversation had progressed, but there is nothing you can do about it, a voice sounding remarkably like Alex’s reminded her. At least this was better than facing an angry Alex because Lena had figured out the— “I would have imagined Supergirl was more of a ‘function over form’ type of gal, but I guess not. My PR team would certainly approve.”
Oh, for Rao’s sake. She could deal with Alex’s anger later. Lena was her best friend, she deserved to know. (And she couldn’t allow Edna Mode of all Disney characters to steer Lena in the wrong direction.)
With a whoosh, she disappeared into her room and came back with her supersuit on.
And three giant teddy bears in her arms.
“Kara?” If her heart hadn’t been beating so fast, she would have laughed at the puzzled expression on Lena’s face. Though if she was more confused by her being Supergirl or the giant teddy bears in her arms, she couldn’t tell. “What the— What’s going on?” It was probably the teddy bears.
“I’m Supergirl.”
“Obviously.”
“Okay, so,” Kara started setting the teddy bears down and propping them against the wall. “Bear with me.” She wanted to laugh at her own pun, she really did, but now was not the moment; Lena was giving her her full attention. (Kara resisted the urge to shy away from her intense gaze.) “Imagine these,” she pointed at the bears, “are civilians caught in the middle of a battle between Supergirl,” she pointed at herself, “and your run-of-the-mill National City villain. Now imagine that the bad guy suddenly starts shooting at the civilians, and—” Kara jumped in front of the teddy bears, forming a shield around them with her cape. “Ta-da! Three lives are saved! Plus, I wouldn’t get my cape caught in an express elevator or in a jet turbine.”
They stared at each other, the grin on Kara’s face slowly fading as she realized Lena wasn’t saying anything. The only sound in the apartment was the long-forgotten movie playing in the background. Dread had begun to curl in her stomach, when suddenly Lena’s laughter broke the silence.
“Kara, did you—” She was laughing so hard she couldn’t finish her sentence. Kara had never seen her laugh so unrestrainedly. (The sight was beautiful.) “Did you tell me you were Supergirl just to prove a fictional character wrong?”
“No!” Her cheeks started to burn. “I just wanted to show you that capes can be useful! And they do help with aerodynamics, too!”
“So, that’s how you flew on a bus, huh?”
“Shut up.”
*
“Kara!”
“… Yes?”
“Could you tell me why Lena Luthor is downstairs at HR?”
“She’s signing the Supergirl NDA.”
“Explain.”
“She found out, Alex.”
“She ‘found out’? Meaning, what? You told her?”
“Pffft, no.”
“…”
“Okay, yes. But it’s not my fault! We were doing a Disney marathon because she hadn’t seen a lot of the movies and… It was my duty, Alex. She told me I was her hero. What kind of hero would I be if I allowed her life to go on without the joys of ‘Big Hero 6’, and—”
“‘The Incredibles?’ Oh my God, Kara, please tell me you didn’t do the whole performance with the teddy bears.”
“Only an abbreviated version of it! I couldn’t let her fall into the clutches of the ‘no capes’ brigade.”
“Remind me to never let you watch ‘The Incredibles’ unsupervised again.”
“But—”
“And I will need to watch the sequel before you do.