Chapter Text
Lena leaned back against the cool glass of the door to the small, private office she found herself in. Her brow creased in frustration and she worked to rub it smooth with her fingertips, thinking briefly on the premature wrinkles the company she hadn’t even owned for more than 24 hours was already causing her. She had just needed a break. A moment away from the chaos that was the CatCo Media bullpen.
Her hasty decision to purchase CatCo out from under Morgan Edge’s crooked nose had left her ignorant to the differences in atmosphere of the two companies she now found herself running. At L-Corp, Lena had her own private office. An oasis away from the organised hustle and bustle of the rest of the company. It provided a place to escape to after the relentless board meetings with members that seemed content on running their mouths till it all became mindless drivel that drilled its way into her brain. Even the labs, though less so, Lena could still find as an escape. While ever busy, it was more of a gentle hum, like a hive and its worker bees. The lab techs so involved in their own research that conversation was kept hushed and private, allowing Lena her peace.
CatCo in comparison, from the moment she had entered the bullpen, was utter chaos. It was a cacophony of rustling papers, keyboards tapping, printers whirring and a constant thrum of conversation over collaborative projects.
It would take some getting used to, but she would manage. She was managing, quite well in fact. That was, up until her disagreement with James Olsen. She huffed at the thought of the arrogant man who, upon her arrival had acted like she had no right to step foot into Cat’s old office. The office in the company she now owned, making it her office. She grit her teeth remembering his grating voice and the way it had begun to rise as their discussion turned heated. The way it had bounced around her skull until she very tersely excused herself from the situation, asking for an office in which she could reside until they would discuss the matter further. Which they very much so would be doing.
She slumped further back into the solid frame of the frosted glass door. It at least allowed her some privacy and for that, she released the heavy sigh that had been building over the course of the morning. Her head ached and she longed to ease the constant throb. Normally she would never consider doing this in the workplace, or anywhere that wasn’t her own apartment if she was being honest, but it was all so much, so overstimulating. She just needed a moment to recollect herself. A break from what felt like increasingly cataclysmic sounds happening all around her.
Lena pushed herself off the frosted glass and made her way over to the desk. One of the few pieces of furniture in the sparsely decorated office. With slightly shaking hands, she pushed back the strands of hair that had been strategically placed, her knuckles brushing smooth plastic along the way. She gently tugged at the transmitters of her cochlear, feeling the slight resistance of the magnetic pull as she did so, pulling the speech processors from their resting place behind her ears along with them. Cupping them in her palm, Lena was lulled into a brief sense of relief as the sounds around her dulled and she felt a release of what had been persistent overstimulation from the moment she had stepped foot in this damned building.
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Kara glanced over the frosted glass of the office door before tapping lightly.
“Ms Luthor?”
She waited, and when no answer came, her brow creased slightly in confusion. She was sure she’d seen her come this way after her… Argument? With James. If she were being honest, she thought he’d gone a bit overboard, especially considering it was the poor woman’s first day in the building. Yes, nobody had been expecting the aloof CEO to actually make an appearance after her sudden overtaking of the media company so it may have been a bit much to ask James to immediately vacate the office but he could have at least shown her to another in the mean time. This currently being the only unoccupied office, Kara had assumed this is where she would find the woman, but her unanswered knock had her second guessing herself.
With a quick glance around, ensuring nobody was in sight, the blonde slid her glasses slightly down the bridge of her nose. A quick scan of the inside of the office confirmed her initial assumption had been correct, as she made out the woman’s hunched over frame as she leaned over the desk, shoulders slumped. The crease in her brow deepened as she worried her new boss may be more upset by James’ blunt, standoffish attitude than she’d originally thought.
Raising her fist, she gave a firmer knock, and slightly louder this time to ensure she would be heard called out “Ms Luthor, are you in there?”
Again, no answer came, and with another quick glance over her glasses, Kara could see the woman hadn’t moved from her position, hunched over the desk.
Kara fretted, torn between what to do. Maybe James had really upset her, but should she just leave her to have a moment and collect herself or check on her, make sure she’s actually ok and let her know not to take James’ thickheadedness to heart.
She hesitated a moment before finding her resolve, reaching out to try the doorhandle. There being no resistance proved it unlocked. Tentatively, Kara pushed at the door, sticking her head around, through the cracked frame to peak inside.
“Ms Luthor, it’s Kara Danvers. Is it alright if I come in?”
When the woman didn’t even budge from her position, back remaining to Kara, the blonde wasn’t sure whether or not to take offence or be more concerned than she already was.
She continued anyway “Ms Luthor I know me just barging in here can’t be considered very professional but I couldn’t help but overhear you and James-“ she corrected herself “I mean Mr Olsen earlier, and well I just wanted to check in and see if-“ gosh she was really fumbling this “obviously you can just tell me to leave, it’s really none of my business…” Kara trailed off as she edged closer to the woman’s hunched figure.
“Ms Luthor?” Kara reached out, placing an unsure but gentle hand on the CEO’s shoulder.
The shorter woman nearly jumped clean out of the outrageously expensive looking heels she was wearing. It would have been almost comical if not for the slight look of fear mixed with shocked confusion on the woman’s face as she spun around to face Kara.
Something that had been clasped in the woman’s hands clattered to the floor between them and in Kara’s haste to bend down and retrieve the item, she hadn’t noticed Lena dip down at the same time. Kara winced at the solid crack of their foreheads colliding. Not from her own pain, but for the pain she knew the other woman would surely be feeling. Alex had once told her, her head was about as solid as a cinderblock so she could only imagine how the poor woman’s head was holding up after that. Especially considering she had quickly abandoned picking up whatever it was she had dropped to nurse the raised, red welt that was quickly forming on her forehead.
Mortified she’d probably just given her new boss a minor concussion, Kara fumbled out a barrage of apologies, bending to snatch up the discarded items off the floor before quickly raising to profusely apologise even further.
“I really didn’t mean to startle you like that! I knocked twice and called out but you weren’t answering and I just really wanted to make sure you were ok and-“ Kara sucked in a pained wince as she again caught sight of what was surely going to be a large bruise that was starting to form on the pale skin of the other woman’s forehead.
“That looks like it’s going to bruise, again I really am so sorry, I was just trying to help, I-“ the blonde cut off her own word vomit as her boss’s face was contorting further into indignation, her eyes flicking down impatiently to the small device Kara was still gripping in her hands.
With a start, Kara realised she should probably hand them back “here, these belong to you, again I’m really sorry-“
The brunette cut off what was sure to be another long utterance of apologies with a curt wave of her hand, taking the small device that Kara had yet to figure out what it even was that she was holding. Some sort of Bluetooth device maybe?
Kara watched as the woman begrudgingly pulled back, what Kara was only now noticing, was stunningly silky waves of thick brunette, almost black hair behind her ears. The move put on full display the woman’s pale, long neck, which was dotted with tantalizing moles and freckles. The blonde found herself having to forcibly draw her eyes away from the expansive column of skin so she could instead watch as the CEO slipped what looked to be an earpiece of the device to rest over her ear. A flat, disc like piece connected by a wire seemed to almost snap into its rightful place slightly behind the ear at the side of her head. Her hair was quickly pulled back into place, covering the device and that distracting expanse of porcelain white skin that was the woman’s neck.
The woman seemed slightly ruffled but finally addressed her “I’m sorry Ms?”
It took Kara an embarrassing beat longer than it should have to realise she was being asked for her name. Her silence earning her somewhat irritated quirk of a brow. Kara would say that look could be considered lethal the way it made her heart stutter.
“Kara- Uh, Danvers. Ms Danvers” the blonde managed to stammer out.
“Ms Danvers” the other woman let her name hang in the air a moment before continuing, as if she were considering not just the situation, but Kara herself. “I’m sorry but my lip reading isn’t the best and you seemed to be talking much to fast for me to grasp any of what you were saying” there was an undertone of irritation to the woman’s words.
Kara felt as though all the blood in her body had drained to her feet.
“You’re deaf” the blonde winced and fought the urge not to break the sound barrier flying herself up and through the roof of the building for sounding as stupidly rude and crass as she did in that moment.
The brunette’s mouth set into a firm line, something not far off from a grimace in response to Kara’s blunt observation.
“I am” her tone was flat. Guarded.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know. I’ve never seen it brought up in any of your interviews or heard anyone mention it” Kara was wracking her brain, trying to think how she could have somehow missed something as big as the CEO of L-Corp being deaf.
“Yes, purposefully so”.
It dawned on Kara, the implication of that statement. She could feel the tips of her ears burning with shame at the realisation that not only had she snuck up on and very nearly concussed her new boss, but she had intruded upon what was clearly meant to be a very private moment for the woman. She really was at a loss for how to rectify the situation.
“Ms Luthor I am so sorry. I really didn’t mean to sneak up on you like that” Kara paused, noting the other woman’s tense demeanour, restless fingers absently brushing brunette locks over her shoulders in what Kara could only assume was an attempt at making sure the device on her ears were securely out of sight.
Kara puffed out a small breath, overcome with guilt and wanting nothing more than to soothe the woman’s anxiety “you can be assured, I won’t mention this to anybody. I can see this is something you prefer to keep to yourself. Whatever your reasons.”
Kara felt a glimmer of relief as some of the tension seemed to leave the brunette’s shoulders.
“Thank you”
The blonde thought that would be the end of it and Ms Luthor would sweep her out of the office like the nuisance she was, but she was surprised to hear the woman speak up again. Answering a question Kara hadn’t dared to ask.
“It’s one thing to be a woman running a fortune 500 company, imagine how heads would roll if it came out I had a disability too. God forbid.”
Kara was ashamed to admit she felt herself pitying the younger woman. The topic seemed to be an old wound and Kara felt guilty for having opened it up.
Something was nagging at her though and a sudden realisation had her opening her mouth before she could think better of probing the other woman further, on what was clearly a sore subject.
“How is it that no one knows? You would think something like Lex Luthor’s little sister being deaf would be far more common knowledge?” Kara regretted the question almost as soon as it came out of her mouth. The pained expression that pulled at the brunette’s features wasn’t there for more than a split second before a more neutral mask slipped back into place. Kara only caught a glimpse, but it was enough.
“Noone had much interest in the younger, less successful sibling of Lex Luthor until I found myself inheriting his company” kara didn’t miss the slight sneer “and all the consequences of his deplorable actions”. Quietly though, more softly she added “and besides, it’s not exactly like Luthor’s would have wanted to showcase their faulty genes. Anything less than perfect is not quite up to the Luthor standard.”
The blonde felt her stomach roil at what was clearly something deeply rooted in pain from the woman’s past. She felt a desperate need to reach out and soothe her, despite until now having known this woman in her peripherals as a business tycoon. The moment passed however, as the woman seemed to sense the pity radiating off of Kara. Drawing herself back up, Kara could almost see in real time the walls the CEO was building up around herself.
“Ms Danver’s was there something you needed?” the brunette’s tone was clipped, businesslike.
“Oh!” Kara, lost in the strangeness of the unexpected situation she had found herself in, had almost forgotten why she had followed the woman to her office in the first place “uh well not to seem like I’m in your business-“
The phrasing had the CEO’s brow raise cynically, considering the circumstances they had found themselves in.
Kara let out a breath, deflating at the look and raised her hands in a gesture of surrender “I overheard the way James spoke to you and I wanted to check you were alright.”
The mention of James seemed to bring back some of the tension the woman had been holding in her shoulders.
“Ah yes, Mr Olsen. Yes, I get the feeling he thinks I’m here to step on his toes.”
Kara puffed out her chest a little, wanting to defend the woman, even if James wasn’t there to hear it.
“He may have stepped up and led CatCo well in Cat’s absence but there was no reason for him to speak to you like that. Especially considering he’s never even met you, and you are the one who just saved this company from landing in those grimy little hands of Morgan Edge” Kara spat the mans name with a grimace as if it left a bad taste in her mouth.
The brunette chuckled dryly “well I suppose when his replacement is a Luthor, I can understand where his brashness is coming from.”
“The good Luthor from what I’ve heard” Kara caught herself “uh not that I think your family is bad, I mean, they are in jail- I- what I mean to say is-“
Kara was surprised to hear the other woman let out something more close to a genuine laugh at Kara’s awkward fumbling of her words.
“Please Ms Danvers, I have no delusions over the villain-like status the rest of my family holds. They may be my family, but even I see them for what they are.”
At Kara’s slight hesitance, the brunette looked her over, a look of mirth shinning in her eyes.
“I’m fine Ms Danvers, thank you for coming to check on me.”
Her tone softening “for not mentioning this” she gestured vaguely towards her ears “and for thinking I’m the good Luthor.”
Kara couldn’t help but beam at what seemed to be genuine gratefulness on the other woman’s behalf. It wasn’t until she was met with an expectant look from the CEO that she realised the obvious dismissal and felt a heavy blush that crept its way all the way down to her chest at having realised she’d very much overstayed her welcome.
“Uh right! You’re welcome. It was no problem really!” Kara hastily made her way to the door, eager to escape the room before she put her foot in her mouth again.
“Have a good day Ms Danvers”
Kara could’ve sworn she heard the woman let out an amused chuckle as she clicked the door shut behind her.