Whiskey

Dawn knocked on the office door and waited for her mother's answer. When she heard the faint ‘come in’ she opened the door and stepped inside. 

“Dawn, you are awake.” Kara exclaimed, surprised and hugged her daughter. “How is your hand.” 

“It hurts.” the girl answered and winced when her mother touched it. “Luna had a look a few minutes ago.” 

She glanced at her mom. The ravenette was staring at her computer with anger in her eyes. Or was it disappointment? 

“Mom?” the girl spoke in a low voice.

Lena sighed and stood. She was holding a tablet in her hand and with the flick of her wrist, she showed her screen on the TV.

Multiple pictures and videos from the previous night were on the TV. Dawn’s face slowly turned red as she watched. She counted at least three boys and two girls she kissed. There were also videos and pictures of her dancing and drinking. She raised her right hand and hid her face with a groan. “Where did you get the pictures?” she asked.

“Multiple Instagram accounts and now they are mostly on a few gossip websites.” Lena stated. 

“I-I don’t remember anything from the past two days.” She whispered. She was trying to keep it together but when Kara placed her hand on her shoulder she broke. 

“Oh, sweetheart.” the blonde whispered and pulled the girl into a hug, careful to not hurt her hand. 

“I’m sorry.” the girl murmured. 

“It’s okay, sweetheart. You weren’t yourself.” Kara said and rubbed the young ravenette’s back. She glanced at her wife who was staring at the article on the screen, her brow furrowed. 

The shorter woman sighed and placed the tablet on the chair next to her. She moved to her daughter and placed a kiss on her head. “It’s going to be okay, sweetheart.” she said. “I have something to show you.” 

Lena moved to one of the lower cabinets of her bookshelf. She pulled out an album and walked to the couch. She patted the seat next to her.

Dawn followed her mom and sat next to her. Kara gave her some tissues and sat on her other side. 

“Now, I know I haven’t told you guys much about Lillian, but there was a period when I was seventeen I decided to rebel just to ruin her reputation.” Lena said and flipped through the album. “Ah, here it is.” She passed the album to her daughter. 

Both Dawn and Kara gasped. Pictures of a goth Lena was the last thing they expected to see. Her long hair was down but one side was shaved, she had black lipstick and a bit too much eyeliner. She was wearing multiple spiky bracelets around her wrist and her shirt had a sweetheart neckline and was see-through around her arms and collar bone. Her ruffle skirt was the same colour as her shirt and her black fishnet tights were dipping into black combat boots. 

“These pictures have been in here all this time?” Kara gasped. 

“Is this the first time you see these?” Dawn asked with a chuckle.

“Yeah.” Kara said and pretty much pulled the album in her lab. 

“Lillian got really mad about that one.” Lena pointed at a picture of her flipping off paparazzi. “My point is, I screwed up too. No doubt at some point these pictures will resurface and someone will caption them, ‘Like mother like daughter.’” 

“Oh, that’s good.” Kara nodded and she closed the album.

“Kara…” Lena glanced at her with suspicion. 

Kara stared at her wife with an innocent smile before shooting out of the office with the album in hand. 

“She’s going to write the article, isn’t she?” Dawn stated and leaned back on the couch.

“Yep.” Lena replied before moving to her desk. 

“What’s Red Kryptonite?” Dawn asked. “Luna said it was because of that I acted like that.” 

“Red Kryptonite makes Kryptonians reckless, evil, and dangerous. It brings out the worse of people. When your Jeju got infected.” she sighed. “It was bad. Really bad. At least you only had a party… and drank my favourite whiskey.” she mumbled the last words. 

“I’m really sorry about that.” Dawn sighed. 

“It’s okay little one.” the shorter woman said with a small smile. “Now, about your punishment…” 

Dawn groaned. “I’m listening.” 

“Your first punishment would have been three weeks but since you were affected by Red-K it’s only one week. First, you will clean the mess that was created yesterday with no superspeed. You will bake at least two batches of triple chocolate chip cookies for Alex because of his broken bones,”

“Alex broke his bones?” The girl questioned. 

“Yes. Liran will help you with the cookies because he posted the video and now Alex has to wear a fake cast.” Lena replied with an eye-roll. “Also, you will do all Luna’s chores for a week because you ruined her experiment when you called her away for too long and she has to start over. How is your head?”

“The headache is mostly gone.” The girl answered. 

“I will turn off the red sun lamps because I want to make sure your hand heals, but no powers, okay?” Lena said and the girl nodded. Lena kissed the girl's forehead. “I’m glad you don’t remember much from last night. I’m not proud of how I reacted.” she sighed and brushed the girl's hair. 

“Mom, you raised us pretty well. You never really yelled at us or made us feel bad. I don’t think you overreacted considering what I did.” the girl said and hugged her mom. 

Lena placed another kiss on her daughter's forehead. “Go grab lunch from the kitchen and go sit underneath the sun lamp for a few minutes before starting cleaning. Luna is in the lab so she can keep you company.” 

Dawn nodded and left the room. Deep down she knew her mom was still upset but she couldn’t do anything right now.

“Hey, I brought you food.” Dawn said with a smile and placed a container on the table next to Luna. 

“Thanks.” her sister mumbled, her eyes were glued to her laptop screen. 

Dawn moved to the chair with the sun lamps. She turned on the lamps, sat on the comfy chair and opened her own container. “Why are you mad at me?” she asked before taking a bite.

“I’m not mad at you.” The older sister drawled while moving to her notes. 

“Your face says otherwise.” the younger girl mumbled.

“It doesn’t.” Luna replied. 

“We have the same face. I know how I look when I’m angry thus I know how you look when you are angry.” Dawn pointed out and took a sip from her soda.

Luna sighed and let her pen drop. She stood and walked to her sister, her lab coat flapping around her like a cape. “Fine, you want to talk, let’s talk.” she announced and Dawn placed her food and soda on the table next to her. “I’m not mad at you because of my ruin experiment. I can easily recreate it since I remember every step exactly.” she stated. 

“Are you mad because you couldn’t figure out the password to unlock the door?” The younger girl asked. 

“I’m disappointed about that, not mad.” Luna replied.

“Then why are you angry with me.” Dawn asked.

“I’m not angry with you. I’m angry with myself.” the older sister said and looked into the identical blue eyes of her sister. 

“What are you talking about?” Dawn mumbled. 

“I know you are mad at me because I left you alone at school.” Luna replied and sat on a stool across the injured girl.

“I don’t know what you are talking abo-”

“Dawn, please.” Luna sighed. “We’ve been together for so long and then I chose to leave you behind while I moved to high school. I left you behind even though I promised we will always be together.” 

“That’s not it. I mean I did hate the fact we weren’t spending as much time together but it’s not just that” Dawn commented. 

“Then what is it?” Luna asked and moved closer to her sister. 

“Everyone keeps comparing me to you guys and I got tired.” Dawn announced and closed her eyes. “Everyone expects me to be good in STEM classes, and I know I can do great but it’s not my thing. Then there is that really enthusiastic art teacher who thinks I got the same artistic skills as Alex but still not my thing. Even my biology teacher expected me to be good in his class because of Liran.” she opened her eyes and looked at her sister. “I live in your shadows and I hate it. I’ve been doing theatre for so long but the teachers still know me as your little sister. I guess I just got really annoyed that I don’t have my own identity.”

“But you have your own identity.” Luna said and ignored her sister’s eye roll. “I’m serious. First of all, the way I dress and the way you dress is different.” she started knowing well that Dawn liked brighter colours than her. “Second of all, you are a good actress, something that I’m not. Lastly, I know you understand what I’m saying most of the time when I ramble about my projects because we are geniuses.” Luna exclaimed and made her sister smile. 

“You are smarter than me, though.” Dawn answered and reached for her food.

“Not that smart. Just using the few extra brain cells I stole from you.” she answered with a smirk.

Dawn snorted. “So, are we good?” she asked. 

“Yeah. We are going to have a sisters night when your punishment is over.” Luna answered and fist-bumped her sister since she couldn’t hug her. The scientist went back to her table and opened her container, humming happily at the pleasant smell.