Chapter 15
Excitement filled the air as students gathered in rows of matching gowns with tassels, sashes and cords adorning the crimson polyester blend. Kara tugged lightly at the fabric, smoothing down the wrinkles visible only to her mother Cat Grant. Her golden honors club sash draped around her neck while the colorful cords for art and drama hung down on either side, providing stark contrast to the crimson and white robes.
“Kara!” Lena screeched, coming up behind her blonde friend and wrapping her arms around her neck. “We’re here! We finally made it, graduation day!”
“I know!” The blonde replied, bouncing along with her friend. “This is so exciting!” She pulled back slightly to look at her friend, taking in the black sash rather than gold to indicate her status as valedictorian. “You have your speech ready?”
Lena scoffed, “Of course I do, dummy, you better be ready to be blown away by it.”
Kara cracked a grin and nodded, “I'm totally prepared to be blown away.” The number of students gathering in the hallway started increasing as more of the graduates filtered in. Graduation was held in the theater auditorium which limited the guests but was much more comfortable than being outside during this time of year. “It’s a little sad though,” she said, drawing her friend’s attention, “I mean, we won't be in school together anymore, and you're moving to the east coast.”
“You and I both know that you could get across the country in like twenty minutes, so if we wanted to hangout, we could,” Lena reassured her friend. “Besides that we have Skype and FaceTime, and I'm spending like all of June at your place so you'll probably be sick of me by the time we both leave with you visiting Kate in Gotham and me heading to spend time with the family.”
The blonde’s eyes darkened in irritation at the mention of Lena’s family. “Are they here? Your family?” Kara asked. She didn't hate many people, but she really disliked Lena's family for how they treated her. Her friend deserved more than that, deserved better than that.
Lena shrugged as an answer, “I don't know, probably not. I mean, I've been going to school under a different name so I'm not graduating as a Luthor. Plus I didn't actually tell them, though the school might've sent a message to them.” She gave her friend a smile and squeezed her hand, “Besides, I've got a better family here cheering for me. I'm sure Miss Grant, Carter, Kate and Renee can cheer louder than any of the families here.”
“You know you can call her Cat right, she wouldn't mind.”
The brunette gave her an incredulous look, “Um, no, she still scares me, though I am still upset that she ended her talk show.”
“It's been over a year Lena-”
“It was my favorite show!” She defended, “It was my favorite show, and she ended it.”
“She expanded her company and managed to syndicate it into CatCo worldwide media. She didn’t have time to do a talk show and be queen of all media.”
Lena let out a frustrated sigh, “I know, I know, I can still be sad though. She should get them put on DVD so I can have them.”
“I'll ask her,” Kara chuckled. One of the teachers came along and started bustling the students into line and the friends separated, Kara moving to stand with the other ‘Gs' while Lena moved back to the ‘Ts.’
The graduation march started shortly after and they filled into the auditorium to take their seats. Kara focused her hearing and immediately picked out Cat, Carter and Kate’s heartbeats in the crowd. She had only met Kate's girlfriend Renee a few times, so wasn't as attuned to her heartbeat as she was her family. She turned her head, her eyes searching for the little group before finding them. Of course her mother managed to secure seats in the front so she would have an unobstructed view. She knew that the woman was planning on it, but Kara worried that she wouldn't get the seats she wanted. She shouldn't have worried, no one can stand up to Cat Grant.
Kara turned her head again and found Lois sitting with Lucy on the other side of the auditorium. It took her a few weeks, but she had managed to get back to the point of only viewing Lucy as a friend right before she graduated two years ago. They kept up communication, though not as often as she imagined she and Lena would be talking in the future. They called each other a few times a month, but texted more than anything else. It was a few months after Lucy started college that she told her she got back in touch with her sister and Kara realized that the estranged sister that Lucy told her about was Lois Lane. She didn’t know if Lucy knew who Clark was or if he was her cousin, but the next time that she saw the older girl in person the brunette hugged her a little tighter and touched her a bit more. The brunette became even more critical of Superman, sniping about different things and Kara thought she detected something more personal in her tone, something other than just be critical of him as a hero. They never talked about it, never acknowledged or even hinted at it, but Kara thought she knew.
She turned her attention back to the front and noticed that Lena had broken off from the group and taken her place on top of the stage as the valedictorian. Although her face was perfectly arranged in a neutral expression with a slight bit of excitement and nerves showing, Kara could tell from her eyes that Lena was bored stiffed. The headmaster of the school over the high school division was at the podium, prattling on about one thing or another. She never had to converse with the man, but her mother told her that he was an insufferable, brown nosing fool that was good at raising money and left the dealings of the school to his deputy-head. Cat took her word for it since she was generally a good judge of character but she prefered not to think about it.
The man quit talking and the senior class president stepped up and made his speech, followed by the head of student council and the valedictorian. The class president was one of the more popular guys in the school, but still held significant academic standing which allowed him to be nominated for the position though his popularity is what secured it. The student council president was more of a stickler for rules, her position being appointed by the faculty rather than the students. She had worked on a few theatrical productions with Kara, and she knew that the other blonde was fierce as nails though had an anxiety problem. Lena’s speech was different from the other two though. While they had spoken of pushing forward, looking ahead to the future, Lena talked about how it was important to remember where they had been, the friends they had made as they went their separate ways.
Kara had tears streaming down her face by the time Lena was done and judging by the sounds in the auditorium there weren’t many dry eyes in the room. The principal started the diploma ceremony and soon Kara heard her name called, and smiled as her family and friends cheered for her. Kate and Carter were much louder than her mother, but she could still hear her among the crowd. As she sat down, she idly wondered what excuse Lois gave her cousin for her to be able to come. Kara hadn’t extended an invitation to him; she didn’t want him to come. She still loved him because he was her cousin, her blood, but he had made it very clear over the years that they weren’t family, not with how he’s treated her. She knew that he visited his adoptive family, Lois told her he had a good relationship with them. He was more Earthling than Kryptonian, ignorant of their culture, so Kara focused her attention on the family that did want her, her chosen family and friends.
The ceremony ended not long after that and Kara grabbed Lena and they went to meet up with her family. “Congratulations kid!” Kate cried, wrapping her arms around Kara’s neck in a tight hug. “You too other kid,” she corrected, sticking her arm out to bring Lena into the hug. “It was such a good speech, such a beautiful ceremony, everything was so beautiful. Renee and Cat of course cried like babies.”
“Um, excuse me,” Renee Montoya started, her hands on her hips. The Latina gave her girlfriend a hard glare and stuck one of her fingers in her face, “Who was the one exactly who was a blubbering mess going ‘my baby is all grown up’?”
Cat scoffed, “Even I didn’t get that choked up Kane.” She hugged the two girls once Kate released them. “It was a good ceremony, I’m so proud of both of you.”
“Kara, Lena!” Lucy called out, jogging up to the two. “Congrats on graduating, now you can get ready to join the rest of us sleep deprived, overworked, underfed college students.”
“Underfed,” came out of Kara’s mouth before she could really stop herself, causing the surrounding group to laugh.
“Don’t worry darling, I have got you the most expensive meal plan at NCU,” Cat assured her, patting Kara’s head. “And if you get really hungry, you can always come home and I’ll feed you.” The woman frowned a bit, a put-out expression on her face, “I still don’t know why you want to live in the dorms anyway, if you wanted some space, you can always convert that second apartment I bought back into an actual apartment.”
“Mom, living in the dorm, it’s part of the college experience,” Kara said, “And you already arranged for me to have a single room in a suite, despite the fact that I don’t flo- don’t have problems like that anymore.”
“She doesn’t, it’s kind of disappointing,” Lena pouted. “She’s all boring now.”
Kara shot Lena a dark look and nudged her harshly on the shoulder. “That’s not very nice.”
“I’m not nice? You’re the one abusing me here, I should probably get a new best friend.”
The two bickered lightly and the people around then just rolled their eyes at the two. Lucy turned to Cat, ignoring the younger girls, “My sister wanted me to let you know that she’ll be at your place for the graduation party, something about how it wouldn’t do for her reputation to be seen with you breathing the same air, some nonsense like that.”
“Typical Lane,” Cat rolled her eyes. “It should bring you comfort that you’re the superior Lane.”
“Of course Miss Grant,” Lucy smirked.
“Alright, girls stop bickering, let’s get back to the Penthouse, I have enough food coming to feed an army, I’m sure Kara will leave some of it for us,” the blonde woman replied, mischief twinkling in her eyes.
“Mom!”
“We should do something crazy,” Lena said as she and Kara were lying on the floor of the blonde’s room staring at the stars on her ceiling.
“Define crazy,” Kara replied, looking over at the girl warily.
“Well obviously we can’t go on a raging bender since we’re only eighteen and your mom would definitely find a way to kill us both,” the brunette returned.
Kara rolled her eyes, “Alcohol doesn’t affect me anyway Lena, so you’re the one that would end up drunk, not me.”
Lena scoffed, “There are ways around that and you know it. Remember your mom made you blow out your powers so that you could get your shots.”
The blonde groaned, “Don’t remind me. I know babies are more sensitive, but they have no idea how lucky they are to get those things spread out over a few years. I could feel the fluid stuff flowing in me, and it just felt weird and there was a lot of it, just so much, and my butt, they shot me in my butt; it was all very traumatic.”
“You’re such a baby sometimes,” Lena rolled her eyes before a thought whirled through her mind and she sat up. “We should get tattoos.”
Kara’s eyes widened, “What?!”
“No, we totally should, it will be our first thing that we do as adults, and something that we can both have, though it doesn’t have to be the same, that’s weird.”
“Lena, have you forgotten that my skin is bulletproof? I can’t get a tattoo, the needle would break.” The brunette just gave Kara a significant look and the blonde remembered the conversation they were just having, “No, no no no, I am not blowing out my powers just because you want to get tattoos, besides what would I even get?”
“You don’t have to get one now, but you are coming with me to get one. I wonder if Miss Grant has any recommendations…”
“Well she does have a tattoo so probably…”
“What?!” Lena cried, grabbing Kara by the shoulders. “What do you mean she has a tattoo?”
“She has a tattoo, I saw it once when I lost control of my,” she stopped, gesturing towards her eyes.
“What is it? Where is it?”
Kara pointed to her hip, “It's not big, it looked like a couple of flowers but I can't be sure. It was a few months after I came here that I saw it so I didn't recognize the flowers. I didn't really think about it again.”
“Flowers,” Lena murmured thoughtfully, her eyes distant. “You should ask her about it later, when she’s home. It might be nothing, but Miss Grant doesn’t seem like the type to get a tattoo for frivolous reasons and if it’s flowers… well, you might be surprised.” Kara cocked her head as she looked at her friend, her long hair trailing down to the side and Lena snorted, the girl couldn’t look more like a puppy if she tried. She glanced around and pulled her laptop out of her backpack and googled tattoo parlors in National City, and looked through some of the better rated ones. “Can you text your mom and ask her which one of these is better?” Lena asked, showing Kara the list.
The blonde gave her friend an unbelieving look and when Lena just motioned her to go ahead, she sighed and texted her mother. Lena wants to know which of these places is better? She said, typing out the list Lena had showed her.
When the older woman didn’t reply right away, Kara made herself a snack and Lena scribbled down some ideas on what she wanted as a tattoo while they waited. It was over half an hour before her phone chimed with a reply. Don’t tell me that she wants a tattoo, Cat’s message read and Kara could imagine the expression on her mother’s face.
Okay…
Kara.
Alright, yes, she wants to get a tattoo. Well, she wanted both of us to get one, but the needle would break against my skin, so she said that I had to get one the next time I blew out my powers, but I don’t think the ink would stay when I got them back…
Kara, do you want a tattoo?
… Maybe…
We’ll talk about that when I’m home. If Lena wants a tattoo, tell her to go with the second one.
Is that where you got yours done?
What do you mean?
Kara winced, she didn’t mean to say that. Um, the flowers, on your hip? I saw it once years ago accidentally…
We’ll talk about that when I get home too, but yes, that’s where I got it done. They have some of the best artists in the city. If she’s going to get a tattoo, then that’s the place to go.
Alright, I’ll tell her, thanks Mom.
“Cat said the second one,” Kara said, looking up at her brunette friend.
“Oh good, come on, it’s on the other side of town. If we go now, might get done before you have to get Carter from daycare.”
“Today? You want to do it today?”
“When else am I going to do it? My plane for Metropolis leaves in a few days, so if I’m going to get one, it has to be today,” the brunette stated, pulling her friend off the floor. “Now come on, let’s go, you’re the one with the car.” Lena bullied her friend out the door and down to the parking garage below the apartment building. Cat had gifted the girl with a car for her sixteenth Name Day two years ago. It wasn’t fancy, a used Dodge Dakota truck with a quad cab for her to transport her art supplies and drive Carter around as needed.
“You still disappointed that Miss Grant said no to the motorcycle?” Lena teased as she buckled herself into the forest green truck.
“Yes,” Kara groaned as she drove out of the parking garage. “Kate let me drive hers a little when I visited last summer, and it was so much fun.”
“I don’t know why you need a motorcycle, I mean you can fly. The truck at least lets you all things around without being afraid of dropping something.”
“But I can’t really fly all the time can I?” Kara returned, “A bike lets me feel like I’m flying without actually flying.”
Lena nodded her head in understanding, “You can always get one in the future, though your mom will still be furious with you about it. I bet you already have one picked out don’t you?”
Kara bit her lip lightly, “Maybe… It’ll never happen though.”
The brunette just hummed and directed Kara to the tattoo parlor. It was closer to the center of town than the apartment building, but not in the same area as CatCo’s offices. The neighborhood was more on the artistic side just judging based on the shops and the appearances of the buildings, a few artisan shops, art galleries, and a new DiY bakery. Kara glanced at the bakery curiously and resolved to look around when she wasn’t pressed for time. She located the tattoo parlor and quickly found street parking about a block away from the building.
“Miss Grant was right, this place really looks nice,” Lena said as they walked up to the building. “Classy, clean, not in a sketchy location like some tattoo parlors are.”
“I’m wondering where the proper Lena Thorul learned to use common, slang terms such as ‘sketchy’ and ‘totally’,” Kara remarked, looking at her friend with mirth in her eyes.
“From you, you dork, especially since you insist on using them so much to fit in better or something ridiculous like that,” Lena quipped before dragging Kara towards the door. “Now come on.” Lena pushed the girl into the store and the both stopped for a moment to look around, the walls were a plain cream color and held sporadic photos of examples of tattoos designed in house. There were a few chairs scattered around and a binder full of more pictures sat on a table next to a few of the chairs.
“Hello,” the man behind the counter greeted them and they turned to look at him. He didn’t look like someone that would be working at a tattoo parlor; he had the typical frat boy looks, dark hair brushed back on top of his head, dark blue eyes, clean-cut smile, and no tattoos in sight. “Welcome to Ink Paintings, I’m Justin. I’m assuming that one or both of you are here for a tattoo?”
“I am,” Lena said, walking up the counter.
“Well you’re in luck,” he replied smiling, “This is one of the few days that we’re not busy, not a customer or appointment today so we should be able to get it done today if you know what you want.”
“Really? I figured I would have to make an appointment first to go over what I want,” Lena stated, looking at the man curiously.
Justin nodded his head, “Normally that’s true, but you picked a good day. Our only appointment for today was cancelled, so we were just going to deal with walk-ins anyway. Come on back, my brother is the one that does the tattoos. I run the counter and occasionally help with designs when he’s backed up.”
The girls followed him to the back where they found Justin’s carbon copy hunched over a desk, only he had on a wife-beater rather than a muscle shirt that displayed a bear inked on his shoulder. “Josh, dude, this one would like a tattoo, you have time?”
His brother (twin?) looked from the desk, his blue eyes falling on the two girls. “Yes! I need something to do,” he replied, pulling on an unbuttoned dress shirt, and moving around the desk after motioning towards the seats he had in his office. “Thanks man.” Justin waved, leaving the two girls alone with his brother, and Josh glanced over to Lena. “So you want the tattoo correct?”
Lena nodded, “I want a plumeria blossom and a shooting star on my shoulder blade, my right one.”
“You’ve thought about this before haven’t you?” Kara questioned, glancing over at her friend.
“Well of course, I wanted one, and it’s a good way to piss my mother off so why not,” the brunette replied conspiratorially, “Only needed to see if I could talk you into getting one.”
“Maybe another day,” Kara said and the tattoo artist cleared his throat.
“So a plumeria blossom?” He confirmed. At Lena’s nod, he gestured back at his computer, “I’m going to have to look one up, but in the meantime, look through this book.” He set a binder in front of them on the desk, “Just flip through until you find the star section, there will be a few designs for shooting stars in there, see which one you like best or which one is close to it so we can adapt it. I’m assuming this is going to be small since it’s on your shoulder?” He received another nod from the girl, “Alright, so the design won’t take long then.”
Josh pulled out his sketchbook and instantly googled the flower the brunette wanted, drawing various designs on the page in a matter of minutes. Lena and Kara glanced through the book and settled on a simple shooting star design, a few small blue stars with curvy lines around them to represent movement. “This is good,” the tattoo artist said, looking at the selected design, “I can do the stars in blue and have them positioned overlapping the plumeria and coming off on the right side, and the lines will be white to flow nicely with the flower.” He quickly sketched the shooting star design on top of one of the blossoms, and showed them what he planned to do.
“That looks perfect,” Lena breathed, excitement building in her. “When can we start? Can we start now?”
The man nodded, “It’ll take a few hours, but no problem, let’s get you set up.”
Lena bounced a little on her feet and grabbed Kara’s arm excitedly with both hands, “This is going to be so awesome!”
“That was so awful,” Lena moaned when the left the shop several hours later, a fresh bandage plastered over her shoulder. “How could you talk me into something so awful?”
Kara didn’t reply and just smirked as she helped her friend in the truck before climbing in the driver’s seat and speeding off to pick up Carter. At seven years old, the little boy was growing into quite the nerd, encouraged by Lena discussing all things science and engineering with him. He still adored his older sister though, and enjoyed running and playing with her in the park. The curly haired boy was still painfully shy, but living with Kara helped him learn how to interact with people. Kara encouraged him to keep playing on the soccer team and he found friends there that loved science and video games almost as much as he did.
“Hi Lena!” Carter greeted when Kara lifted him up into the backseat of the truck and buckled him into his booster seat.
“Hi kid, how was daycare?” The brunette asked, twisting around slightly to look at the boy, wincing when she pulled at her shoulder.
“Good, we played a lot outside today, and the teacher started teaching us Spanish while we played. She made a game out of it, that was really fun.”
“Hmm, perhaps you will learn to speak Spanish,” Kara murmured, slipping into the language, eliciting a scowl from her best friend.
“There’s no need to show off,” Lena huffed, “Shouldn’t you be driving?”
Kara rolled her eyes and pulled out while Lena and Carter kept a running chatter. Lena smirked for a moment and asked Kara something about Lucy, causing the little boy in the back seat to scowl at the name. Carter hated Lucy Lane, hated her with a passion that rivaled Cat’s former hatred of Lois Lane, and made no secret that he didn’t like her. Kara wondered if it was a biological trait of the Grant’s to dislike Lane’s, completely forgetting that the boy also hated the guy she briefly dated during her junior year as well. Jay was a senior and the starting receiver for the school football team, and he had a kind smile, if a little boring. They went out on a few dates, but it only lasted a few months, especially since Carter kicked him in the shins every time he came to pick her up. Lena found it all extremely amusing that Carter’s crush on his adoptive sister hadn’t really faded per say, but shifted into a fierce protectiveness over the older girl. Fortunately Lena had the good sense to keep her romantic affairs away from the boy unless they end up with bruised shins like Jay or be on the opposite end of a Grant scowl like Lucy.
When the trio returned to the Penthouse, they were surprised to find Cat was home and bustling around the kitchen making dinner. “My meetings finished early and I figured I would come home rather than staying in the office and working,” she explained. “Dinner won’t be ready for another hour or so, I just got home. Kara, do you want to help me?”
Kara nodded and Lena turned to Carter. “You want to show me that new game your mom got for you?”
Carter brightened and tugged Lena to his room, “It’s called Settles of Catan and it’s a strategy game…” The two disappeared into the boy’s room and Kara chuckled a little every time Lena forgot about her tattoo and moved in a certain way that disturbed the bandage.
“So did Lena get her tattoo?” Cat asked a few minutes later after directing Kara to start chopping vegetables for a salad.
The younger blonde nodded, “Yeah, a plumeria blossom and a shooting star, though she didn’t explain it really. It looks really nice though.”
“Plumeria and a shooting star,” Cat murmured thoughtfully, “Simple but with depth I should’ve expected from her. I’m sure her parents will be pleased when they find out.”
“She did say that was one reason why she wanted one,” Kara laughed.
Cat hummed, and glanced over at her daughter as she sped through piles of vegetables. “Do you want one? I said we’d talk about it later, so I want to know.”
“I doubt if it would even stay,” the girl replied, “as soon as I’m exposed to sun, or my powers come back, it would just close up and disappear, so what would be the point?”
“That wasn’t what I asked Kara, do you want a tattoo?”
Kara hung her head a little bit, staring blankly at the counter. “I- yes. Decorating your skin, it wasn’t really done on Krypton at all, but I was always fascinated with drawing on myself. And then, when I came here and found out that people actually decorate themselves with images, words, things that are special to them, things with meaning, things that make them happy, or even just stupid things in the spur of the moment… I wanted that, to experience that, even more just a few minutes before the yellow sun took it away.”
“Then we’ll just have to plan for you to get one the next time you have a tantrum or Kate works you too hard you blow out your powers,” Cat replied, smirking lightly. They were silent for a few minutes as Cat finished cooking the meat and she started layering in the noodles, cheese and sauce for the lasagna. “It’s flowers,” the woman said after a few minutes. She could feel Kara’s eyes on her, looking at her in a questioning manner. “My tattoo,” she clarified, “It’s flowers.”
She finished making the lasagna and put it in the oven so she could turn her attention on Kara and their conversation. “I got the first one shortly after Adam, after everything that happened between me and his father. It’s a chestnut blossom which means ‘do me justice.’ I got it as a reminder that I tried to do what was right for Adam and myself, and to make up for not being in his life.” Cat placed her hand on her left hip, over where she had the blossoms forever imprinted on her skin. “The next one was a gardenia and I got it a few months after Carter was born, meaning joy and good luck.” She laughed dryly and reached for her wine glass, taking a healthy sip, “I think I was wishing myself good luck with this new child in hopes that I wouldn’t fail as miserably as I did with Adam.”
“So those are the flowers I saw,” Kara murmured, glancing down. Lena was right, flowers did have meaning and she was surprised by the reasoning behind her mother’s tattoo. She wondered briefly what Lena’s tattoo meant; she wasn’t the type to get something without meaning.
“I have another one,” the woman said softly, drawing Kara’s attention. “You must’ve ‘accidentally’ seen it before I got the other one but it was almost a year after you came to live here, and I decided to add another flower, a bellflower, meaning unwavering love.”
“You… you got that for me?” Kara asked, tears filling her eyes.
Cat smiled and cupped Kara’s cheeks, softly brushing at the falling tears with her thumbs. “Of course, my sweet girl, you are one of my children, of course I would get one for you. I chose the bellflower because the color reminded me a little of your eyes, and so that you would always know that you were loved and wanted. I know that your cousin is an ass and you think he doesn’t love you the way family should, but I wanted to have a reminder of you. That you give love to everyone, and that you’ll always get it back from me.”
Kara wiped at her face and hugged the shorter woman, wrapping her arms around her in a tight hug. “I love you Mom.”
“I love you too Kara.”