Chapter Text
Nine years later…
Lyra is sitting on the couch with R’gann on her lap and she can’t help but steal a kiss from her girlfriend each chance she gets. She turned sixteen a few months ago and R’gann is fifteen, though her girlfriend will be sixteen soon enough. They’ve been a thing for two years now and it amuses her how her family used to think that she would lean towards Lilith, who is nothing more than her best friend. She didn’t really have to come out because Kryptonians don’t care about sexuality.
Larissa sighs as she’s seated between seventeen year old Lilith and nineteen year old Vladimir. She’s quite close with both of them, always has been. The problem is that she has had on and off relationships with both of them, not at once of course. When she was thirteen she had her first kiss with Lilith and they dated for about a year. Then she got together with Vladimir, only to end up with Lilith again. It’s always been a bit of a push and pull between those two and she’s still not sure.
Alex smiles while she bounces Jamie on her leg. She adores her five year old daughter, who she adopted with Maggie about four years ago when they decided they wanted a child. Pregnancy wasn’t their thing hence they went with adoption to give a child a loving home.
Maggie loves the way Jamie brightens when Alex spends time with her. It had been a good idea to have a family together. She never thought she’d be a mother someday, but here she is and it feels amazing.
“I saw you made the news again, young lady,” Lena says to Larissa, crossing her arms over her chest while she taps her foot. “What did I tell you?” she asks, having warned her oldest daughter time and time again.
“You said I am too young to be flying out there,” Larissa answers with a heavy sigh. She knows well enough how her mothers feel about it, but she’s old enough to make her own decisions.
“Nightingale is a nice nickname,” Vladimir says to Larissa. “I like it because it suits you.”
“Miss Grant and her labels,” Astra says, shaking her head lightly in disapproval. “That woman continuously feels the need to label each hero and villain.”
“It’s not so bad,” Larissa replies, not quite minding it. She wears a black suit when she is up in the sky, quite similar to what Astra always wears. It hadn’t been her original intention to use her powers, though over the years that changed and now National City knows her as Nightingale. Unlike her mother, she wears a mask to cover most of her face.
“Someday I’m going to be out there, too,” Lyra says with determination.
“You’re both still young,” Kara says to Lyra and Larissa. “Too young to be doing those things,” she says, not wanting her sixteen year olds to do that sort of stuff.
“You were only eighteen when you stepped forward as Supergirl,” Larissa points out.
“Precisely, I was eighteen, not sixteen,” Kara replies. “And those circumstances were different,” she says, not having had much of a choice in the matter when Lex had killed Kal-El. Her daughters have a choice, that’s the big difference.
“We already graduated from college this year,” Larissa says, considering she and her sister were a few years ahead which allowed them to graduate early on.
“I want to be a hero when I grow up,” Alura says, smiling brightly with her pearly white teeth. “Helping people is good. And animals, definitely animals too.”
“Please stay little for like… twenty more years or so,” Kara says to Alura, not wanting her youngest daughter to grow up too fast.
“It’s okay, mommy,” Alura replies sweetly as she hugs her mother. “I’ll still be your little girl when I grow up.”
“I should record this evidence,” Kara says, smiling while she hopes Alura will still feel that way about it when she’s an adult.
“You’ve got plenty of witnesses though,” Lucy points out, settling down on Astra’s lap. She hums quietly as she pecks her wife’s lips and it should be illegal how fucking hot Astra looks while she’s in her fifties. It’s like time stood still for her wife and physically they look the same age by now.
Astra brings her arms up around Lucy’s waist. She’s happy Lucy had said yes to her all those years ago, when she proposed to her so they could fully be together. This marriage was not an arranged one. Being with Lucy feels right because what they share is love.
J’onn chuckles dryly at something M’gann whispers in his ear.
Harley is pouting at Ivy over a cookie that has chocolate on it because all the other cookies with chocolate have already been eaten.
Ivy lightly rolls her eyes and hands to chocolate cookie over to Harley. “Why do I put up with you?” she asks with a smile on her lips.
“Ya love me too much not to,” Harley answers, biting into the cookie.
“Mam, I would like to run L-Corp,” Larissa says to her mother.
“I will let you run it once you are a few years older,” Lena promises, not wanting to hand over such a responsibility to her sixteen year old. Larissa is legally graduated, but she’s also legally too young for such a job.
“We kind of have a much extended summer now,” Lyra says to her sister. “Maybe we can add some extra degrees to our belt,” she suggest, waiting to see what Larissa will think of that.
“Hmm, okay,” Larissa agrees.
“Auntie Leslie, I want to see a trick,” Alura says, settling down next to Leslie.
Leslie grins and gives in to Alura’s cute little face. She lets electricity spark from her hand, dancing the spark between her fingers. The last couple of years she’s been dating aliens on and off because they’re more durable than humans and they don’t treat her like some kind of freak.
“Mama, can Alura come with us to the beach tomorrow?” Nova asks her mother.
“You’ll have to ask Kara and Lena,” Lucy answers, stroking her daughter’s hair.
Two years ago Astra found a Lunarian hidden in a building after she had spotted the Lunarian stealing food. Lunarians have a yellow skin and are known as a race who tried to wipe out humanity, though they were exiled by Superman, before Kal-El was killed by Lex. Lunarians absorb solar radiation to become superhuman. It is said that in theory, a Lunarian can kill a Kryptonian.
When Astra found the Lunarian, it turned out to be an eight year old girl, Nova. The child was afraid of her and she saw no threat in the young Lunarian. Nova is a refugee who didn’t have anyone and was stealing food to stay alive. She took the child home and Lucy had reacted well. Ever since that day Nova has been their daughter.
Lucy smiles at her ten year old daughter. She doesn’t care that Nova is different and that her skin is yellow. Since the day Astra brought their daughter home, she can’t imagine her life without Nova.
“I want to go to the beach with Nova,” Alura says, taking Nova’s hand while she looks pleadingly at her mothers.
“That’s okay, sweetie,” Lena replies, smiling at her youngest daughter.
“Don’t forget your sunscreen,” Kara says. She chuckles when Alura nods while her wife elbows her.
“Hey,” Alura says, knitting her eyebrows together. “I never get sunburned, mommy.”
“Your mommy is being a tease,” Lena says, smiling fondly at her wife.
Larissa fake coughs when Lyra and R’gann share a heated kiss. “Get a room,” she whispers to her sister.
“Oh Rao,” Lyra whispers, blushing. “It’s not like that, Larissa,” she whispers, giving her sister a push.
“I should walk Krypto,” Larissa says, moving to get his leash.
“I’m going to stretch my legs for a while,” Vladimir says, sharing a smile with Larissa. “Outside,” he adds.
“The garden would be outside, you know,” Lilith says to her brother.
“Krypto, come here boy,” Larissa says, crouching down to put his leash on. “We’ll be back soon.”
Lyra watches her sister walk out the door with Krypto and Vladimir. “Are you okay?” she asks Lilith, knowing that her best friend feels something for Larissa.
“Mhmm,” Lilith hums. “I’ve been asked out by a few people, it is fine.”
“Anyone would be lucky to have you,” Lyra says sincerely. “You’re really awesome and pretty.”
“Having feelings for sisters is a tough situation,” Lilith says with a sigh. “Especially when one is my best friend who is taken and the other is one my brother has been pining after for multiple years.”
Lyra’s eyes grow wide at what her best friend said. “Lili?” she asks, shocked and surprised. “You have feelings for me?”
“Would it be weird if I would say I did since the day I met you?” Lilith asks shyly. “You said my hair was beautiful and I gave you a lily, which I put in your hair.”
“Oh Rao, we were six,” Lyra answers, remembering that day.
“You hugged me and called me your best friend,” Lilith recalls. “It’s good to be best friends and I know you love R’gann.”
“I knew you two always had a special chemistry going on,” R’gann comments.
“R’gann, you know I’ve been your girl for two years,” Lyra says gently, to reassure her girlfriend.
“I’m not worried,” R’gann replies, shrugging. “By the way, Lilith, Nova seems to admire you, she’s always smiling at you.”
“Don’t be gross,” Lilith replies, rolling her eyes at R’gann. “Nova is ten, she is a child.”
“It’s not only Nova though,” R’gann points out. “My brother digs you, too.”
“R’gann,” C’mett groans, huffing at his sister. “That wasn’t very subtle.”
“Lilith likes flowers, so you’re all good, wallflower,” R’gann teases her brother.
When Larissa returns with Krypto and Vladimir she frowns at the way everyone seems to be stuck in a conversation and hearing them all at once is too much. She drowns the noises out and concentrates on the sound of her twin sister’s heartbeat. She slips her hand in her pocket, retrieving her black knight, and clutches it tightly in her hand as a dark flicker passes through her eyes.
Vladimir opens his right hand which he had curled in a fist, revealing a black knight that matches Larissa’s black knight.
Larissa breaks her attention away from Vladimir when she catches her sister staring at her with a frown on her face. She takes place next to Lyra and Lilith, smiling as Lilith grows flowers for her, always such a gentle soul. Vladimir interests her for his darkness as much as Lilith interests her for her light.
Kara smiles as she looks around at their family, all diverse and happy. Not all of them share blood, though their bound is thicker than blood. Together they are stronger, better, brighter. She wraps her arms around Lena’s waist and exhales slowly as she rests her head on her wife’s shoulder. This family is all she could have ever wished for.
Lena holds Kara closely and this time when she breathes, it no longer hurts. Her chest doesn’t have that heaviness it once used to have. There is no weight pressing down on her anymore. She knows that with her wife and their family by her side, everything will be okay.
“I can’t breathe without you and I don’t have to. We don’t have to. No, darling, we don’t have to.”