Nobody Does It Better

Is This A Blessing? Or Is It A Curse?

"So, Kara tells me that you're getting married?"

Alex had figured that Luthors were good at Small Talk. They'd have to be. A lifetime of balls, galas, cotillions, symposia, dinners, mixers, and other events with free wine would make mingling a necessary life skill. And, infamously, they were also good at Big Talk: political speeches, academic lectures, 'Soon my Electro-Ray will destroy Metropolis!', that kind of thing.

What they weren't good at, based on the example stood beside her, was Medium Talk; which was the only one of the three at which Alex excelled - and that had made the last fifteen minutes kind of tense; although, honestly, Alex was happy to keep it that way.

But she wasn't so happy that there were questions.

"That's right," she said.

"Well, congratulations!" Lena replied, with all the sincerity in the world, "What's the groom's name?"

"Margaret," Alex answered, deliberately.

"She sounds lovely," Lena said, with barely a pause. "Have you set a date yet?"

"Okay!" Winn said loudly, as he crossed the lobby, "We are free to go!"

"We?" Alex asked him, pointing to Lena, "Did J'onn say-"

"J'onn said. We can go," he answered.

"Are you fired?" Alex asked, more hopefully than he would have liked.

"Suspended, one month, with pay," Winn admitted.

"You're getting a vacation?" she asked, in disbelief.

"Don't remind me," he replied.

"Martian's pet," she said.

"Martian?" Lena queried, raising an eyebrow.

For the second time in half-an-hour, Alex resembled a deer in headlights. "...No."

Winn decided to ignore it, and carried on, "Well, the good news is, while I'm gone, Alex will be taking over for me at L-Corp."

"Well, I'm sure that will be... productive," Lena said, as diplomatically as she could for someone who was clearly terrified.

"Yes. Productive," Alex said, with limited enthusiasm.

There was an awful silence, which Lena broke by saying, "Well, my driver's on his way, so..."

"I'll wait with you," Winn said.

"It was nice to meet you again, Agent Danvers," Lena said to Alex, and held out her hand, which Alex shook, roughly.

"Be seein' you," she said.

Lena nodded, and made her way out the lobby doors. Winn shot Alex a 'be nice' look as he followed her.

Outside, it felt like it was going to be a hot day; magic hour was finding a way to turn itself into dawn, and the city was waking up. But you could still see the stars, as barely as ever; the light pollution from both the sun and the city working to drown them them out. Lena stared up at them as she strolled toward the sidewalk.

"It's not there," she said, half to herself as much as to Winn, "it's the wrong season."

"I know," he said, "You know, don't worry too much about Alex. She'll warm up to you, just as soon as, you know, she starts believing she's smarter than you."

Lena turned away from the stars, and back down at him with... not disdain as such, but certainly not congeniality.

"Well, that doesn't seem likely, does it?" she said, sarcastically.