Happy Birthday to my good friend. I hope your day is as special as you are @Jeeeennifer30
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Kara walked down the aisle at the Halloween store, looking through the assortment of costumes. She tugged at her blue sweater, hands fidgety with seeming anxiety as she needlessly fixed her glasses for the third time in as many minutes. The rows were filled with bright colors and stretchy material, capes, symbols of justice. Actually, it was nothing out of the ordinary in her life. A younger Kara Danvers had adored Halloween when she'd first been introduced to it by her new sister Alex, though mainly for the candy. Now though, she just couldn't seem to get into the spirit...pun intended.
"Hey, how about this one?" Alex asked, stepping up next to Kara, a costume in hand.
Kara turned, her gaze briefly flicking over what Alex held before her eyes leveled to stare at her sister with an unamused look. "Hysterical." Kara took the Supergirl costume from Alex and hung it up on a nearby rack. Raising and lowering her arms until they slapped against her legs, Kara sighed loudly. "I don't know, Alex. Nothing is calling to me. I just don't know what to get."
"Just get anything."
"No, I want to get something good, something great. It has to be the right thing, you know?"
Alex smiled, hands on her hips as she rocked back and forth slightly. Her brown leather jacket hung casually on her shoulders, green shirt peeking it from underneath.
"What?"
Arms crossing, Alex tilted her head to the side. "This isn't about the costume."
"Uh, yeah, it is."
"Oh, really. So, this isn't about the person you're going to invite to the party?"
Puffing up her cheeks while she awkwardly straightened her glasses...again, Kara slowly blew out her breath. "What? Me? No. Why would it be? Lena and I are friends. We do stuff together all the time. She's invited me to her parties before, so I'm inviting her to one of mine. We're just the friendliest friends to ever do a friend thing." Kara stared at her sister for several seconds and then added, "As friends."
"Oh, my God." Alex pinched the bridge of her nose before dropping her hand and saying, "Kara, just ask her out already."
"I...I can't." Kara shook her head.
"Yes, you can."
"No, I've tried. I open my mouth, and then I say something completely different like about work, or the weather, or dogs, or a pen."
"A pen?"
Nodding vigorously, Kara replied, "I got so nervous the other day, I spent like two minutes complimenting her pen. But hey, bonus, she sent me a box of pens. Heh, heh."
Head down, Alex mumbled incoherently for several seconds. Finally, she lifted her head and looked at her sister again. "Look, just text her. Send her a text and ask her to go to the party. Then you don't have to become all...you over her holding a spoon or something. How does that sound?"
"Good except I still have to come out to her. It's why I keep getting so flustered. When I realize I have to come out to her, I just get..." Grabbing the top of her sweater, Kara pulled on it several times as if to release some heat.
"Kara, if you ask her out, I'm pretty sure that counts as coming out."
"Not that coming out. I'm talking about..." Looking around to make sure they weren't being overheard, Kara grabbed the Supergirl costume she'd hung up on a nearby rack and shook it at her sister before hanging it back again. "I have to tell her the truth."
"Oh, okay. So, you want to tell her, right?"
"Yes, yes, I mean...yes."
"Well, it's been cleared. J'onn has authorized it. Kara, if you want to tell her, just tell her. She's the only one of your friends that doesn't know."
"That's the problem," Kara agreed. "She's the only one of my friends who doesn't know. I trust her, but how do I make her understand this wasn't a trust issue? How do I get her to see this wasn't a Super/Luthor issue? I feel like maybe I missed the boat on this, that I should have told her a few months ago, and now I don't know how to fix it."
"And you think waiting longer will help?"
"Argh!" Kara bopped herself in the forehead with her fist several times. "I can't think about this right now. Just help me pick out a costume, okay? I want it to look cool, but not look too slutty."
"Okay, fine. So we're going to avoid the banana costume of 2012."
"Which was appealing."
Alex groaned. "That still isn't funny, and we'll steer clear of the milk-maid costume fiasco of 2015."
"Steer clear?"
"Hey, you started with the puns."
"True."
Picking up a costume, Alex held it up for Kara to inspect. "What about this one?"
"Wonder Woman?" Kara considered it. "It's a classic and not so revealing I wouldn't wear it in public. I know I look good in the boots, so that's a plus."
"How do you know you...? You wore her boots?"
Smiling, her head bopping back and forth, Kara admitted, "I loaned her my cape. It was just a girl thing, you know, borrowing each other's clothes. You know how that is."
"Uh...yeah but uh...You wore her boots?"
Kara just nodded.
"Okay, moving on. We'll put this on the maybe list." Putting that costume down and picking up another, Alex asked, "What about this one?"
"Oh, Green Lantern. I haven't actually met her yet, but Lois finally got an interview with her. I'm sure you heard."
"From Lucy, yes. It was really just bitching and complaining about Lois's ego, that Lucy didn't think it could get any bigger, but apparently she was wrong. You haven't met her, Green Lantern, not Lois, obviously."
Shaking her head, Kara replied, "No she's only been seen in National City twice now, and each time it was major. I didn't have a moment to shake hands with anyone. Green Lantern's help was timely, but she was gone before I had a moment to thank her. I think Metropolis is her base."
"So Clark's met her?" Alex asked quietly as she looked around.
"Sort of? He's spoken to her, but she hasn't spoken back. Green Lantern's aren't picked for being friendly, just brave. You'll never know what you'll get when you get one."
"Okay, well another maybe then?"
Kara thought about it then nodded.
Switching for another costume, Alex held one up. "How about this one?"
"Batgirl." Kara smiled. "Now she's a friend. I've met her a bunch. We've done lunch."
"Well, anyone who feeds you is your friend."
"Truth."
"Costume isn't too revealing," Alex commented.
"Not even remotely. I think Robin probably has the most revealing costume in that group. Oooh! I bet I could borrow a real utility belt with a bat-a-rang and stuff if...okay, that's a definite maybe. Do we have a definite maybe pile?"
"Uh...We do now. Alex put it next to the other two but pushed them apart creating a clear line of delimitation. "There, the maybes and the definite maybe. More?"
"Yes, please."
Sighing, Alex said, "Sure thing. If we get something you like, you're going to ask Lena out?"
"Yes. Maybe. Definite maybe."
Alex grumbled. "You're a definite maybe. Okay, how about...?" She moved the costume around, looking at its front, back, and front again. It was purple and silver with long purple boots. "Is this missing a piece like a skirt?"
"No, that's Starfire's costume. She has a lot of leg and they're just kind of...there."
"Oh, well, how nice for her. Do you want to...?" Alex held out the costume toward Kara.
"No, thank you. Next please."
"You know you have the legs for this, right?"
With a nervous smile, Kara replied, "But not the intestinal fortitude."
"Ah, no guts. You wear less than this to the beach."
"Not in front of Lena."
Hanging up the costume, Alex looked through the rack for something else. "She really has you all wound up in knots."
One arm wrapped around her center and the other rubbing the back of her neck, Kara nodded. "I really like her, Alex. I think she likes me. I think she's flirting with me, but then she just sort of..."
"She sort of what?" Alex asked, looking up from the rack.
"Well, she's flirty with the smiling and these little comments and then she's all, 'you're my friend, we're like family, ' and she'll suddenly go into work mode or something when the eye contact gets intense. I swear she starts it most of the time, and then she shuts it down. I don't know. Maybe I'm making it up."
"Maybe she thinks you're not interested."
"Sheesh. As if. You've seen her."
Not commenting, Alex held up another costume. "Well, this one reveals nothing. Are these little skulls?"
"That's Raven. She's on the Teen Titans with Starfire. They're friends."
"They don't exactly wear team colors, do they?"
"Well, Raven is a bit..." Fiddling with her glasses again, Kara finally settled on, "...complicated. Honestly, she could give Lena lessons in family issues."
"Really!?"
"Really. You know, if we could figure out a way to send Lillian after Trigon, we could only win."
"Like a cage match, two go in; one comes out?"
Kara nodded.
Nodding back, Alex asked, "So, are you feeling this or...?"
"Not. I don't want to go to the Starfire extreme, but I do want to show off something, at least my face in good lighting. I mean, Lena will—"
"If you get the guts to ask her."
"Mean."
"And yet true," Alex replied sliding the Raven costume back and grabbing another one. "I this another Batgirl costume?"
"Batwoman."
"I can't keep up. I'll put her with Batgirl." Grabbing another costume, Alex grinned.
"No."
"Oh, come on, have fun."
"Alex, she's a villain."
"She likes high places. You like high places."
"I said no."
"She knows Batman. You know Batman."
"Still no."
"She likes animals. You like animals," Alex pointed out.
"I'm a dog person. She is most definitely not a dog person. Put it back."
"Fine. Someone clearly doesn't know how to go outside her comfort zone. That's why you can't get a date with Lena." Hanging it back up with gusto, Alex grabbed a new costume. "How about this?"
"I can't get a date with Lena because I'm afraid to lose her friendship. I'm afraid if she finds out who I really am—"
"Kara, if finding out who you really are loses her friendship, then she wasn't your friend. Sure, she might be upset. She might even be pissed you've been keeping it from her for this long. Real friends get through that. Are you and Lena real friends?"
Letting that settle in, Kara nodded. "Yes. Yes, we are."
"Then tell her. Now, what about this costume."
"I've made a decision," Kara announced.
"About the costume?"
"Yes, and about Lena. I'm going to tell her. I'm going to ask her out, and I'm going to tell her who I am. I'm just going to do it."
"Hey, good for you." Alex hugged her sister. "So, about the costume..."
"I know what I'm doing."
"Great, do we need a wig?"
Slowly, Kara's smile grew.