tracy |42| bisexual | michigan ig: tjm907

Prompt: “Eat the rich, am I right?”

Kara threw back the shot, swallowing the alien liquor in one go, desperately seeking the fuzziness and disconnection that only inebriation could bring.

“Woah, slow down there.” Alex laughed, “You know since adopting Esme my alcohol tolerance has plummeted.”

“Right… sorry.” Kara mumbled, moving to adjust her glasses only for her fingers to brush bare skin, the surprise of it and the sheer stupidity of the action making her gaze dart over to the spot she’d ordered herself not to look at. 

She grimaced and quickly drank another shot. 

Alex’s brow immediately pinched with concern, her head twisting round to track down whatever sight had provoked the discontent in her sister; before she had a chance to locate the issue, Nia was falling into the booth beside Alex, giggly and slightly sweat-sheened from dancing. Brainy slipped in next to Kara, looking equally flustered and energetic. 

“This place is amazing! We should come every week!” Nia declared jubilantly.

“I concur!” Brainy agreed instantly, his smile wide, lopsided and smeared with a purple shade that matched Nia’s lipstick. 

“Let’s see if you both feel the same in the morning…” Alex drawled, sipping her pint glass of water, having made the smart decision to alternate alcohol with hydration. 

Nia either pointedly ignored this statement or had already mentally moved on from the conversation, Kara couldn’t really tell which, too busy sneakily taking another shot. Nia was already shifting in her seat, head rotating this way and that way, desperate to get back out on the dance-floor and burn more energy as she took hasty sips of the cocktail Alex and Kara had been guarding.

“Holy moly!” Nia exclaimed, going still as her eyes locked onto something. “Those two are about to get it on.”

“What? Who?” Alex asked curiously, even as Kara went rigid, eyes burning and heart racing.

“Talk about eat the rich, am I right?” Nia snorted, nudging Alex’s side as Alex slowly turned back to meet Kara’s gaze, her expression painfully sympathetic and understanding. “I knew Lena and Andrea had a whole thing but I had no idea it was heating back up again. I mean hot damn. Hey, Kara?” Nia murmured, leaning over the table, head lolling forward like an eager puppy with absolutely no filter. “Did you know? Do you think Lena’s going to go home with Andrea? Do you think they’re going to get together? Oh my god, can you imagine if they like properly date or… get married? How rich would they be together? Do you-”

CRACK-BANG

The table of their booth splintered apart, thudding loud and heavy to the ground - Alex let out a wince of pain as it banged her knees on the descent, Nia and Brainy’s alcohol levels dulling them to the impact.

“Shi-Shoot, I… I am so sorry…” Kara said, staggering to her feet, stomping the debris harder into the ground and inadvertently making any repair impossible.

“Is everyone okay?” 

Kara cringed, looking over to find Lena, Andrea and Kelly - all of them having rushed over the instant they heard the noise. Staff were approaching but a wave from Lena and promise to pay for the expenses kept them at bay. Kara could barely look at her best friend, shoulders hunched up high and body curled forward with shame and in a vain attempt to mitigate the ache in her chest. 

Lena was in a black dress with a high cut up the thigh; her hair was loose, curly and voluminous like a dark-haired Sandy from Grease. Her cheeks were flushed a bright pink, eyes dark and sparkling and the neck of her dress was pulled off one shoulder to reveal the expanse of tempting flesh. 

(Kara had watched Andrea’s hands tease at the split in Lena’s dress, fingertips kissing the flash of thigh before marking a path up Lena’s side, hooking around the edge of fabric to pull it to the side allowing Andrea’s nose and the ghost of her lips to trail along Lena’s collarbone).

“We’re fine.” Alex answered immediately, getting to her feet and reaching for Kara - only for Kara to sway backwards out of reach and nearly fall over.

Hands in all directions reached out to steady her but with her ears filled with the sound of Lena’s familiar thrumming heartbeat is it any wonder that she fell towards Lena who touched her like she was fragile rather than a wrecking ball?

“You okay?” Lena whispered, head ducking forward so the words were just between the two of them.

Kara blinked into caring green eyes, breath catching in her throat so stubbornly that she felt herself actually choke on it - words totally beyond her capability.

She shook her head, unable to stop the action. 

Lena’s face instantly set, becoming determined and clear as if all the alcohol was instantly purged from her system. Hands that had been delicately placed on Kara’s shoulders to offer maximum stabilisation, traced down her arms until their fingers were tangled - locking them together. 

“I’m taking Kara home.” Lena declared, barely glancing around at the rest of the group.

Kara knew her sister would frown, considering whether to step in but would ease back if Kara shuffled that little bit closer to Lena - proving that this was what she wanted. During the shuffle forward, Kara caught a glimpse of Andrea’s expression: strained, disappointed and not so slightly annoyed. Any sense of victory Kara would have felt at provoking such a reaction was diminished by how Lena released Kara’s hand to fleetingly squeeze Andrea’s forearm, murmuring a promise to call or text when possible.

The interaction soured the mix of liquids in her stomach and as Lena led her out of the side-exit of the club to avoid scrutiny, Kara had to stop them so she could throw up in the gutter. Lena held her hair back, fingers cold and soothing on the back of Kara’s heated neck, her words even more gentle. Lena guided Kara into her chauffeured car, forcing her to drink water and then letting her rest her head on her shoulder and play with Lena’s fingers for the whole journey. 

They arrived back at Kara’s apartment, Lena still steering her with infinite care, helping drink more water and get changed into pyjamas - Lena purposefully looking away whenever bare skin was exposed which only made the ache in Kara’s chest all the more pronounced. 

“Why does she get to touch you like that?” Kara asked when she could no longer hold the drunk-induced words back.

“Hmm?” Lena hummed, raising an eyebrow curiously as she tucked the duvet in around Kara’s heavy-limbed form, “Who gets to touch me like what?”

Kara pursed her lips, looking into the far corner of her room as she muttered darkly, “Andrea…”

Lena froze for a painful beat, and Kara was suddenly acutely aware of how her eardrums throbbed with the remnant bass of the club. Lena slowly pulled away standing up to her full height as she peered down at Kara, her expression inscrutable.

“Because she asked, because she showed interest.” Lena said eventually, the words clipped and sharp. “You’ve never even tried to touch me like that. Never given any indication that you would want to…”

Kara still adamantly refused to look at her, fingers fidgeting with the edge of her quilt.

 “I know you went out on a date with William Day.” Lena murmured, and Kara cringed away at that. 

She was aware that she had said yes to him because she hoped he would reduce how much she thought of Lena but all it did was make Lena feel all the more easily replaced and forgotten.

Lena sighed and pinched her brow with index finger and thumb as if this conversation - if Kara - was producing a migraine. “Nevermind. You should sleep.”

“Are you going to sleep with her?” Kara asked quietly, wanting the salt to be rubbed into her wounds, wanting the burn in the hope that the sheer sharpness of it would reduce the underlying ache.

“If she asks…” Lena whispered hesitantly - Kara lived and died a thousand times over in that minor pause -, “probably. Is there a reason I shouldn’t?”

“I don’t like her.”

“I didn’t like Mike or Mon-El.” Lena shot back, shaking her head. “That’s not a good enough reason.”

“Then what would be?” Kara demanded, head turning towards her, gaze focused on the white flash of thigh through the slit in Lena’s dress - still not able to look up into her green eyes.

“If you like me more.” Lena breathed.

Kara licked her lips, lungs inflating to put the long-awaited declaration out into the world only for her jaw to snap shut and her tongue to stick to the bottom of her mouth.

 “You can’t say it, can you?” Lena laughed, the sound mournful and broken. “That’s the difference, you know? She’s not scared or embarrassed to like me, to ask to touch me.”

“Is that what you think: that I’m embarrassed?” Kara cringed, head bowing down as if she was praying to Lena, offering herself up in supplication.

“I don’t know,” Lena admitted, “but when I have no alternative… what should I default to thinking? If you say and do nothing despite my repeated invitations to it’s either because you don’t like me like that or you do but you don’t want to act on it.” 

Another pause, another chance for redemption.

“It’s… I…” Kara began falteringly before trailing off into the heaviest of silences.

“What’s wrong with me?” Kara asked as she slumped down on the sofa; Alex and Kelly watched her with concerned expressions. “I know how I feel about Lena, I know what I want with her so why can’t I…” she waved her arms in front of her as if offering an interpretative dance of action and decision making.

“And how do you feel about Lena?” Alex queried as Kelly leant back ensuring the conversation was more held between the two sisters.

“You know.” Kara harrumphed.

“I mean, do I?” Alex pressed. “I know you’re attracted to her. I know you care about her. Do you just want to sleep with her?” The question was like a kryptonite powered slap to Kara’s face. “You’ve never had a best friend, is it just that you feel like you’re losing her? What is it, Kara?”

“You know it’s more than that- She’s more than that.” Kara growled.

“And more is what?” Alex shrugged drolly, “Your bestest best friend?”

Kara’s expression scrunched up, waves and crinkles forming in a bid to serve as a barrier against the flood of emotion that Alex’s laissez-faire attitude provoked.

“Everything!” Kara shouted. “She’s everything!”

Alex didn’t react to her rage, she didn’t even blink - Kelly, meanwhile, placed a supportive hand on Alex’s back as if holding her up like a stabilising beam. 

“Then why do you treat her like nothing?”

“I don’t- I would never-” Kara blustered, outraged beyond comprehension.

“Nothing is probably too far.” Alex acknowledged, rubbing her chin, “But you don’t treat her like she’s special,  like she’s anything more than a good friend.”

“That’s not…” Kara began, jaw working but unable to produce the necessary words. “I… I rewrote the universe for her.”

“Privately. Or should I say… secretively.” Alex said, the word quiet and cutting despite the sympathetic edge she gave it.

“I…” Kara withered, falling back in her seat and looking away in shame. “Why can’t I… why can’t I love her out in the open? Why can’t I say the words I want and do the things I want? Not even out in the open… just… just to her.”

“Kara, how do you feel when you think about doing those things?” Alex pressed, “Imagine Lena is here right now. Imagine standing up and kissing her. How do you feel?”

She swallowed thickly, heartbeat accelerating to terminal velocity, her mouth opened and closed. She tried to cough out words, tried to even imagine her carrying out the fantasy but her brain grinded painfully - something obstructing the cogs' easy motions.

Alex waited and waited and waited.

Nothing.

Kara cringed away when the awkward silence became too much to bear.

“She’s scared into paralysis.” Kelly whispered in shock, the words on the periphery of being audible.

Alex shifted then - Kara could hear her approach even as she curled in on herself - moving closer, kneeling in front of her sister. Carefully Alex covered Kara’s hands with her own, she didn’t tangle their fingers or interlock them in any way knowing that when emotionally stressed Kara’s powers slip out of her tight control and harm could be caused however accidentally. 

“You won’t even let yourself dream it?” Alex murmured, voice rough with emotion but so soft and caring - the regret of pushing Kara earlier apparent.

“Alex…” Kara’s breath caught in her throat, a sob rising up to follow.

“Kara, you’re allowed to want, you know that, right?” 

“I…”

“You’re allowed to want Lena.” Alex affirmed, “You don’t need anyone’s permission to feel however you want.”

“Then why do I feel like I do?” Kara asked, lifting her head up to reveal her tear-stained cheeks; Alex’s expression scrunched up in sympathy. “Why do I feel so guilty whenever I try to… whenever I even think…”

Kara watched the group disperse after their debrief - they’d helped a ship of small creatures that thought as one greater being to escape Earth from a group of hunters that sold their furs on the black market. They were looking for the remaining members of the hunting group, Kara and Nia using CatCo to aid the investigation whilst Alex and Brainy investigated using old sources from the DEO.

Kara hung back, hands clasped behind her back and heart pounding in her chest. Alex walked by giving her a reassuring smile and squeezed her shoulder in encouragement. Kara smiled shakily back, breathing slightly quicker than normal, she’d been mentally preparing for this all day after talking it through with Alex and Kelly but now the moment was here and every positive reinforcement she’d given herself folded under the weight of her nerves. 

She waited until Lena had finished speaking with Brainy, crossing the space between them as Lena pulled on her coat.

“Lena, can we talk?” Kara asked in one rushed breath.

“Of course.” Lena quirked an eyebrow at her, expression instantly growing concerned at Kara’s frantic state. 

Kara gestured towards the balcony, granting them privacy. Lena stood facing out to the cityscape, hands folded carefully together and placed on the cold stone balustrade. Kara desperately wanted to reach out and take her hands, keeping them warm against the chill of the night air but she wasn’t sure yet if her touch was welcome (if she was even brave enough to make contact and she needed her strength for something else first).

“I…” Kara began as Lena side-eyed her.

“Is something wrong?” Lena prompted gently - far gentler than Kara deserved following the awkwardness that lay between them due to her failures since they went out to the club over a week ago.

“Yes, there is,” Kara said slowly; Lena instantly shifted round, whole body facing Kara as if her guard was dropped the instant Kara admitted that there was potential hurt or harm, “but I… I’m working on it.”

Lena pursed her lips, trying to parse the meaning of Kara’s haltingly offered answer. “Do you need help?”

“I…” Kara swallowed thickly, looking down to the floor, ashamed of the request she had to make, “I need something far more selfish than that.”

“Whatever it is…” Lena whispered, fingers slipping off stone, moving uncertainly through the air before lightly tracing the edge of Kara’s hand, “you need only ask, Kara.”

Kara grabbed Lena’s hand, holding tight and desperate with all the selfish ugliness she was about to reveal; craving the softness, the touch and everything it represented (the future it might one day provide).

Kara breathed in and held it, knowing when she next breathed in - her whole world could have shifted.

“Can you wait?” Kara asked, heart in her throat. “Can you wait for me? I know I have no right to ask. That it’s so unfair to you. That I’m always making you wait and I understand if you can’t. If you hate me for even asking. But I want… I want… Rao, I can’t… I can’t say it and I hate that I can’t because I want to say it. I want to say ‘I want’ and… I need time to get there. So, I’m asking if you’ll wait until… until I can ask for more?”

Lena had listened, head tilted to the side and green eyes studying her closely. She didn’t interrupt and didn’t overly react except for a slight flicker of something in the depths of her eyes. She finally looked away and Kara lived and died a thousand times in the beats awaiting her reply.

“You’re working on it?” Lena checked, still not looking at her.

“I… yes… Yes, I am.” Kara promised, thumb running back and forth over Lena’s knuckles.

“Okay.” Lena sighed, nodding to herself and looking back, her expression a mixture of fondness and melancholy that made Kara’s heart feel like someone had wrapped a belt around it and was pulling it tight. “I’ll wait.”

Kara’s jaw dropped in disbelief, “You… you will?”

“Yes.” Lena confirmed.

“I… I don’t know what to say.” Kara murmured, lifting their joined hands up and pausing for one long second before pressing the lightest of kisses to the pale skin earning a small shocked gasp from Lena. “Thank you.” She whispered, head lifting up to meet watery green eyes. “And why?”

“Because you asked.” Lena explained, taking the smallest of steps closer. “Because you’re working on it. And I… I’m hopeful..”

“Lena…” Kara said, hoping she could convey all of her mixed emotions - even those she can’t voice yet - in that singular word.

Lena smiled at her for the first time in a long time, “How about Chinese takeaway and a sitcom?”

“Yeah, that would… yeah…” Kara replied, breathing out in relief.

Tilda Swinton risked arrest waving a rainbow flag in front of the Kremlin in violation of Russia’s new homosexual propaganda bill. And she wants everyone who can to reblog it in solidarity.

LGBTQ+ organizations and allies are celebrating Michigan for becoming the first state in three years to pass comprehensive anti-discrimination protections for sexual orientation and gender identity. The legislation, which now heads to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) to be signed into law, finally passed after decades of court battles and hold-ups from Republican legislators.

The bill passed in a 64-45 vote in the Democrat-led House on Wednesday. It amends the state’s 1976 Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act (ELCRA) to include LGBTQ+ people among its protected groups. The law forbids discrimination in housing, employment, and public accommodation within businesses, government buildings, and educational facilities on the basis of religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, height, weight, familial status, marital status — and now, LGBTQ+ identity.

Democrats had tried introducing various LGBTQ+ non-discrimination measures over the last 40 years, according to the bill’s gay sponsor Sen. Jeremy Moss (D). However, the attempts were repeatedly voted down by Republican-led legislatures. Last January, Democrats took control of the full legislature for the first time in nearly 40 years, finally giving them the chance to pass the protections.

In July 2022, Michigan’s Supreme Court issued a landmark 5–2 ruling that ELCRA already forbade discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity as forms of discrimination based on sex and gender. This followed a 2020 Michigan Court of Claims ruling that said ELCRA didn’t ban anti-gay discrimination as well as a 2018 vote by Michigan’s Civil Rights Commission interpreting ELCRA as protecting LGBTQ+ people from religious-based discrimination...

When the House voted to pass the historic bill on Wednesday, a crowd in the House gallery broke into applause, Bridge Michigan reported. Republican House members had tried adding amendments that would’ve carved out exceptions for religious people to continue discriminating against LGBTQ+ people. None of these amendments passed into the final bill.

Gov. [Whitmer] has signaled that she will soon sign the bill into law. In a Wednesday tweet, she noted the observation of International Women’s Day and wrote, “I’m celebrating trans women who have continuously led the way, despite constant threats to their lives and liberty. I’m proud that we’re finally in a position to expand the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act to protect LGBTQ+ Michiganders. Let’s get it done!”

-via LGBTQ Nation, 3/9/23

Note: If it's not clear from the language, this is basically a done deal--the bill signing IS ABSOLUTELY GOING TO HAPPEN.

As scary as things are right now, there are so many of us fighting to protect ourselves, our communities, and the queer and trans people around us.

This comes only a day after Minnesota's governor signed a landmark executive order that guarantees the right to gender-affirming care and prevents the state from complying with any other states' attempts to interfere. via them.us, 3/9/23